Tom Chaplin: ‘Midpoint’ Tour 06/10/22

Tom Chaplin has announced he is doing thirteen shows throughout the UK this October after the release of his album ‘Midpoint’. I bought a ticket for his Glasgow show as soon as they became available and later decided to see him two more times, where I could slot them into my schedule. I managed to get very good seats for all of them, especially the one at The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall where I got a front row ticket after refreshing the page a few times. I daydreamed about a mini holiday to Leicester because I had never seen the city before and I wanted to be there for the opening night, after going to the cameo show in September. I sadly won’t be able to make it to the final show at The London Palladium but managed to book the one near Newcastle too, at Sage Gateshead which is a very unusual looking music venue. Many people are anticipating EU dates and I will keep praying for them but I don’t know how likely that will be.

I made a three day trip out of this, or one full day and two half days if we are being precise. I had a brilliant time being a tourist in this city, as it has a lot more to offer than I realised. I saw a fantastic production of ‘Bugsy Malone’ at The Curve (my local theatre is not as fancy) and explored The National Space Centre, battling my way through hundreds of school kids to play around with the exhibits. Abbey Park is also really nice and I spent a little bit of time there. All of these places I have been visiting in England have seriously impressive parks. I love finding green open spaces in the middle of bustling cities. I am glad I decided to walk around as much as I did and not constantly flag down buses.

I have learned from my past concert experiences and showed up after the doors had already opened at 7pm. Okay, it started raining and that also influenced my decision to hold off a bit. I knew the time everything was happening thanks to Twitter so had no real reason to arrive early except to “soak in” the majesty of the venue and grab a “TOUCH, RUSH, BUZZ” t-shirt inspired by ‘Gravitational’ before they were all gone. I had a VIP ticket for this event and retrieved my goodie bag but it was missing the special “hand selected gift” from TC, which I had been curious about. It is going to have to be sent out since the items didn’t arrive at the venue in time. Fingers crossed I get it and I am confident I will as the woman in charge seemed sincere. If anybody gets theirs before mine arrives in the post, please let me know what it is. I’ve seen some amusing guesses online. People can be very creative.

I was a few rows back and completely central, so had a spectacular view of the stage and everything taking place on it. The seats in the hall begin to slope upwards after Row F and the venue stands out as one of the better ones I have been to for this reason. It ensures everyone can see what’s going on and the angle appeared to be pretty steep from where I was sitting, in Row G. That must have taken some skilled craftsmanship to pull together. The acoustics were absolutely fantastic too and everything sounded really crisp. The whole building has a grand feel about it and I would happily return. It reminded me of a library when I first saw it from the outside.

Edie Bens was the opening act. The hour before she came on passed quickly as the atmosphere was relaxed and you could come and go as much as you pleased, knowing the support act was due on stage at 8pm. The venue also had frequent announcements and last minute warnings to encourage people to get to their seats on time, which is always helpful. I don’t believe EB is incredibly well known but I enjoyed her songs a lot. I’m sure she said she’s only released two, which makes hearing her other material as well as her excellent Bruce Springsteen cover even more special. She has a lot of charm and won the crowd over with her witty sense of humour. She said she hopes to become less clumsy over the course of the tour, especially when it comes to switching guitars without breaking anything. It was one lovely song after another and her music really fits the style of ‘Midpoint’, I thought. She told lots of interesting stories about the inspiration behind each of her songs. She said she may have made a mistake when choosing her stage name as it’s a difficult one to spell and remember but it has a nice ring to it.

There was roughly a twenty minute interval and TC came on stage just before 9pm to a lot of enthusiastic cheering. A little further into the show people started arguing over who loves him the most but he quickly and hilariously put an end to it. His band members got into position before him, like at The Forum. They opened with ‘All Fall Down’ and ‘Rise and Fall’, the first tracks off the new album ‘Midpoint’. He told us all after the introductory songs that he woke up that morning with tonsillitis! You’d never know, with how perfectly he was singing. It was obvious cancelling or postponing the concert would be heartbreaking for him as it would let everyone down and he was looking forward to getting the tour on the road. He said he’s “dosed up to the eyeballs” on antibiotics and actually started to feel “strangely good” when he got on stage after spending most of the day “horizontal”, as he put it. It’s amazing he felt well enough to perform as the songs are quite demanding.

