Frank Turner At The O2 Arena, London
Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls have just finished their most recent tour: a circuit of arena shows around the UK. They performed for over 40,000 fans last week at shows in the largest venues across the country: Edinburgh, Manchester, Nottingham, Plymouth, London, and Portsmouth.
What is most impressive about the O2 show is more than just the fact that Frank has now played the largest indoor music venue in the country.
It’s that he did it with as much joy and connection with the audience as he had in the early days in Nambucca. He can play “The Ballad of Me and My Friends” and while he’s outgrown the lyrics the crowd is still right there with him, singing along. It’s a real testament to him as a musician and performer. He knows his fans, and man—an arena show like this really proves that his fans know and love him and have stuck through his journey from tiny pubs to the arena floor.
For about half the show he had Cahir playing guitar, which meant I got some awesome shots of him dominating the stage—he’s really gotten the hang of performing without a guitar in his hands.
As if all this wasn’t enough, this show also had pyrotechnics. Talk about a flare for the dramatic.
