Only The Poets celebrates all day in Kingston
After closing the ‘And I’d Do It All Again’ tour, Only The Poets decided to treat the fans one more time to a show. Or rather, two shows. After announcing the evening show, an afternoon show was quickly added where they promised to play old songs. And all of this took place in a small town near London, namely Kingston.
At the hottest point of the day, the doors opened and the venue quickly filled with loyal fans. The band, originally from the small village of Reading, initially referred to the show as a ‘funeral’ show: a show full of songs that would never be sung again afterwards.
This was quickly corrected by lead singer Tommy Longhurst: ‘We are going to celebrate our old songs with our fantastic fans, we are not going to bury them but instead celebrate their life.’ The birthday kicked off strongly with “Stolen Bikes”, “Mindset” and “Everything You Know”.
The party continued with “I Don’t Wanna Be Your Friend”, a song that especially Tommy and drummer Marcus Yates clearly enjoyed, particularly when it came to the drop and vocal peak.
One of the fan favourites, “already there”, could of course not be missed. Especially the line ‘ain’t it crazy, that you don’t know you saved me’, which echoed loudly through every corner of the venue, clearly showed the love from the audience.
Although it was very hot inside the venue and the air conditioning could have been turned a little colder, the fans were enjoying themselves enthusiastically. There was dancing, jumping, shouting, crying and singing.
There was especially a lot of crying during the song “It’s Okay Not To Be Okay”, which directly expressed what it meant. The song talks about expressing your feelings and accepting that things cannot always be perfect, and it hit the audience hard.
After this, the fans started a ‘we love you’ chant like crazy, which continued for at least a minute, if not longer. The show needed a bit more energy, so “miserable” was quickly introduced.
During “Nana’s House”, as usual, everyone waved wildly at the stage during ‘goodbye, goodbye, goodbye’ and during “Ceasefire” all the lights went up in the air as always.
The appreciation from the band towards the fans was more present than at other shows, which was a nice preview for the official album show in the evening, where virtually the same people were in the audience.
The show was slightly shorter than the regular tour set due to the curfew at CIRCUIT. Bassist Andrew ‘Andy’ Burge and guitarist Clem Cherry had huge chemistry on stage, especially during songs from the new album, such as “God Knows Where You Were” and “Emotionally Hungover”.
The song that stood out above all in the final set was “Bad”. The energy the band has on stage here, the fans completely going wild, on the balcony and on the floor, Marcus’s drum solo, the lights, everything just worked.
As usual, the set was closed with “JUMP!” and “emotional”, where even in this small venue a mosh pit formed. After a thunderous applause, the band finally said goodbye and the visitors could leave the party. As a farewell gift, they all took home a fantastic experience and a big smile on their faces.
