Here’s a bit of trivia for you, Sam Fender is an actor as well as an acclaimed musician, he appeared in the first episode of the British drama series Vera as Luke Armstrong, as well as playing the character of Dean in season one, episode six of Wolfblood in 2012 before being signed as a singer.

It was for musical reasons that we found ourselves at Plymouth Pavilions on this cool December evening, Sam was in the city promoting his debut album Hypersonic Missiles which, having hit the top spot on the UK album chart, was doing very well indeed.

It was a Monday night and with everyone’s minds set on Christmas, it was refreshing to see so many people having made the effort to get out and catch Sam in action.

Opening up the evening was fellow Geordie, Brooke Bentham. She took to the stage with her band and launched straight into her set with a generous portion of lo-fi indie rock, almost a ‘shoe-gaze’ styled sonic platform with driving beats and swirling guitar, accentuated with Brooke’s intense, haunting and soaring vocals.

We chatted to Brooke a few weeks ago and she told me about Sam Fender stealing her version of Springsteen’s classic ‘Dancing in the Dark’ track from her, I wonder if he offered her the support slot on his sold out tour as a ‘thank you’?

The nice lady from St John Ambulance who was sat next to me on the balcony said that she reminded her of a young Alanis Morrissette, whilst I likened her voice to a young Chrissie Hynde with a hint of Lana del Ray thrown in for good measure, whatever the comparisons, Brooke played a great set that has clearly won her a few more fans.

With her debut album landing at the end of February, I’m sure it won’t be long until Brooke is doing the rounds again to promote it, keep an eye on her social media for more information as it lands - https://www.facebook.com/brookebentham/

Owing to us acquiring press passes via Brooke Bentham’s PR company, we were only authorised to photograph her set, we spoke very nicely to the promoter but she said that they were quite firm on this and despite there only being one other photographer in the pit, we were sent to the balcony to watch Sam’s set.

I love the conversations my photographer and I have before shows, I think it went along these lines…. “So Sam’s on for 1 hr 15 mins, he’s got one album under his belt, so I calculate that he either has to play a couple of songs twice or throw in some covers to fill the time”. I hoped there would be new material in the setlist or he was planning on talking for a record amount of time between songs to fill the time, I guess we would soon find out.

Opening with ‘Will We Talk?’, the energy oozed into the audience and the show was off to a great start. The fans were certainly up for a great night and reacted well to his shouts of “How are you feeling Plymouth?”. Sam himself was struggling somewhat, “I’ve got the most infectious man flu on the planet so come tomorrow morning, you’re all fucked!” but despite this, I didn’t detect any faltering in his voice or approach to the show.

He Commented on the size of the venue (4000 capacity) and said that he hadn’t been used to playing at places like these until recently.

‘Start Again’ injected its sharp guitar riff into the proceedings whilst the melancholy lighting shimmered gently across the band members.

Sam introduced an unreleased song ‘All is On My Side’, I’ve seen a couple of videos of him performing this track from earlier in the year and I hope it’s a taste of new material which will no doubt go into forming the backbone of his sophomore album which will have to be pretty immense to topple the sales of his debut Hypersonic Missiles which hit the top spot of the UK album charts upon its release.

Sam introduced ‘The Borders’ as ”my favourite track from the album and has shaped the way that my future material is going to sound”, I’ll admit, it’s a killer tune with a fabulous, driving backline and some incredible saxophone courtesy of Johnny ‘Blue Hat’ Davis. It was Johnny’s birthday, so Sam kicked off with ‘Happy Birthday’ with the entire room joining in, there was even a cake bought onto the stage for Johnny to tuck into between songs!

With the addition of the sax and the backing band, It’s apparent that Sam is heavily influenced by the Great Bruce Springsteen, never a bad thing by any standards and I can think of far worse names to be likened to, at least the lad has decent taste!

‘Dead Boys’ was introduced as a song that spoke so much of his hometown, “Where I live, there’s loads of pissheads and under achieving football teams” said Sam, I guess he could have been singing about any UK town or city really! The song sounded epic and was the first time I saw the crowd actually start to move!

‘Smash Up’, with its jagged guitar riff and lively backbeat saw the first mosh pit form, from the balcony it looked pretty epic, my days of ‘moshing’ are well and truly over, I prefer to sit down these days, tap my feet, maybe stroke my beard and nod in appreciation to the music, I guess I’m not 18 years old anymore!

‘Play God’ sounded terrific, driving drums, cutting bass and Sam’s distinct vocals really added to the effect the song had on the Plymouth audience.

‘Hypersonic Missiles’ was the last song of act one and Sam said that after the song, he’d run off and then wait a couple of minutes before coming back on for a few more songs (if we wanted him to!) The room went mad, and joined in the singalong section during the lull in the track. I think this was THE song of the show, the Plymouth crowd certainly thought so!

‘Leave Fast’ saw Sam return to the stage to perform it with his guitarist, just the two of them, one voice and a couple of thousand smartphone torches illuminating the arena….a special moment indeed. “Leave Fast or Stay Forever”, sung Sam and I thought about these words and imagined the town where I grew up as a child, the bars and pubs still housing the same old ‘faces’ who never had any desire to leave and better themselves, stuck in dead end jobs….I guess things are a little different in the North East but the sentiment is still there!

‘White Privilege’ saw Sam solo on stage, baring his soul to the Plymouth audience, he sang of criticising the powers that be, specifically in the UK, it appears that the point he is trying to get across is that “White privilege” doesn’t actually extend to all White people, an interesting thought and something that I will explore further.

’Poundshop Kardashians’ saw Sam on stage alone, a stripped back version of the album track which really showcased his vocal and guitar playing ability. This was short lived as the rest of the band joined him to play the second half of the track, literally exploding into life.

‘Saturday’ was introduced and Sam asked if we were going to sing along as it had “the easiest fucking singalong chorus in the world ever”….right as rain, the room took over midway through the track and Sam cut in to keep us in tune from time to time, before the band took over and bought it all home.

He closed the show with ‘That Sound’, which saw the second mosh pit of the evening, which, whilst wasn’t as raucous as the first, still proved that this Monday night audience had bags of energy in reserve, far more than me who was up on the balcony stroking his beard….

I didn’t know what to expect from the show but I will admit that I left the arena satisfied, the set was a perfect length, there were no covers played, I was expecting Sam to give ‘Dancing in the Dark’ an airing just to rub Brooke’s nose in it but alas, it wasn’t to be.

You can catch Sam on his Hypersonic Missiles tour until 19th December where he will take a well-earned rest over the Christmas period, before that, he has 2 nights to look forward to in Newcastle and a show at the Brixton Academy, until then, go buy his record and stick it on repeat a few times, I guarantee it will blow you away!

Words Steve Muscutt

Pictures Julian Baird