He proudly introduced his new band members and explained how most of them have changed since the last time he toured (except Seb, on the drums). He came up with the name “TC Version 2.0” for them and cheekily added that they are his “new and improved” band. There’s something captivating about the way Seb plays the drums, somehow balancing tentativeness and aggression. It’s a lot of fun to watch. You really do get swept up in the music as the band members gel perfectly. You can tell they are passionate about what they are doing.

When introducing ‘Black Hole’, he talked about the positive reception the new album has received so far but also about how the underlying theme of it is death. It’s a prominent theme throughout the album, especially in this song. He assured us it’s not just about death but that the dark topic can help sharpen our focus at times. Ageing was undoubtedly at the forefront of his mind when putting this album together and there is wisdom and beauty to be found in the album, as well as this stage of life. I absolutely love this song. I don’t see many people gushing about it, like they do for ‘Gonna Run’ or ‘Colourful Light’, for eg. There was still no sign of a duduk, by the way. It is very different from the rest of the songs on the album and I heard some people compare it to songs by The Beatles.

He said he’s been really enjoying rediscovering songs from his first solo album ‘The Wave’ and practising them with his new band members since they’d been “put to bed” for a while between the pandemic and the release of Keane’s latest album ‘Cause and Effect’ and also the disrupted tour which came with it. He reminisced for a moment about the last time he performed at De Montfort Hall when he was touring after the release of ‘The Wave’. He talked fondly about how he had a brass band accompanying him and how so many magical things happened on that tour. Some people in the crowd had seen him then too, as they shared the same memories and talked amongst each other all around me. He performed a couple of favourites from that album and then surprised us (there were delighted gasps from the audience) with ‘This Is the Last Time’, a beloved Keane number.

A stool was later rolled out for the Q&A session and it was an amazing idea to include it. Everyone laughed so hard at his answers as he had no clue what the questions were going to be beforehand and he even answered mine. Well, he sort of did. He tends to go on tangents and skirts around the questions sometimes. It was comedy gold. This segment was about five minutes long and didn’t detract from the concert at all. I wouldn’t complain if it went on a lot longer as I think it’s really nice he’s including fans in this way. Someone kindly recorded the whole thing and you can find it on Twitter. I hope every night’s Q&A sessions get recorded as the stories he tells are funny and interesting. He started rushing through the questions by the end out of fear it all might start going horribly wrong and ended it abruptly by excitedly announcing the “Keane Rarity” song he was about to perform next. The most highly anticipated moment for a lot of us there. We voted on Twitter and Instagram for our favourites – Keane songs that had never been performed live before or at least very rarely.

I’m sure all of us on Twitter knew the number one pick would be ‘Russian Farmer Song’ which can only be found on a ‘Best of Keane’ compilation album from 2013 but he was honest and said that one would take a lot longer to re-learn than ‘Closer Now’ since it’s six minutes long and so obscure. He said he might learn and perform it at a later date. He didn’t make any promises and I really hope to hear that one live but ‘Closer Now’ was mesmerising. I loved the simplicity of it, with the dimmed lighting and just the guitar. He wrote the song twenty five years ago and it never made it on to the ‘Hopes and Fears’ album but it has found its way into the hearts of a lot of Keane fans over the years. I’m so happy I got to hear it live and tons of people online are freaking out about the fact he’d performed it again after so long. I wonder which other Keane rarities he has up his sleeve… Only time will tell!

It came to the “last song” (I know by now this is rarely actually the case) before I was ready for it and he said we could all stand up if we wanted to, surprised we’d remained seated all this time. It’s difficult with these things as you don’t want to stand unless the people in the front row get up first and everyone follows their lead. The atmosphere changed for the better once people were up on their feet but I had an incredible time sitting down, too. I’m sure I had a smile plastered on my face the entire time.

After the encore (the stunning ‘Overshoot’, with the surprise upbeat “radio edit” ending), he thanked everyone for coming and said it’s a nerve-wracking experience doing the first night of a tour as everything is new to them, such as the lights etc. The band are all still getting used to the songs as well and they’re all figuring everything out. He laughed and apologised to everyone in the front row for potentially spreading his tonsillitis to them and stated he was ready for his bed after all that since the drugs were starting to wear off. I’m so excited to see him again next week and would go to every one of his shows if I could. I just hope he’s on strong and effective antibiotics!

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GALLERY:

Approaching the venue

Impressive lighting

Spotlights

Love this one 

Not a bad close-up, taken from the 7th row

Guitar

Silhouette