GIG REVIEW: Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls @ NX, Newcastle, Tuesday 1 April 2025
Church attendances are at an all-time low, and that’s probably of little surprise to anyone who saw an impassioned throng hollering “There is no God!” at the top of their voices at a midweek gathering in central Newcastle.
This is no meeting of raging agnostics, however, rather the welcome return of folk-punk troubadour Frank Turner – a figure who’s worshipped in an entirely different way – to a place he knows well.
Tonight is show number 3,012 for one of the hardest-working musicians in the business, his 26th time in Newcastle, and the opening night of the tour for his latest album, Undefeated, which came out last May.
The crowd of 1,500 so vehemently denying the existence of the creator are singing along to the chorus of Glory Hallelujah, a mid-set highlight of a stunning 25-song performance lasting an hour and 45 minutes at a packed NX.
Turner has been preaching to the converted for 20 years now, initially going solo after a four-year stint with hardcore band Million Dead, before assembling a permanent backing band, The Sleeping Souls.
They’re with him tonight, with long-time collaborators Ben Lloyd (guitar), Tarrant Anderson (bass) and Matt Nasir (piano) joined by relatively recent recruit Callum Green on drums.
Right from the get-go Turner and his band are cooking on gas, tearing into No Thank You For The Music and Girl From The Record Shop, two of the standout tracks from the aforementioned Undefeated album, to get the show off to an explosive start.
From my privileged position in the photo pit I can see the sweat flying off the effervescent frontman, who’s bounding around the stage with a zeal that puts performers 20 years his junior to shame.
This being the Undefeated tour, that splendidly angry album’s songs make up about a third of the set, with the opening salvo and The Leaders (“Boris? Donald? These fuckers aren’t your friends!”) being the high spots. However, Turner hasn’t achieved his iconic status without giving his fans what they want, and all but one of his other nine records are also represented (2019’s acoustic No Man’s Land the odd one out).
It’s a perfectly-paced show, punctuated by huge singalongs, sporadic circle pits, and, regrettably, a couple of brief scuffles in the audience (presumably those involved hadn’t listened to Rule No 1 in Turner’s two-part guide to having a good night: “Don’t be a dickhead”).
While it’s a punk rock show, and things can get a bit lively at times, there’s no excuse for such behaviour, particularly when the man you’ve paid to see is about to sing a song called Be More Kind. It’s part of a three-song acoustic interlude which sees The Sleeping Souls depart the stage, leaving Turner alone with his guitar, the way it was at the beginning.
When the band return it’s for I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous, one of the big-hitting oldies interspersed throughout the set. It provokes a word-for-word singalong by the gathered devotees, just as Recovery, Photosynthesis and If Ever I Stray did earlier in the evening.
All too soon, we’re into the closing strait, and the main set draws to a close with an exultant version of another real crowd-pleaser, I Still Believe. The night isn’t done though, and the band return for a four-song encore. As they launch into the final song, Four Simple Words, Turner hands his guitar to a tech, takes a mic and leaps into the crowd, surfing halfway to the mixing desk, singing all the way.
It’s a wonderfully boisterous end to a sweat-soaked night in the company of a master entertainer who can do no wrong in the eyes of his believers. And a night on which you will be proud to say you were there. Yes, it was that good.
A mention needs to be made too of the acts who played earlier; Sam Shields, a singer-songwriter from Northumberland, was invited by Turner to open the show, and it’s easy to see why; his heartfelt folky Americana probably remind him of his younger self, and he’s a name to look out for.
The main support, US dark folk outfit Amigo The Devil, ramped things up nicely with an enjoyable set which my gig buddy described as “suitably deranged”, which sums up Danny Kiranos and his four-piece band perfectly.
They spent 36 hours getting here from the US, arriving just a couple of hours before showtime, but you wouldn’t have guessed it, given the energy they put into their set. I hadn’t heard them before, but will certainly be checking out their back catalogue.
