PAOLO NUTINI + THE BIG MOON + PEACE + ENGLISH TEACHER + GEMMA ROGERS – STANMER PARK, BRIGHTON 8.7.23
It is currently 12:24pm, 8th July 2023, and I am about to get ready to attend my first open-air festival gig. Festivals have never really been something that attracted me, at least not as much as your more conventional gig in a sweaty room full of sweaty people. But, I thought, well, it’ll be the same sweaty people, just in a sweaty field instead! Then I heard the thunderstorms from outside my house… an immediate realisation hit my face that I may be drenched for a good 10 hours tonight. However, whether that would be the case or not, it would still be worth it to see Paolo Nutini supported by many guests at Stanmer Park!
Fortunately, the rain cleared as I made my way to the railed entrance of the festival, where the sounds of Tom Ravenscroft‘s DJ set began to permeate the field the further I went inside. It was quiet here at first, I will admit, but that gave me plenty of time to grab a drink, a bite to eat and get comfy for the first act of the day, Gemma Rogers!
Hot from the heels of releasing her debut album ‘No Place Like Home’ in 2022, Gemma and her touring band of Ollie Clark (keys/guitar), David Dell’aiera (bass), Andy Skipper (guitar) and Jeremy Barnett (drums) enjoyed recent stints at Glastonbury before today’s show. The latter-mentioned quartet of instrumentalists are welcomed to the stage and commence the show with an opening kick drum pattern before Gemma joins forthwith. The first song ‘Stop’, the opening track from ‘No Place Like Home’, sets the tone of the show immediately with a propulsive sonic backbone, complimented by Gemma’s conscious lyrics about living in a modern society. Unfortunately, with Gemma being the opening set, the live sound did start a little sloppy, with some instruments being louder than others, but this issue was quickly remedied by the next song. A beautifully shimmering synth palate kicks off ‘First World Problems’; this track is equally propelling to ‘Stop’, but ultimately shows off the incredible musicianship within the backing band. The song is succeeded by Gemma’s yell of “Thank you, Stanmer Park… I’ve always wanted to say that!”.
The band lead us in to Gemma’s next single ‘New World Order’ (which incidentally is getting an exclusive play from Steve Lamacq on BBC 6 Music on Monday 17th), a track which sees the group at their most creative sonically, thanks to its LCD Soundsystem-like drum textures, punky-in-tone vocals and wild, dub-like bass experimentation from David towards the end of the track. Gemma introduces the following ‘The Great Escape’ as being inspired by Brighton, obviously within a nod to the festival of the same name! In the track, she weaves romantically-driven lyrics about going away to Brighton as a safe haven… Brightonites, make of that what you will! Despite being coloured by occasional feedback issues, ‘Song For The Cities’ is a blistering and anthemic moment in the set, if a bit oxymoronic within the weather for the time… the rain had returned and hearing the lyric “bring me sunshine” was extremely taunting! Unfortunately, due to the night before’s lightning and water damage in the monitor desk, a couple songs were cut, leading us to the final song of the set, ‘Rabbit Hole’. However, this track proved to be the highlight of the performance, with a wonderful chorus melody that stayed stuck in my head for most of the evening, coupled with an infectious groove, a sneaky ‘Back To The Future’ reference in the lyrics, and a very strong finish.
Gemma Rogers setlist:
‘Stop’
‘First World Problems’
‘New World Order’
‘The Great Escape’
‘Song For The Cities’
‘Rabbit Hole’
Switching the energy of the night from Gemma was the Leeds quartet English Teacher, a group that have been pigeonholed into the current ever-shifting post-punk sphere onset by bands like Fontaines D.C, Shame, Yard Act, Dry Cleaning, etc; however, the group insist they are not a post-punk band and often lean towards their homegrown term of ‘post-lame’. Sonically, the band mutated across many territories, whether it be through the art punk realms of Television on the opening cut ‘Polyawkward’, or the krautrock interplay of ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’. These tracks made use of stellar syncopation between Lewis Whiting on guitar and Nicholas Eden on bass, as well as sturdy grooves from drummer Douglas Frost. Lead singer Lily Fontaine was able to strike a strong balance between ethereal and angsty in an effective way from song to song. A highpoint of English Teacher’s set was the song ‘A55’, with a fantastic progression, and notably, some intricate bass work from Nicholas, not to mention an incredible build-up towards an intense climax with Lily’s vocals becoming more frantic with each passing lyric.
