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vesuvius - frank turner at the royal albert hall lyrics

halfway through show #1655, frank turner apologises for being “a bit quiet lately”. this is only his twentieth show of the month, and that, quite frankly, is unacceptable

of course, by that point in the proceedings, the crowd would probably have forgiven him if he’d said that he had only agreed to support the teenage cancer trust in order to break his own personal best for gigs in a month. the support acts had been magnificent. will varley could have p-ssed for frank turner if he’d been brainwashed out of pop and into politics by billy bragg. a light-hearted highlight of his set came when he denigrated david cameron’s economic competence and nick clegg’s tetris sk!lls in successive lines. despite some issues with sound balance, idlewild played like a band twenty years younger. roddy woomble wandered around the stage as if he were waiting for an elderly relative to come out of theatre, but hannah fisher seems to quietly becoming something of a star – the touring violinist adds depth to their songs, and transforms them from “scottish pearl jam” to “grunge arcade fire”

turner opened his set with a now-customary rendition of his non-linear ode to live music, “four simple words”. without pausing for breath, he crammed in “the road”, a throat-busting “glory hallelujah”, and “reasons not to be an idiot”. then the new songs started. first, lead single “get better”, then, on the other side of “if ever i stray”, frantic “out of breath”, sounding like a forgotten cut from poetry of the deed. these tracks marked the first time that frank had played electric guitar in britain at one of his solo shows

a string of rarities followed. apologising for stealing roger daltrey’s song t-tle, frank led the sleeping souls in a rendition of “subst-tute”, and then fan favourite “journey of the magi”, in its first outing since 2009. then the band took a rest as frank played two fitting outtakes from england keep my bones. there could be no better venue for “balthazar, impresario” than the royal albert hall, and the presence of eva mae cotter in the crowd made “song for eva mae” an inevitable part of the setlist

arguably the night’s highlight was a reworking of “the way i tend to be”. slower, solo, and on guitar rather than mandolin, this version would never have been a huge radio hit, but it gave the whole song the haunting poignancy of the bridge

the sleeping souls rejoined frank on stage, with drummer nigel powell casually remarking that this wasn’t the first time he’d played the royal albert. they got back to playing the hits, with “photosynthesis” moved from its normal closing spot. ben lloyd was in fine form, playing slightly bluesier variations on a couple of his guitar lines. a third new song, “the next storm”, was squeezed in, before the set was appropriately closed with “long live the queen”, frank’s tribute to his friend lex, who died of cancer nearly a decade ago

the encore contained everything you could ask for: a new song, “the angel islington”; a rare outing of “the ballad of me and my friends”; and the two big songs most conspicuous in their absence, “i knew prufock before he got famous” and a m-ssive crowd-pleasing performance of “i still believe”. it was a great conclusion to a fantastic series of gigs

- vesuvius lyrics

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