Swooping in last minute to take the guestlist spot of another poorly The Mic writer, Gemma Cockrell headed to Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham to see The Script for their Tales From The Script Greatest Hits tour. Very familiar with the band, having seen them three times now, you could say she is somewhat of a superfan. Having thoroughly enjoyed them each time, was it three times a charm? Here are her thoughts.
Every time that I have seen The Script live, they have picked an energetic female dance-leaning pop artist as their support artist. First it was Ella Eyre, then Becky Hill, and this time, Ella Henderson bounded on to the stage in a matching pink tracksuit, performing her radio-friendly hits This Is Real and Ghost, as well as some new tracks from her recent sophomore album Everything I Didn’t Say, including Ugly and Brave.
She even treated the rapidly growing crowd to a solo performance of Crazy What Love Can Do, her recent collaboration with Becky Hill and David Guetta, as well as the track Let’s Go Home Together, which is usually a duet featuring the vocals of Tom Grennan. Instead, Ella’s drummer emerged shyly from behind his kit to reveal that he was hiding a voice that was worthy of an arena.
The Script came on just before 9pm, opening the set with a remixed version of their single Superheroes. Vocalist Danny O’Donoghue asked perhaps the question that you would least expect three minutes into a The Script show: “Nottingham, are you ready for some drum and bass?” Even so, this unexpected twist definitely got the party started, and surprisingly complimented the track well.
Since it was a ‘Greatest Hits’ tour, the band returned to their roots to play tracks from their debut album, including We Cry, Talk You Down, and Breakeven. Another aspect of their roots that the band never neglect is their Irish heritage, with Paint The Town Green becoming a setlist staple over the years. Despite never actually being released as a single, it is a track that every The Script fan is familiar with, particularly those in the crowd who had brought Irish flags to wave.
''Since it was a ‘Greatest Hits’ tour, the band returned to their roots to play tracks from their debut album''
Midway through the track, the band made their way to a smaller stage that was positioned in the middle of the standing area of the arena, to perform The Man Who Can’t Be Moved, Before The Worst, and The Last Time. However, this was far from their closest crowd encounter. They made their way straight into the tiered seating area, positioning themselves in a gap between rows to perform an acoustic medley of the tracks If You Could See Me Now, Nothing and Never Seen Anything “Quite Like You”.
This was no surprise to me since it has become a longstanding element of The Script’s live show, and it may be the venue security’s worst nightmare, but it always delights fans nonetheless, myself included since they chose a spot that was only a metre or two away from where I was sitting. From borrowing a consenting member of the crowd’s phone to dial their confused ex-boyfriend ‘Andy’ before performing the song Nothing, to letting a young girl named ‘Natalie’ who was attending her first ever concert press a key on the keyboard at the end of a song, to grabbing a mask of his own face from the crowd and wearing it around stage, it is these traditions that make The Script such a special live band.
However, from Danny’s emotional speech at the end of the show, it was clear that he had missed touring just as much, if not more, than his fans had, admitting “I really needed this” at the end of the set. After this heartfelt moment, he less emotionally exclaimed “We’ve destroyed the place!” when he noticed the confetti covering the floor and the streamers that were draped from the ceiling. The venue definitely needed tidying up afterwards, and I pity the Motorpoint Arena’s cleaning staff that night. However, The Script never fail to put on a show, pulling out all the stops to ensure that fans keep coming back to see them live time and time again.
Gemma Cockrell
Edited by: Amrit Virdi
Featured image and in-article images and courtesy of Max Harries. No changes made to these images. Permission to use granted to The Mic.
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