THE SLOW READERS CLUB – PATTERNS, BRIGHTON 25.9.22
Tonight was to be my third live gig encounter with Manchester’s The Slow Readers Club, having previously seen them last year at Chalk as part of their 15-date tour (Review HERE) and also back in 2019 as part of their mammoth 32-date tour, when the same venue was known as The Haunt (Review HERE).
This time around, the quartet had only organised a run of nine select UK tour dates; thankfully Brighton was included as part of that. Arguably they had saved the best for last, as tonight’s performance was the final of the tour, having already entertained their loyal fans in Sheffield, Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Chester, Stoke, Norwich and Oxford. Although this was a limited run of performances, the band have already announced another set of nine gigs for March next year, which will see them perform at nine other locations, namely Leeds, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Nottingham, Birmingham, Bristol, Portsmouth, London and culminating with a hometown gig in Manchester. Ticket details for these new concerts can be found HERE.
I must say that when this current run of concert dates was announced, I was extremely surprised that The Slow Readers Club had selected Patterns as their venue of choice in Brighton this time around, as they have previously almost filled the larger Chalk/The Haunt venue. I know how loyal a following the band have and that tickets for tonight’s performance would have been flying out the door so to speak. We therefore had to briskly secure our entrance for fear of completely missing out. As it turned out we would be facing a dilemma, as the Green Door Store‘s ‘234 Fest’ was also scheduled to take place at the same time, and thus logistics had to be carefully worked out.
We hot-footed it across town from the Green Door Store and arrived at Patterns in time to catch the 18 song 75 minute set from The Slow Readers Club which commenced at 8:30pm and concluded at 9:45pm. We had to forgo their support act on this occasion, although we had reviewed their previous ones back in 2019 and 2021. Co-incidentally one of those from last year’s gig, Shady Baby, had been entertaining us a mere 4 hours earlier today.
The Slow Readers Club morphed out of Manchester outfit Omerta, whose ranks included Nick Moylan and Neil Turvin with Aaron Starkie and James Ryan. The latter two being TSRC vocalist and bassist. They were active from 2003 to 2007, but TSRC got it together back in 2009 and 13 years later after five studio albums, four live albums, and 11 singles, Aaron and James along with guitarist Kurtis Starkie and drummer David Whitworth are still on the case.
The band were quite prolific during lockdown and dropped two completely different albums in 2020, with ‘91 Days In Isolation’ and ‘The Joy Of The Return’. Almost half of tonight’s set were culled from these releases. In fact, it was a decent spread of a snapshot of their career so far, with two coming from their self-titled debut platter from 2011, four from 2015’s ‘Cavalcade’ album, three from 2018’s ‘Build A Tower’, four each from both ‘91 Days In Isolation’ and ‘The Joy Of The Return’, and the remaining tune being their recent ‘Tell No Lies’ single. I guess the reason for tonight’s concert and tour in general was to promote this current standalone single and simply get out and tour again.
As you would expect, Patterns was very busy tonight. The fans were mainly middle-aged but there were a number of younger exceptions to the rule in attendance as well. It was evident that TSRC were arguably too big for this venue, as their sizable mixing desk was out amongst the fans and would have been something that you would normally expect to see at Brighton Dome or similar capacity venue. The band had also brought their additional lighting as well, plus another guy on a desk stage left (our right). We were stationed on the other side, so were unable to ascertain his role in proceedings, but a guess might be the electronics and backing, especially as the Korg Kontrol 49 controller keyboard that was on stage as we arrived had disappeared.
The instruments of choice this evening were James flitting between Fender Jazz bass and Rickenbacker bass, Kurtis on his Gibson Les Paul guitar and then for the encore a Takamine acoustic guitar, David on drums, and naturally Aaron on vocals and acoustic guitar for the encore. The keyboard parts and electronics arrived by miracle!
The intro music began bang on the scheduled 8:30pm and the lads graced the stage and the punters were obviously up for it from the off. The opening number was ‘Yet Again’ from their 2020 ‘91 Days In Isolation’ album. After they had that under their belts, Aaron quite rightly stated “It’s a cosy one this isn’t it” in reference to the choice of venue.
The first of the tunes from 2015’s ‘Cavalcade’ album followed in the form of ‘Start Again’ and a large number of the audience were all jumping in unison. This was a promising start and encouraged by Aaron often holding his microphone high over the crowd in order to get them to sing the words to the tunes, which they dutifully did. He also informed the punters that a few of the hardcore fans standing at the front were actually celebrating their 100th concert! I presume that he meant their 100th TSRC concert and not just any old gig!
The songs flowed nicely, none of them outstayed their welcome as by memory none of their compositions are more than five minutes in length. The tunes came and went and to be brutally honest I was becoming aware that I just wasn’t enjoying tonight as much as I had enjoyed them in previous years. I have a couple of their albums on CD and can remember playing 2018’s ‘Build A Tower’ to death on release, but realised that I haven’t been playing any of their stuff for quite some time. It’s quite possible that our paths have crossed at a certain point in time, but now we have drifted apart.
‘On The TV’ from the aforementioned ‘Build A Tower’ album was a highlight of the night for me and I suspect many others, judging by the way they jumped when requested to “Let’s jump!” by Aaron.
They played a four tune encore, beginning with the laid back ‘Block Out The Sun’ ballad from their debut album, which saw the use of the two acoustic guitars. Main service resumed for the trio of remaining tunes, which were ‘Wanted Much More’, ‘The Wait’, and ‘Lunatic’.
As this was the closing date of the tour, Aaron took out his phone during final number ‘Lunatic’ and filmed the fans as a keepsake. At a quarter to ten, they were done and we all headed off home and to selected hotels by those travelling fans.
The Slow Readers Club are:
Aaron Starkie – vocals
Kurtis Starkie – guitar, backing vocals
James Ryan – bass
David Whitworth – drums
The Slow Readers Club setlist:
‘Yet Again’ (from 2020 ‘91 Days In Isolation’ album)
‘Start Again’ (from 2015 ‘Cavalcade’ album)
‘Something Missing’ (from 2020 ‘The Joy Of The Return’ album)
‘The Greatest Escape’ (from 2020 ‘91 Days In Isolation’ album)
‘Forever In Your Debt’ (from 2015 ‘Cavalcade’ album)
‘Plant The Seed’ (from 2015 ‘Cavalcade’ album)
‘Feet On Fire’ (from 2011 ‘The Slow Readers Club’ album)
‘Everything I Own’ (from 2020 ‘91 Days In Isolation’ album)
‘Zero Hour’ (from 2020 ‘The Joy Of The Return’ album)
‘No Surprise’ (from 2020 ‘The Joy Of The Return’ album)
‘Tell No Lies’ (from 2021 ‘Tell No Lies’ single)
‘You Opened Up My Heart’ (from 2018 ‘Build A Tower’ album)
‘On The TV’ (from 2018 ‘Build A Tower’ album)
‘I Saw A Ghost’ (from 2015 ‘Cavalcade’ album)
(encore)
‘Block Out The Sun’ (from 2011 ‘The Slow Readers Club’ album)
‘Wanted Much More’ (from 2020 ‘91 Days In Isolation’ album)
‘The Wait’ (from 2020 ‘The Joy Of The Return’ album)
‘Lunatic’ (from 2018 ‘Build A Tower’ album)
