Artist: Frank Turner
Venue: The O2 Arena, London
Support: Beans On Toast, Flogging Molly
Date: 12/02/14
The O2 Arena – shrine to consumerism. Built from the ruins of the Millennium Dome, it stands today as the single busiest music venue in the UK. It’s an awe inspiring brand awareness exercise – but a strange place to hold a punk rock show.
You have to admire Frank Turner’s sheer drive to become this famous. It might be a strange venue to choose, but there’s no denying that anyone with enough fans to fill an arena this size is doing pretty damn well for themselves.
Of all the acts on stage tonight, Flogging Molly seemed the most anachronistic, but as they swaggered on stage, frontman Dave King immediately won the stadium round with his charm and wit – and as opening number ‘Drunken Lullabies’ blended seamlessly into ‘Requiem For A Dying Song’, you could tell already that this was going to be another of their trademark foot-stomping, beer quaffing romps.
Impressively, the band managed to create and maintain an illusion of intimacy despite the vast sea of people that stood between most fans and the stage, thanks largely to their charismatic frontman’s regular quips.
“I heard on the news today that over 260,000 people back in Ireland have got no power because of the storm,” he said, introducing melancholic anthem ‘Float’. “That’s two more than normal!”
Throughout the nine-song set, Dave worked wonders – and helped make sure even the people at the very back of the room felt as close to the stage as possible. If he wasn’t sharing his Guinness with the crowd, he was mocking their hapless stage hand (“He’s from Texas – he’s a bit slow”) or dedicating songs to Frank himself – who they met on tour last year, and who’s the reason they’re on the bill tonight.
But as ‘Seven Deadly Sins’, the band’s final song of the night, drew to a close the reality of the situation because clear once again – we were still in the O2.
At the bar, while thousands of fans queued up to squeeze in one more pint during the interval, a disembodied voice echoed throughout the building: “Ladies and gentlemen, please remember that smoking is strictly prohibited inside the venue, and there’s no re-admission allowed.”
It doesn’t matter how good the acts are, there are some things no one should have to put up with at a punk rock show – and ‘being reminded to behave yourself by an omnipresent voice’ is definitely on that list, right after ‘giant LED posters advertising the next Gary Barlow concert’.
But again, these minor annoyances soon faded when Frank Turner’s intro music filled the arena, and he took to the stage with The Sleeping Souls for their mammoth stadium set. Dressed in their stage uniform of white shirts and black jeans, they tore through Frank’s now-extensive catalogue of hits. Opener ‘Photosynthesis’ was succeeded by ‘Plain Sailing Weather’, which was followed immediately by ‘Peggy Sang The Blues’ and ‘Losing Days’.
Soon he was debuting a brand new, stripped down arrangement of ‘I Am Disappeared’, which he dedicated to all the family and friends who had come to see him that night. Frank’s quiet, single-note picking and over stressed vocals took an already passionate number and injected even more emotion into it. But as it turned out, this was just the first treat of many…
For the second half of this 24-song set, Frank brought his guitar technician Cahir O’Doherty onto the stage. Cahir took over on the acoustic guitar when Frank threw his back out last year so he could keep playing shows – and he did the same again tonight, freeing Frank up to be frontman-proper, running about the stage and even crowdsurfing during ‘One Foot Before The Other’.
But it wasn’t until after ‘Eulogy’ that he finally addressed the elephant in the room…
“The bottom line is, I didn’t really write these songs to be played in a room of this size and this shape,” he said, arguing that he’d chosen the venue simply to make sure anyone who wanted to could attend.
He added: “I never want it to be difficult to get into my shows… We’re playing this show here because so many people want to hear me tonight.”
With that explained, the evening raced towards its spectacular conclusion, as the guys thundered through ‘Long Live The Queen’, ‘Recovery’ and finally the masterfully written ‘Broken Piano’. As the song built and swelled into its final crescendo, fireworks streaming up from the front of the stage rounded of Frank’s second largest show ever in style.
This show was spectacular, and it was extremely entertaining – and he’s bound to appear in many more stadiums like this in the years to come. But it’s clear that Frank has strayed a very long way indeed from his punk roots.
8/10
Review by: Solomon Radley
Photos by: JPS Images
