Photography subject to copyright from Thomas Pitt Photography
This review is an interesting one to write about given the fact that I was a member of the band on stage. I’ve known Henry since I was 5 years old, we’ve grown up together, performed multiple times together throughout secondary school in previous bands, and I had the honour of sharing the stage with him under his own name in our hometown again.
There were 5 of us in the band; Henry Birt on vocals and rhythm guitar (having also written all of the songs), Billy Price on lead guitar, Addison Gordon-Evans on Bass, Harrison Pugh on drums, and me on keys. All of us brought a unique talent to the band, and it made for great sounding music.
The venue of The Crown was great and different to anything I had performed in before. It was small, dimly lit and would make you feel as if you were in some sort of a shelter underneath the pub. The acoustics were great though with the curved ceiling, and after the soundcheck we were all itching to get on stage and perform. Despite the excitement there were also nerves, or at least on my behalf, perhaps because it was the first time I had performed for roughly 4 years or so.
When the cavern started to fill up of familiar and unfamiliar faces, the reality started to kick in and our hard rehearsals for the last couple of months was about to come down to a half an hour performance.
When we were on stage, the dimly lit cavern seemed to be dim no more, with the bright lights shining in our faces and almost blocking the view of the audience to help settle the nerves!
4 of the 5 songs were unreleased but all original material produced from Henry, and each one carried itself in different ways. ‘You’ll Show Me The Rest’ was a great opener- a catchy guitar and bass heavy song with some cool riffs from Addison in particular and is fast to get the audience moving straight away.
‘Leave Here in the Morning’ is similar in terms of pace, and it is my personal favourite with a strong string synth throughout the song. Billy’s solo was also electric, as he presented his own slick skills to everyone there.
‘Open My Eyes’ slowed down the set in a great way, and really showcased Henry’s incredible vocal ability, with the chorus stretching his range high and low, encapsulating the crowd.
‘Hymns of Peace and Love’ is another slow and relaxing tune, that also sounded the best it had done over the couple of months of practice, giving off vibes similar to that of The Verve.
The big finish was Henry’s newly released single ‘Rainbows I Could Not See’ and was again the perfect song to end on, with its high energy and allowing all of us to showcase our talents. Harrison plays left handed with a right handed set up, allowing for some really unique fills to be heard in he live performance that isn’t heard on the recorded single. Some of the crowd even knew the words as all of us heard them singing their hearts out along with Henry.
Overall though it was an amazing night that many of the fans enjoyed thoroughly with their kind comments afterwards. The two other bands were great as well, Sub Cultures and Rosellas, so definitely give them a listen on Spotify if you get the chance. It gave Henry a great start to his solo career too, but also allowed us all to form an amazing chemistry that we will hopefully share again on stage in the near future.
Socials: @Henrybirt, henrybirt.com, Henry Birt
Review Sam Haskins
Photography subject to copyright from Thomas Pitt Photography