It was almost two years to the date since we last saw Scouting for Girls play live in Exeter. They released a new album The Trouble With Boys in September 2019 and it was on the back of this that we happened upon the band again in Exeter as they toured the country to promote the new material.

Scouting for Girls are a band that have seemingly been around forever, their songs are loved by millions of people and are the kind of band that people have heard of but would probably struggle to name a handful of their songs, put these people in a room and bring the band on stage and I guarantee that they will be singing along to every word as the hits are delivered.

As we arrived at Exeter’s Lemongrove, there was a small queue at the door and by the looks of things, a healthy amount of people already in the venue, guaranteeing their place at the barrier for the show.

Kicking things off were a Leeds band called The Dunwells, tonight, they were a duo but looking at their social media, I see that they are normally a quartet. They played a headline set at The Lemongrove on 8th October so it must have been odd coming back to support SFG a couple of months later! They reminded me of Mumford and Sons and played a great set to the eager audience, their cover version of ‘Creep’ by Radiohead went down really well and had the audience singing along.

The audience was a real mixed bag tonight, youngsters (mostly students who were clearly up for a drink on a Monday evening – any excuse!) up to people in their 60s (who were slightly more reserved, except a few middle aged drunk ladies attempting to cling onto something that resembled their ‘younger years’). Yep, I’m happy to announce that we definitely weren’t the oldest there!

Some members of the crowd had made signs (although I couldn’t read them from where I was stood), they must have been amusing as the band called them out on more than one occasion during the show.

As soon as the band took to the stage, there was a surge of bodies from the bar entering the main room and it filled up very quickly.

Their set was filled with the classics as well as newer material from their latest album which saw the audience take their feet off the ‘singalong’ pedal and listen, singing along in the choruses once they knew the words.

‘Heartbeat’ was well received the band were on top form and really involved the audience, referring to them as ‘the choir’ or ‘the 5th member of the band’.

Despite it being a Monday, energy levels were high (that was the students), the oldies (and us) bobbed along gently, tapping our feet and singing along quietly.

‘I wish I was James Bond’ – saw the crowd singing with their arms aloft, jumping under the instruction of the band.

They then launched into the title track of the new album The trouble with boys which the crowd (mostly students) really related to, they introduced it as, “for people who don’t know when they’ve had too much beer”…. And encouraged the room to clap along which they were happy to oblige as it really was a catchy little number!

Next up was ‘Boys at school’ and they commented that despite it was written in 2008, they had been trying to remove it from their set for some time but people kept asking for their money back if they didn’t play it so they decided to make it a mainstay of their set list ever since!

Roy introduced the band, Jamie did his guitar solo and afterwards, Roy got the crowd chanting ‘Jamie on the box’ and made him do the solo all over again whilst standing on a box, a very amusing moment indeed.

They dedicated ‘Millionaire’ to a couple (Jimmy and Katie) who got engaged in Scotland, making this a very special night for them. The whole room were hugging and swaying and midway through, the band broke into a rendition of Tight Fit’s ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ which saw the crowd singing along with the ‘A-weema-weh, a-weema-weh’ bit, so random but absolutely brilliant!

They used a mobile phone on a selfie stick to video the audience during ‘Famous’, I’m not sure if this will ever see the light of day, maybe they’re making a montage at various shows on the tour and will piece it together at the end?

‘Elvis ain’t dead’ was a song that my partner was really looking forward to, the crowd sang along but it didn’t quite get the reaction we expected except from a small select few jumping about (that’ll be the students again!) The band then broke into Elvis Presley’s ‘Hound Dog’ whilst the crowd continued singing the chorus of ‘Elvis ain’t Dead’. They then split the room in two and got each side to compete against one other - one side was chanting the chorus of ‘Elvis ain’t Dead’, the other were crooning along to ‘I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You’, this was a brilliant section of the show that really involved everyone in the room.

‘This ain’t a Love Song’ saw the room singing along and before long, they announced that ‘Secret tattoo’ would be the final song and followed this with the rest of the band introductions.

The fake ending and encore fell a little flat (the front row of the crowd were too young to know the etiquette of ‘encore’ and the older ones in the crowd weren’t so involved, probably due to it being a Monday) so it just looked a bit like the band walked off and then back onto the stage again.

They played their new Christmas song, this was the first time they had played it to an audience live so anything could have happened! Roy taught the crowd the chorus and dedicated it to people who hate going to their in-laws for Christmas. The chorus followed the tune of ‘Jingle Bells’, it was completely tongue in cheek, great fun and a guaranteed Christmas number one…..well, here’s hoping for them!

Their final song was ‘She’s So Lovely’ which saw the audience at their most animated they had been all evening, singing along and dancing around the room.

Overall, it was a great show, a warm and engaged crowd (albeit very well behaved and slightly reserved), the band were really engaged and involved the crowd at every opportunity with a great mix of old and new songs which felt like old favourites because they taught the crowd how to sing along and get involved.

We were all wrapped up by 10.30 and by the looks on people’s faces, I think that everyone had a fantastic time!

Words by Catherine Lennard