Their newest single, ‘Song About Love’, continued to display English Teacher’s unique back-and-forth blend of frantic energy and reserved atmosphere; here, we are also welcomed by Lily’s eerie, but smooth Korg synth passages. The following ‘Good Grief’ sees the band sit within a tight drum groove, but this time with more angular guitar textures, something that always grabs my ear from bands of English Teacher’s timbre. The fantastic musicianship the four of them have is prominent, particularly on the following three cuts; the first of which ‘I’m Not Crying. You’re Crying’, sees Lily fit these rhythmically lilting lyrical phrases atop the band’s instrumental backbone.
The other two tracks, which I unfortunately couldn’t grab the titles of, make exceptional use of polyrhythms and metric changes in the song structures, not forgetting incredible bass tapping driving the latter song’s rhythm. The oddly-titled ‘R&B’ seemed to be a classic among fans and friends of the band in the crowd with a driving bass line and intense groove, within which Lily briefly plays guitar with her beer can! Succeeding Lily’s statement of it being “a pleasure to be here, honestly!”. The band closed the set with the slow-burning ‘Albert Road’, a track that felt that it could sit pride of place at the end of an indie film. Even with its simple two-chord progression for the entirety of the song, it gave the band a lot of space to explore their dynamic strengths.
English Teacher setlist:
‘Polyawkward’
‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’
‘A55’
‘Song About Love’
‘Good Grief’
‘I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying’
(unknown title)
(unknown title)
‘R&B’
‘Albert Road’
Where Gemma Rogers had conscious lyrical wordplay and sturdy instrumentals, and where English Teacher had intense musical passages, the Worcester-originated duo Peace decided to re-invent the line-up’s atmosphere entirely with an incredible 40-minute set! The stage’s backdrop welcomed a live camera feed, directly from the amplifiers behind the two Koisser brothers, Harry and Sam, whose instrumental array consisted of drum machines, electronic keyboards and, of course, obligatory bass and electric guitar.
The band recently saw the departure of members Dominic Boyce and Douglas Castle, leading to the now duo re-orienting their live sound and quietly sending their new album ‘Utopia’ to fans via an encrypted password link. Opening with the 10-minute ‘1998 (Delicious)’, the duo welcome in arpeggiated synths, rudimentary electronic drum patterns and some heavy bass work within an incredibly strong song progression! A zany guitar solo from Harry transitions us towards the following cut ‘Bloodshake’, a song that feels like a dead ringer from something a band like Two Door Cinema Club were doing back in the day… don’t let that distract you from how good the song is though! Harry comments on the new line-up: “I love humans, don’t get me wrong, but we thought we’d try an AI approach”.
A newer song, ‘Darkness On The Dancefloor’ comes next; while it’s possibly the most straight-forward track of the set so far, it still features a wonderful melody, great electro-type drums and a sweet keyboard solo from Harry. The beautifully bittersweet ‘Happy Cars’ is easily one of the best songs of the duo’s set, with a great progression throughout, effect-heavy acoustic guitars and drum machine loops that are reminiscent of something the band Suicide could’ve conjured up. Wraith keeps a steady momentum from track to track once again, albeit with a more atmospheric intro and a small sing-a-long from any Peace fans in the heavily Paolo Nutini-oriented crowd.
Now, next to ‘Happy Cars’, Good Jeans was an extremely solid highpoint of the set, with a propulsive electro groove and a steady new blend of Peace’s more recognisable indie pop styles and their current experiments with electronic music. Possibly their most well-known track, ‘Lovesick’ caters to my love of bands like OMD with a minimal electronic drum pattern with infectious melodies. It’s here in the set where I thought, having never seen the band live before, this set-up is a marvellous introduction to them. The final song of the set, ‘World Pleasure’ is instantly Peace’s grooviest performance and a great demonstration of Harry and Sam’s sturdy guitar and bass work. Before departing the stage, the two of them, plus a couple friends, start firing T-shirts into the crowd, while of course, being careful not to poke anyone’s eyes out!
