GAZ COOMBES + LONELADY – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 27.4.23
Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes celebrated 10 years of his acclaimed solo career with his fourth solo album ‘Turn The Car Around’, released on 13th January 2023 via Hot Fruit Recordings/Virgin Music. To coincide with his album’s launch Gaz Coombes is touring the UK this April with a dozen headline dates, which included a sold-out show at Brighton’s Concorde 2 on Thursday.
A packed crowd, many of whom had faced the pouring rain in the walk along the seafront to get to Concorde 2, waited expectantly for Gaz Coombes. The lights dimmed at 9:10pm with the band members taking the stage and started playing. Gaz came on to loud applause a few moments later. On stage with Gaz for the live show were three backing singers, The Roxies, a keyboard player, a guitarist, bassist and drummer.
The live set opened with the first two tracks from the new album ‘Turn The Car Around’, namely ‘Overnight Trains’ and ‘Don’t Say It’s Over’. It was a low-key slow start to the performance. The tempo picked up on the next song, ‘Salamander’, with the keyboard player on saxophone, and ‘Feel Loop (Lizard Dream)’. The latter song featured a good guitar solo by Gaz.
Before the next song, Gaz mentioned how good it was to be touring and back playing in his old home town. (Always good to get in a reference about the host town or city). That next song was another from the new album, the title track ‘Turn The Car Around’.
The set moved away from the new material onto ‘Deep Pockets’, which had a faster, heavier, more rock sound. The next song’s title ‘Long Live The Strange’ was written large across the t-shirts of two of The Roxies backing singers in the style of those “Frankies Says…” T-shirts of the 1980’s. Gaz explained how ‘Long Live The Strange’ started with a riff and how he was searching for lyrics. The inspiration came when he went to a music club in Oxford with his kids and that feeling of togetherness with different types of people joined by the musical experience. This track started with a blues feel on the guitar and ended with acapella singing.
‘Not The Only Things’ also from the new album ‘Turn The Car Around’ saw Gaz back on acoustic guitar. This song had a very nostalgic feel with a simple singer-songwriter style arrangement. Gaz swapped guitar for keyboards for the next song ‘The Oaks’. On this track the three backing singers, The Roxies, really shone. Throughout the set, they provided great vocals, as well as playing various percussion instruments.
Gaz performed ‘The Girl Who Fell To Earth’ as an acoustic solo. He explained how this song was about seeing the world through the eyes of an autistic person, their mannerisms and drive. It was a very personal song inspired, but not about his daughter.
The band re-joined Gaz on stage for ‘This Love’, which was first of another three tracks from the new album. ‘Sonny The Strong’ Gaz explained at some length was inspired by the rise and fall story of world heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston. During the song commentary of one of his fights was played. This was followed by ‘Dance On’.
The set closed at 10:35pm with ‘Walk The Walk’ with another noticeably good backing vocal performance.
After about 5 minutes, Gaz returned on his own to perform ‘Matador’ as a solo acoustic number. The rest of the band returned for the final song of the evening ‘The English Ruse’. This more pop up-tempo number was a good choice to close the evening’s entertainment. In the latter part of the song The Roxies performed an almost religious sounding vocal part, before the tempo picked up again.
Gaz Coombes and his band left the stage at 21:48 to a great reception from the audience noisily cheering and clapping.
There was no mistaking the quality of Gaz’s singing and music. This was matched by the musicianship of his backing band, who were very tight knit. A very professional, polished performance, but for me there wasn’t the excitement factor or enough variety. I think I was in a very small minority on that one, as the sell-out crowd seemed to really enjoy what they saw. There were pockets of dancing and singing along in the audience throughout the set. Gaz Coombes and his band received a great reaction from the audience both between songs and at the close of their set.
Gaz Coombes setlist:
‘Overnight Trains’ (from 2023 ‘Turn The Car Around’ album)
‘Don’t Say It’s Over’ (from 2023 ‘Turn The Car Around’ album)
‘Salamander’ (a 2019 single release)
‘Feel Loop (Lizard Dream)’ (from 2023 ‘Turn The Car Around’ album)
‘Turn The Car Around’ (from 2023 ‘Turn The Car Around’ album)
‘Deep Pockets’ (from 2018 ‘World’s Strongest Man’ album)
‘Long Live the Strange’ (from 2023 ‘Turn The Car Around’ album)
‘Not The Only Things’ (from 2023 ‘Turn The Car Around’ album)
‘The Oaks’ (from 2018 ‘World’s Strongest Man’ album)
‘The Girl Who Fell To Earth’ (solo acoustic) (from 2015 ‘Matador’ album)
‘This Love’ (from 2023 ‘Turn The Car Around’ album)
‘Sonny The Strong’ (from 2023 ‘Turn The Car Around’ album)
‘Dance On’ (from 2023 ‘Turn The Car Around’ album)
‘Detroit’ (from 2015 ‘Matador’ album)
‘20/20’ (from 2015 ‘Matador’ album)
‘Walk The Walk’ (from 2018 ‘World’s Strongest Man’ album)
(encore)
‘Matador’ (solo acoustic) (from 2015 ‘Matador’ album)
‘The English Ruse’ (from 2015 ‘Matador’ album)
LoneLady
Supporting Gaz Coombes at Concorde 2 was LoneLady, which you can guess is a female solo artist. Julie Campbell is LoneLady, a solo singer, songwriter and producer from Manchester, whose influences include post-punk, electronic and pop.
LoneLady took the stage promptly at 8:20pm with a simple “Good evening”. Apart from the occasional “Thank You” there was little, if any, banter with the audience, which isn’t a bad thing. Compared to the kit ready for the headline act, Lonelady simply used an electric guitar with backing tracks on a laptop.
The backing tracks were post-punk pop orientated with a dance beat. On the first song the backing track crowded out LoneLady’s guitar playing. LoneLady’s vocal delivery included the spoken word narrative style on the first song. On the second and third tracks her guitar came more to the fore and started to shine, and the tempo of the songs picked up.
Lonelady saved her best track of the evening, in my opinion, ‘Hinterland’ to the end of her set. Its backing track had hints of Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’. This was contrasted well by the guitar part which featured a bit of a country twang and a guitar solo.
Her seven song set ended at 8:48pm, to good applause from the audience. Those who had arrived early for Gaz Coombes seemed to enjoy LoneLady’s performance. Her style and performance grew on me as her set progressed.
18 songs in 38 minutes is rapid.