Fresh from his festival sets at Glastonbury and TRNSMT, and wielding a black and white striped guitar, Sam Fender came on to greet the Geordie masses who had descended on Finsbury Park for the biggest gig of his career on Friday night. A forty-thousand strong crowd brought the atmosphere on a boiling hot day, as Fender opened with Will We Talk, singing out to a sea of black and white Newcastle flags, and a few ‘Sam can I get a kiss?’ placards.
Flashing signs throughout the day (the event kicked off at 3.30pm, with solid support coming from several acts including Fontaines D.C and Declan McKenna) urged attendees to drink water and wear sunscreen, but the heat did little to dissipate the energy as the band fired through fan favourites Getting Started and Dead Boys, with the latter dedicated to Fender’s hometown of North Shields. The broad generational appeal of Fender’s music was on show as dads danced with daughters towards the back, and acapella singalongs were led from the front.
There was an emotional edge to the evening as images of Fender’s family flashed across the screens while the band played Spit of You, which the singer introduced with a laughing, “You know that feeling when you love someone so much you want to punch their head in?” No corners were cut when it came to production, with pyrotechnics and confetti blasting repeatedly across the stage. Songs from the number one album Seventeen Going Under such as Get You Down receive an ecstatic response from the crowd, while new single Angel also received its live debut.
In the midst of a number of memorable summer gigs so far for the singer, including a support slot for The Rolling Stones, the monumental occasion was not lost on Fender. He thanked the crowd for coming out and announced, “I’m gonna remember this one for a long time”. Introducing the seven-piece band, saxophonist Johnny ‘Blue Hat’ Davis got the loudest cheer, continuing a theme of the night, before they launched into Seventeen Going Under, the hit song that propelled Fender into his current position as one of the biggest acts in the UK. The firework finale of Hypersonic Missiles proved a cathartic moment.
There was another poignant gesture as Fender paid tribute to the late John O’Keefe, former owner of the North Shields pub where the artist was discovered by his manager aged just 18, with him naming one of the stages ‘The John O’Keefe Low Lights Stage’. Fender isn’t afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve, and with songs dealing with hope, trauma, repressed emotions, and family it was the perfect release for a (nearly) post-Covid summer evening.
