Tonight the Brighton & Hove News Music Team are back at The Hope & Ruin in Queens Road for our second concert of #UnitedByMusic in partnership with The National Lottery and Music Venue Trust. Three days ago we witnessed a blinding set by VLURE (Review HERE) and this evening it’s the turn of the young likeable Scouse Michael Aldag, who was last in Brighton back on 7th April this year, when he was supporting Caity Baser (Review HERE).
This was to be my third live set encounter with Michael, however, this evening was to be a laid back acoustic performance as opposed to his two previous bouncy dance music filled sets. His friends, Harry Howell on guitar and Ellie East on drums had been assisting him at the other concerts, but tonight it’s simply two chairs, (one for Michael and one for Harry), one microphone, one acoustic guitar and one electric guitar. Ellie was not in attendance, as drums were surplus to requirements for tonight.
They commenced their set 24 minutes after tonight’s support artist had finished. The time was 9:16pm and the duo gave up a dozen compositions during their 46 minute set.
They began with ‘Apathy’, that’s a song title and certainly not how they felt! The standout line being “How do I still hate myself when I’m a narcissist?”. I can’t imagine that Michael is actually talking about himself here, as he often sells himself short with statements including, (this evening) “For those that don’t know me, I’m Michael Aldag and I’m not the satanic spawn of Ed Sheeran” and (at my first gig) “I really appreciate you coming out on a Sunday afternoon to see a scrawny ginger haired kid like me”.
Selection two was ‘Polaroid’, which he explains that when he was at Uni in Liverpool, he went out on a date with a girl and a month later he saw a photo of her with another guy at a museum. Michael said that he wouldn’t have thought of that as he doesn’t like museums.
Michael told us that he had written tune three, ‘OKAY’, when he was 16. After which we were given a newbie called ‘Smoothie’ which he informed us will be “the next tune he is going to let loose to the world”. Although it was surprising how many of the crowd already knew the words. It’s about when he went out with a girl for a meal which he paid for, but she didn’t pay for the Uber taxi, so he wrote a song about that.
‘Stress’ was next with the choice line “Nоw thеrе’s linеs in my fасе аnd I’ll lооk 38 by thе timе I’m 22”. Up until the end of this tune, it had simply been Michael on vocals and Harry on guitar, but for track six, a new tune called ‘Nudes’, Michael takes the acoustic guitar from Harry and his chum dons the electric guitar. It is here in proceedings that Michael says he likes our city and it’s the third time he has played here.
For song seven, ‘Girlfriends’, which happens to be my favourite Aldag composition, he tells us that he put it on TikTok and people liked it, even in America! Tonight it was again a very popular tune with many young fans singing along to lines including “Miа, Tiа, Lеаh, аnd Izаbеllе; I саn’t, I саn’t hеlp mysеlf”.
Michael was now back to just vocals and Harry was on the acoustic guitar. They were going to play two tunes in a row, the second of which, ‘Love Story’, Michael told us that Harry didn’t like it. The first tune was a Noah Kahan tune called ‘Stick Season’. The setlist on the floor was showing ‘Exhausted’ as the next tune, but I believe this was omitted. Thus ‘Bleak’ was given an airing instead and it states “I wish I wаs mоrе thаn whаt I аm I swеаr”.
The penultimate number was ‘Pretty’ in which Michael informs us that even his 77 year old grannie sings the “Tell me I’m pretty” lines, and we are requested to also do so. Michael’s body of work is penned about the trials and tribulations of growing up and finding your way in the world and this tune feels like this, even more than the others, on the account of his initial vocal delivery for the first few lines, which were similar to The Streets. They signed off with ‘Cheating’, which starts “I saw hеr stаnding асrоss thе аstrоturf; Couldn’t bеliеvе thаt уоu hаd got there first” and by 10:02pm, they were done. This evening proves that Michael can move into Ed Sheeran territory without being his “satanic spawn”. I personally greatly prefer the songs when they are delivered as pop dance numbers, but it was clear from the crowd reaction, that yet again, the boy dun good!
Michael Aldag:
Michael Aldag – vocals, acoustic guitar
Harry Howell – electric and acoustic guitars
Michael Aldag setlist:
‘Apathy’
‘Polaroid’
‘OKAY’
‘Smoothie’
‘Stress’
‘Nudes’
‘Girlfriends’
‘Stick Season’ (Noah Kahan cover)
‘Love Story’
‘Bleak’
‘Pretty’
‘Cheating’
Support this evening came from a lad going by the name of Ben Ellis who performed a handful of tunes during his 22 minute set which commenced bang on time at 8:30pm.
Thankfully for Ben the venue was already two-thirds full from the very outset of his back to basics performance, which simply featured himself on vocals and acoustic guitar. His audience was mainly of a similar age to himself, late teens to early twenties.
From the outset, Ben nervously disclosed that he was used to busking, and was trying to get to grips with a concert crowd actually watching him – Bless him!
The first number was a self penned tune titled ‘Sofia’ and Ben informed us that it was about strangers getting matching tattoos on holiday in Bulgaria. “Sofia says she’s got a bad idea; I got a way that we can stay right here; We might regret it but there’s nothing to lose; Just two perfect strangers getting matching tattoos”.
This was followed by his rendition of Britney Spears ‘Toxic’ which he had discovered on X-Factor. Moving on…tune three we were informed was his latest release and is titled ‘Runner Up’. Before performing this, he told us the amusing story linked with this in that he was doing a phone interview with Radio 1 DJ Mollie King (of The Saturdays fame) and he was on holiday at the time in South Africa. There was quite a bit of background noise and Mollie asked him if he could go somewhere quiet, thus he ended up under his bed duvet, which was surreal for him.
The penultimate tune was another cover. This time it was ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ by Wheatus. As he announced what it was to be, there were genuine gasps of excitement from several around the room. Clearly there was much love in the air for the track, and so was a good choice as many sang along with him.
He signed off with his tune ‘Ed’s House’ which he told us he wrote when he was 20, making it sound years ago! But he only looks about 22 at the moment. Interestingly the tune references his previous track: “We’ll play Teenage Dirtbag on repeat; ‘Cause we don’t know what to do at seventeen; Let’s stop thinking ’bout tomorrow, now we’ve got out; ‘Cause we are at a party at Ed’s house”.
He signed off at 8:52pm and I rather think that he was pleased that he had finished and clearly won over some new fans.
Ben Ellis setlist:
‘Sofia’
‘Toxic’ (Britney Spears cover)
‘Runner Up’
‘Teenage Dirtbag’ (Wheatus cover)
‘Ed’s House’
