Frank Turner and his great band The Sleeping Souls. Always on tour. His words, not mine. It is even printed on their merch’. But for a guy who was doing his 3,020th gig of his career last night, that claim isn’t far off.
And for the pretty much sold out Norwich audience last night [capacity = 1500], it was good news that he is actually back out on tour and back in their city. Telling fans he always looks forward to performing in Norwich and saying the number of gigs he has done there, but I missed the actual number he said with loud cheers drowning it out!
Bumper 25-song set despite there being two support acts. Local singer and songwriter Lucy Grubb and then from the US, Amigo The Devil. Both did a super job as the hors douvres to the main course.
“Dark Americana star” Amigo The Devil, aka Danny Kiranos is renowned for his macabre storytelling, and his patter and songs raised a lot of laughs last night. He is inspired by master storytellers such as Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen and contemporaries like Fiona Apple and Father John Misty.
A decent raconteur, but also a fine singer and performer. Playing acoustic guitar and banjo, joined by his ace four-piece band of bass, drums, keyboards and guitar.
Between 2004 and February 2025, Frank has done 3,000 gigs in 49 countries – does he ever sleep/eat/sh….ave?
Frank was as full of energy as he usually is; using every inch of the stage and the sporadic leap in the air while paying his guitar. Feeding off of the audience’s “bang up for it” vibe. No dip in energy levels during the long set at all. Never is with Frank.
The set dipped into much of his back catalogue of 10 albums, especially his current LP, “Undefeated” – the name of this tour – which came out in May 2024. He has had six compilation albums released and seven live records, plus 13 EPs, and a big bunch of singles since 2006.
He offered up the staple fan favourites as well as some deep cuts. Kicking off with “No Thank You For The Music”, “Girl From The Record Shop” and “1933”, and after a dozen songs with the band, he did three solo acoustic songs, starting with “Sister Rosetta”, the first time he has done it since 2021.
He also played solo on “Be More Kind” and “The Ballad Of Me And My Friends”. The band back on for the rest of the set – Ben Lloyd on guitar, harmonica, mandolin and backing vocals; Tarrant Anderson on bass and backing vocals; Matt Nasir on keyboards and backing vocals and Callum Green on drums and backing vocals – beginning with “I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous” and four more before the four-song encore: “Somewhere Inbetween”, “Polaroid Picture”, “Get Better” and closing number, “Four Simple Words”.
Francis Edward Turner is 43, born in Bahrain and brought up in Hampshire. As a boy he won a scholarship to Eton and studied alongside Prince William, which is not a thought in my head as I watch him snarling out punk meets rock and folk lyrics.
“Undefeated” was recorded at Franks home studio and is his first album to be self-produced. Its is also the first to feature Sleeping Souls drummer, Callum Green, since he joined the band in 2020. Frank celebrated his 3000th show back in February this year with a show at London’s 10,000 capacity Alexandra Palace.
Tonight’s 90 minute Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls set flew by and was the best and most enjoyable hour and a half’s activity with my clothes on that I can think of! Bravo.
Setlist – Norwich
No Thank You for the Music
Girl From the Record Shop
1933
Recovery
Never Mind the Back Problems
Photosynthesis
Letters
Haven’t Been Doing So Well
Plain Sailing Weather
If Ever I Stray
The Next Storm
East Finchley
Long Live the Queen
Sister Rosetta
Be More Kind
The Ballad of Me and My Friends
I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous
I Am Disappeared
Do One
Try This at Home
I Still Believe
Encore:
Somewhere Inbetween
Polaroid Picture
Get Better
Four Simple Words
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Check out Frank Turner’s interview for our “Track Record” feature here: https://musicrepublicmagazine.com/2020/06/track-record-frank-turner/
Photos by Liam Battersby [Not pic on tour poster]
Words by Les Howard
