Sam Fender: A Night to Remember

Recently, my friends and I were lucky enough to see ‘Wunderhorse’ and Sam Fender for his People Watching Tour, at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena. 

Having won the Ticketmaster war over a month ago, we’d been counting down the days in excited anticipation. A serious understatement if ever there was one. When my friend texted our group chat that she had managed to get us 4 standing tickets, I was mid-seminar, and had to step out because I was smiling so much my face hurt.

We arrived at the concert halfway through the ‘Wunderhorse’ set, just in time for ‘Leader of the Pack’. We’d already had a good few bevs and before I knew it we were absolutely losing it to ‘Teal’, ‘Purple’, and ‘Rain’. The only qualm I had about this set was that Jacob Slater didn’t put his fist in his mouth (if you know you know). I thought I paid for screaming, guitar throwing, standing on drums, and fist in mouth, or did I not read the small print and it wasn’t scheduled for this show?

Once ‘Wunderhorse’ finishes we play the waiting game for Sam Fender, whilst simultaneously trying to keep our place in the crowd. The music starts, the lights come up, there’s movement on the stage, and our idol appears before. Standing in front of the microphone a stone’s throw away from us. I was struck with one of those strange moments when experiencing live music; this awe-inspiring person whose art I have spent countless hours consuming, is real.

He changed up the setlist from Dublin and Leeds, opening with the gut-wrenching ‘Dead Boys’, then into the crowd-pumping ‘Getting Started’. He also played an excerpt of the unreleased melodic ‘Arm’s Length’ which will be on his upcoming album. This moment created a calm before the storm halfway through the set. As no one had heard this song before, the whole arena was solely focused on him and the band, truly listening.

Later, ‘Spice’ and ‘Howden Aldi Death Queue’ both created a mosh that moved us even closer to the stage as the whole arena belted their hearts out to some of Fender’s most cathartic tunes under the multicoloured lights. The clearest picture I have in my head though, was when the show stopping fireworks and confetti were released during ‘Hypersonic Missiles’. Words cannot do justice to the sheer electric feeling of the arena pounding out the ‘whoah-ooh-oh-oh’s’ to this song, even after Fender and the band had left the stage. I left that arena completely elated, high on life, and still slightly drunk.

This night confirmed to me what I have begun to predict. Sam Fender is going to be a defining figure of our generation. Teenagers are going to have posters of him up on their walls for years to come. He has immortalised himself in connection with the younger generation of this country through his music.