Peace setlist:
‘1998 (Delicious)’
‘Bloodshake’
‘Darkness On The Dancefloor’
‘Happy Cars’
‘Wraith’
‘Good Jeans’
‘Lovesick’
‘World Pleasure’
The Big Moon was the only act of the day, sans Paolo Nutini, that I had a familiarity with having watched their Mercury Prize performance of ‘Cupid’ in 2017. The quartet of Juliette Jackson (vocals/guitar), Soph Nathan (guitar/backing vocals), Celia Archer (bass/backing vocals) and Fern Ford (drums) are welcomed with admiration from the crowd as they settle into their instruments on stage. Leading straight into the opening song ‘Wide Eyes’, the band begin to acquaint themselves with the crowd with soft gentle pianos and the luscious harmonies that make most of their material so attention-grabbing.
This applies to the following ‘Don’t Think’, whose steady groove and explosive final chorus kicks the crowd into shape instantaneously. Juliette welcomes the crowd by saying “We’re The Big Moon, what do we call you? Do you identify as Brighton?” The following one-two hits of ‘Barcelona’ and ‘Daydreaming’ demonstrate the group’s instrumental strengths, with the former amplifying great guitar interplay between Juliette and Soph, and the latter striking a good balance between electronic percussion textures and live drums from Fern. ‘Sucker Punch’ takes the set into a slower pace with a more blues-oriented rhythm. A high-point of this track was a fantastic tom-based solo from Fern, even if it unfortunately felt overpowered in the mix somewhat.
The soft and luscious ‘2 Lines’ was preceded by a statement from Celia: “We’ve been playing shows every weekend for the last couple of months, so sorry if we’ve run out of chat!”. All but Fern drop their guitars and assemble in the middle of the stage to open ‘Formidable’ in an acapella setting, before kicking the song back into instrumental gear with a slow, hard-hitting groove, reminiscent of something from an alt-J track.
The rain unfortunately made a brief return during ‘Cupid’, but it certainly did not spoil the performance, with guitars that carried a lot of strength in the song’s backbone as well as an extremely powerful climax. Following the feel-good and more percussive ‘Trouble’, came ‘Ladye Bay’… a song introduced as being about going to the beach, something I clearly needed to hear in the pouring rain. The Big Moon closed out the set with their strongest track, ‘Your Light’, which makes use of their incredibly strong vocal harmonies, irresistible chorus and nostalgia-inducing 80s sound palate.
The Big Moon setlist:
‘Wide Eyes’
‘Don’t Think’
‘Barcelona’
‘Daydreaming’
‘Sucker Punch’
‘2 Lines’
‘Formidable’
‘Cupid’
‘Trouble’
‘Ladye Bay’
‘Your Light’
Some 35 minutes following The Big Moon’s departure, the screen displays a repeated message: “you’re so cool”. Paolo Nutini and his incredible array of backing musicians enter the stage to rapturous applause as they commence the groovy and atmospheric ‘Afterneath’, the opening track to his newest release ‘Last Night In The Bittersweet’, an album he’s been tirelessly touring for over a year now. ‘Lose It’ transports the mood into an oddly post-punk-oriented soundscape topped with Paolo’s low, crooning vocals. It was truly remarkable watching Paolo’s band perform this track, just to watch how everyone was in their own individual flow but coming together as one cohesively. Growing up, I remember Paolo’s album ‘Caustic Love’ being on constant repeat in my house, so hearing ‘Scream (Funk My Life Up)’ was quite the throwback in the set, with some stellar synth work, as well as Paolo’s sweet electric piano performance.
