Band: Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls
Support: Jim Lockey and The Solemn Sun, Tim Barry
Venue: Hexagon, Reading
Date: 15/11/12
Things seem to go from great to better for Frank Turner. From a quick look on his website, the man has hardly stopped this year: there has been one world tour, one American tour, various festival appearances, countless dates in the UK and who could forget the Olympic Opening Ceremony! At the moment Mr Turner is back on British ground and touring with a couple of mates, collectively known as The Sleeping Souls on what is potentially one of his best tours to date.
Kicking off the night’s festivities were Cheltenham locals Jim Lockey and The Solemn Sun. As harsh as it sounds, first support bands rarely bring in decent crowds; people are more than happy to show up late in order to limit the time they have to wait around for the headliner to show up. It is people like that who end up missing incredible support acts like this. Jim Lockey and The Solemn Sun are a sensational alternative/folk/indie collective who have a pretty unique quality and style to them. Tracks such as latest single ‘Wishing Well’ and set closer ‘England’s Dead’ (all taken from the band’s latest album release ‘Death’) show off the band’s skill to perfection. If you have tickets to the any of the remaining dates on this tour, we seriously encourage you to turn up on time to catch these guys doing what they do best.
Tim Barry is a natural-born storyteller. Few people – especially support acts – can hold the audience’s attention so enthrallingly that before you know it, they are playing the final song and you find yourself groaning that the set it over. Tim Barry is one of these people. From the very beginning to the very end, Barry had the crowd in the palm of his hand and hanging on to every word – all without even meaning to.
Beginning his set by standing in the middle of the crowd and singing about the stories he hears when riding on freight trains is an unusual way to start but all adds to the magical experience. As humbled as Barry is, the audience is even more so just to be able to watch him play – particularly when he begins belting out what may have become our new favourite lyrics: “If you never get hurt you never feel a thing”. It isn’t everyday you get to hear songs about how a friend ended up in prison, living in a shed or black slaves whose grave, shockingly, had a car park built over it, and although Barry may not have the best voice on the line up, he certainly managed to deeply affect all who saw him play – in a good way though obviously.
The first time this reviewer saw Frank Turner playing solo was in a small club in Oxford around six or seven years ago. From that day he has been a name thats has firmly stuck around as a personal favourite. Even then it was abundantly clear that in a short space of time those small venues would not have been able to hold even a fraction of the audience that he would ultimately end up playing to.
Frank Turner is inarguably one the greatest singer/songwriters this country has to offer – the man is simply incredible. The electricity within the Hexagon venue as Turner and The Sleeping Souls took to the stage was almost too much to stand, the excitement within the crowd had reached its all time high as onstage erupted into the first chords of set opener ‘I Am Disappeared’ and from then on the night only continued to get better and better.
All the classic Turner favourites were on display tonight from ‘The Road’ to ‘Wessex Boy’, from ‘Reasons Not To Be An Idiot’ to ‘I Knew Prufrock Before He Was Famous’ the set managed to cover tracks from each of his previously released albums as well as a few new ones thrown in for good measure. As Turner explains after enquiring how many of us there had ever seen him before, he is a big fan of crowd participation and this was no exception which ranged from the simple-yet-effective hand clapping to sing-a-longs and even a spot of dancing was encouraged to all from onstage.
The night ended with amazing renditions of ‘Eulogy’ and (personal favourite) ‘Photosynthesis’ before Turner ridded himself of his guitar to end the set in true punk rock fashion – jumping around the stage and diving head first into the crowd – reminding us all that not only is there an incredible vocalist and songwriter in front of us, but an amazing frontman too.
10/10
Reviewer: Amy Jones
