If I invited you to a Tuesday night out in Norwich to attend the “Greater Glasgow European Cultural Exchange” event, what kind of evening would you envisage? Maybe a talk and slide show about Scottish twinning with seven cities around the world, including Turin and Marseille?
Perhaps the sound of it would prompt a quick excuse such as, sorry I cannot make it, I am tidying my sock drawer that night! If so….
You’ll have missed out on a gorgeous performance by Franz Ferdinand on night six of their 12-date “Greater Glasgow European Cultural Exchange” headline tour, which kicked off in Dundee and then on to Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Nottingham before Norwich.
It now moves on to Brighton, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Portsmouth and closing in London, then eight shows across Europe. They also had a brace of Ireland shows prior to the tour.
A good slice of the 19-song set is material taken from “The Human Fear”, the band’s excellent sixth studio, released in January 2025 to wide critical acclaim. It peaked at # three in the UK chart. Produced by Mark Ralph who was previously the mixer and recording engineer on the band’s fourth studio album, “Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action”.
It is the Scottish band’s first full studio album to feature guitarist Dino Bardot, who joined the band after the recording of 2018’s “Always Ascending”, and drummer Audrey Tait, who replaced original member Paul Thomson in 2021.
A chunky 95-minute set in Norwich, which followed a pleasant 35-minute spot from six-piece Buckinghamshire electronic outfit Home Counties on support, promoting their album “Humdrum” and playing tracks from their 2024 debut LP “Exactly As It Seems”.
Setlist
Matinee
Walk Away
Night Or Day
No You Girls
Do You Want To
Audacious
40′
Build It Up
Evil Eye
Darts of Pleasure
Bar Lonely
Michael
Love Illumination
Take Me Out
Outsiders
Ulysses
Hooked
Fallen
This Fire
The venue was rammed to its 1550 capacity within 15 minutes of doors opening, and you could spot many, many Franz Ferdinand tee shirts in the crowd from various tours and festival appearances.
A wide age range in attendance, from those who have been loyal fans since their self-titled debut album in 2004, to younger folk who first discovered the band on social media playlists or at festivals.
The One-time Mercury Prize winners took to the stage to the “Naked Gun” film theme tune, to loud roars, with frontman Alex Kapranos donning a snazzy silk jacket with the band’s name embroidered on the back, and they launched into “The Dark Of The Matinee” and then “Walk Away” and “Night Or Day”.
Decent sound and lighting; lots of space on stage for a handful of trade-mark high jumps from Alex.
A good reaction to the singles “”Audacious”, “Night or Day” and “Hooked”, taken from the latest album. The entire crowd tested the foundations of the floor in this venue during the effing fabulous “Take Me Out”, which to me is one of the best songs for a festival any band has come up with in my lifetime.
Their blistering performance of it last summer at Glastonbury [complete with guest appearance by one of my favourite actors, Scotsman Peter Capaldi] was utterly stunning, and here in Norwich even minus the star guest, it really was an experience and a half.
This may not have been an outdoor festival, but 1550 people bouncing frenetically in unison for this song was off the scale; and those same 1550 people singing along to every word at full volume, louder than Alex at times, was spine tingling. A few aches and pains and maybe some hoarse voices for some today, I’d bet.
The energy and connection between the crowd and the band is palpable. So too is the mutual admiration and respect between the band and their fans. The chemistry is there too between Alex, fellow co-founder Bob Hardy on bass, Julian Corrie on keys, guitarist Dino Bardot and drummer Audrey Tait.
After such a scorching performance in Norwich, the title of the final song of the set was pretty flamin’ apt: “This Fire”.
Photos by Liam Battersby
Words by Steve Best
Recent Comments