Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls - Decide to 'Be more Kind' to Bristol this time round

*****

Folk Me, that was a great gig

Exactly one week before he releases his new album ‘Be more Kind’ Frank Turner, the Folk troubadour... takes to the stage in Bristol as part of his SOLD OUT!!! tour to promote his new record.. The venue is packed to the rafters, literally, some people are watching from the staircase as there is nowhere else to stand and still see what’s going on. It all gets underway with upbeat track ‘1933’ from his new album and almost instantly the room is at full throttle..

Frank Turner says that there are two rules at his gigs, don’t be an arseh**e and if you know the words sing along, perhaps we should start a campaign to get those printed on the entrance to every venue in the country. It’s not just about the new album though with ‘Get Better’ and ‘Recovery' making early appearances in the set, which everyone really enjoyed... including me.

Next up was a song about “a failed American actor playing a failed businessman” with ‘Make America great Again’ I’m sure you can work out who that is about, think orange. This was swiftly followed by the title track of the new album ‘Be more Kind’ after which he made an impassioned request for the whole crowd to do that and just be nicer to each other and that’s quite hard to argue with really, this included a plea to support a charity supporting disabled people at gigs. Check the chariety out Here: https://stayuplate.org/

He says he has been asked if they are going to play the older songs “they never said they weren’t fucking playing them” was the answer. This included one they apparently hadn’t played in eight years from a ten year old album in the shape of ‘Imperfect Tense’.  What followed was a purposefully ironic, almost evangelic sign along with everybody clapping along to ‘Glory Hallelujah’ to which the lyrics are “There is no God, So clap your hands together, There is no God, No heaven and no hell….”, whatever your religious views it is well played out. .

Soon after The Sleeping Souls leave the stage leaving Frank playing solo including ‘There She Is’ and ‘The Ballad’, as soon as they return he leaves the stage. He is crowd surfing and when back on the stage is organising the crowd into circle mosh pits, now remember this is a Folk gig and we have crowd surfing singers and most pits. Of course he did used to front the Punk / Post Punk band Million Dead and I guess some habits die hard, when they are this much fun why give them up anyway.

For the opening to ‘Photosynthesis’ he declares “I’ll play and you sing it” which has sort of summed up the last couple of hours. This is no way a folk gig in the traditional sense, it’s a musical party where you don’t stop singing or dancing until the end.  The set ended with ‘Polaroid’ by which point Frank was back in the crowd basically stage diving from the back of the venue. One of the most passionate bands and crowds I have seen in a long time which all added to one hell of a night out.

Review and Photos by Jon Cooper

Check Out! the Video for 'Be more Kind' Below...