Speaking of synths, ‘Let Me Down Easy’ is a cut that featured a fair bit of synths, culminating in a slight vibe change compared to ‘Scream’, but still gave Paolo’s presence as an artist a recognisable quality to it. ‘Heart Filled Up’ saw a more low-key aura to the performance, however a fantastically euphoric build-up to the song’s final moments felt almost post-rock-like, which anyone who knows me will know how much I love some post-rock! Admittedly, I hadn’t gone into Paolo’s new album before the show, but the following ‘Acid Eyes’ was incentive enough for me to listen to it; this track was beautifully-delivered, with a synth progression not unlike something off of Roxy Music’s ‘More Than This’. The crowd precedes the next track, ‘Through The Echoes’, with repeated chants of “Oh, Paolo Nutini!” to the tune of ‘Seven Nation Army’.
The further into the set, the more iPhones were lifted into the air to capture this auspicious show, something I don’t naturally feel drawn to doing myself while watching live shows, but who am I to judge right now? An older favourite of mine, ‘Coming Up Easy’, was a wonderful point in the set, not just because of the remarkable progression in this live setting, but also thanks in part to an engagement celebration to Paolo’s right. Following the high-octane ‘New Shoes’ (during the performance in which people were waving their shoes in the air!), ‘Petrified In Love’ kicks an incredible force into the live sound, with loud vocal yells from Paolo and a distinctive 50s/60s hybrid feel, almost like something you’d hear at the ‘Enchantment Under The Sea Dance’ in ‘Back To The Future’.
The next track propelled the band into a steady krautrock rhythm a la Neu!, with a hypnotic soundscape to boot… but, wait! What’s this? ‘Pencil Full Of Lead’?! But, it sounds so different! I admittedly kept switching during this performance between disheartened that we weren’t treated to the playful and jovial original version, and intrigued by this change in musical direction; I was eventually won over towards the end however! We were then treated to an immense cover of Stealers Wheel’s ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’, albeit with a rhythmic backbone not unlike a Talking Heads ‘Stop Making Sense’-era performance.
The following two cuts, ‘Take Me Take Mine’ and ‘Candy’ are exemplary points of Paolo’s band making use of the more low-key dynamics and taking them to transcendental heights, with the former song making me feel like I’m falling through space and the latter directing us to a 70s soul mentality. The final song of the main set, ‘Everywhere’, was gorgeously patient in progressing through the song, with stunning organ soundscapes and intricate drumwork. With an exultant climax, Paolo and his band departed the stage, leaving myself among the chatter of fans questioning if an encore was going to be on the cards… and it was!
Despite only two songs in this encore, this culminated in the ultimate highpoint in the entire show, starting with the immaculately-performed ‘Iron Sky’, possibly my favourite Paolo song! Here, we are treated to a rhythmic aura one could find in a Massive Attack track, with easily Paolo’s best vocal deliveries of the night! The final song, ‘Shine A Light’, another track I was unfamiliar with, carried a strong momentum from all instrumentalists involved… before the song reached an insane apex of house beats and electrifying synth work, leading me to believe I may have accidentally wandered into an Underworld show! With a final joyous bow, Paolo’s band left the stage for the final time!
If this epoch-making show proved anything, it’s that Paolo Nutini, after all these years, proved that he can still write incredibly heartfelt songs, and perform them with such finesse! It was truly remarkable to finally see him live after having his music remain somewhat dormant in my listening bubble for most of my childhood and teenage life. Taking into account that this was my first festival experience, every artist that played was capable of transporting myself and the crowd into many ecstatic heights and sensations! Many thanks to Stanmer Park for hosting the show, as well as the entire Brighton Valley Concert Series which saw its final date headlined by Nile Rodgers + Chic on Sunday.
Paolo Nutini setlist:
‘Afterneath’
‘Lose It’
‘Scream (Funk My Life Up)’
‘Let Me Down Easy’
‘Heart Filled Up’
‘Acid Eyes’
‘Through The Echoes’
‘Coming Up Easy’
‘New Shoes’
‘Petrified In Love’
‘Pencil Full Of Lead’
‘Stuck In The Middle With You’ (Stealers Wheel cover)
‘Take Me Take Mine’
‘Candy’
‘Everywhere’
(encore)
‘Iron Sky’
‘Shine A Light’
