Frank Turner (and the Sleeping Souls) live at the Portsmouth Guildhall Review
Frank Turner and the sleeping souls play at the Portsmouth Guildhall on a cold February evening, it's the final official show of the UK leg of Frank's tour! Support comes from Franks good friend Beans on Toast and Irish folk rock outfit Flogging Molly!
The first thing that I noticed when queuing was the sheer range of people, men and women of young and old, Frank has an appeal to people of all ages and as he said during his performance "anyone is welcome at my shows" and what a great performance it was.
Beans on Toast is first to take the stage at the Guildhall and with about half the crowd not even inside yet Beans begins his set. I had never listened to his music before but I was optimistic and unfortunately he let me down. It is only only a voice a guitar a banjo and a harmonica but I definitely the music lacked passion, the songs that he played were quite well written, they are about current events but with a very sarcastic and at some points amusing twists, he may have been the first support but he was not fazed by the crowd, casually asking the audience what songs they wanted to hear in between songs but the songs did not live up to his persona.
Second support act were Irish folk rock veterans Flogging Molly, and again, I had deliberately not listened to their music but their name did ring a bell. They walked out on to stage to a bigger crowd than Beans on Toast and were greeted with applause and cheers. Then the first song started and it felt like I had hit a brick wall, the music was surprisingly good a great potion of old Irish folk with a dash of rock and even a little bit of punk! Without being disrespectful the band members looked at least 50 years of old however that meant nothing because they were great to watch live and their songs had a degree of power and passion about them, a completely different outfit to Beans on Toast. Their set flew by and as they said their goodbyes the attention turned to reason why everyone was packed inside the Guildhall!
Cheers greeted the changing of the stage set to reveal Frank's banner if you will, and you could feel the atmosphere building around the venue, and then the lights faded and a strange song began to play which sounded like an old pirate song! But nonetheless, it ended and the banner dropped and Frank jumped out to the mic and the lights turn to himself and the sleeping souls! The set begins with the brilliant Photosynthesis which sends the audience into raptures. I had heard that Frank was good live, but nothing could prepare me for seeing him in person, he has some much passion for his music and the power that he (along with the band) generates is phenomenal! He was touring his latest album Tape Deck Heart so, naturally the would be the main focus of the setlist, but I was more than happy to hear a couple of old songs. Tape Deck Heart has received some great reviews by critics and journalists but the album plays brilliantly live, the songs seem to take on a life of their own and Frank gets the crowd jumping and dancing with ease. I think people give Frank too much stick sometimes, yes he went to Eton but so what, if you're as talented as he is then it shouldn't matter how you grew up, he also comes across as an extremely nice and funny man, interacting with the crowd like he would interact with a friend in a pub! The set continues on and we got to hear some of the great songs from England Keep my Bones which again, blew me away, and Frank handed over his guitar playing duties to another band member which enables him to jump and run around the stage and really get the crowd going and it was a great spectacle. As the set draws to a close, Frank is joined on stage by people wearing animal costumes for "Recovery" and he tells us that this song defines the audience, and it got everyone pumped up and as the song began it sounded as if every single person was singing along at the top of their voice he also played Wisdom Teeth which was very unusual, he said himself, "I haven't played this song for a very long time" I hadn't heard the song before and it was completely different to other songs, it was full of soul and emotion which told us that Frank can vary his songwriting and performance like few other musicians can and again, the passion he shows for the music when playing live is amazing. The set ended with the brilliant "Four Simple Words" from Tape Deck Heart, the perfect ending, I highly recommend that you see Frank live at some point, not only is the music great, but the sense of occasion is immense.
