ENGLISH TEACHER + GLADBOY – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 8.5.24
Leeds indie band English Teacher opened their biggest UK tour to date with a sold out show here in Brighton at the popular Concorde 2 venue on Wednesday courtesy of JOY. promoters. In fact, all 15 live dates right across the country have sold out, showing that English Teacher are certainly going places.
This tour accompanies the release of their debut album ‘This Could Be Texas’. Brighton music lovers had already been privileged to hear some of the album at the Resident instore on the day of its release (Review HERE).
There was a real sense of anticipation beforehand among the packed sold-out crowd. A large cheer greeted the band, Lily Fontaine (vocals, rhythm guitar and synth), Lewis Whiting (lead guitar), Nicholas Eden (bass) and Douglas Frost (drums and keyboard), as they came on stage. They were joined for their live show by an additional keyboard and cellist, Blossom Calderone.
English Teacher opened with ‘Albert Road’ a mellow first song, which started with Lily’s spoken word delivery like a poetry recital to a simple low key instrumental. The song built beautifully with Lily’s vocals soaring over the music. The way she held the long notes so well was to be one of many highlights of their performance.
There was a welcome addition to their printed setlist with ‘R&B’ as the next song. This increased the pace and had a harder-hitting feel. ‘Broken Biscuits’ followed with a great piano part. On this one, Lily went to play keyboards towards the back of the stage. Without anybody front and centre, this left an odd empty focal point on the stage with just the synth standing there. Like many songs in their live show, English Teacher mixed it up from their recorded version, with the frenzied musical crescendo later in the song being far more pronounced.
English Teacher clearly enjoy playing Brighton. Between songs, Lily said “If we were to move south, we’d move here. It’s like Blackpool”. The seaside resort rivalry meant a muted response from the Brighton crowd. Lily offered “We’ll play good music to win you round”. Something both northerners and southerners would agree they certainly managed with ease.
That good music continued with the melancholy, delicate ‘Mastermind Specialism’ on which Lewis swapped to acoustic guitar. ‘You Blister My Paint’, which Lily explained was inspired by the novel ‘A Clockwork Orange’, had a moody sinister feel with a great use of synth effects, which contrasted with beautiful vocals rising through the song.
The atmospheric ‘This Could Be Texas’ featured an interesting clipped piano part, before the tempo picked up on ‘I’m Not Crying’. Lily was becoming more animated by this stage. As she sang the “you’re crying” parts of the “You’re crying. Not crying” lines, Lily pointed at random people in the crowd. The music became quite frantic in parts, which the stage lighting at Concorde 2 matched well. The tempo lowered for ‘Albatross’, which saw Lily play guitar facing the other guitarists, as well as the audience.
Lily explained that ‘Sideboob’ was one of the earliest songs written for the album, and it was originally titled ‘You Won’t Believe How Beautiful She Is In The Snow’. This moving song had a different cinematic orchestral soundscape, with the keyboards and synths to the fore.
Afterwards, Lily announced “enough of that sad shit” before realising ironically the next song on the setlist was ‘The Best Tears Of Your Life’. This had an impressive instrumental part, which appeared out of nowhere, culminating in a loud sharp close to the song. This was one of many examples of the great musicianship and tightness of the band.
Lily told the crowd, “It’s the first night of the tour. We’re just dusting off the nerves”. There were no signs of nerves to me. If there were, the closing night at Brixton Electric will be even more special, if that’s feasible.
There followed a step change in tempo with Nicholas’s unmistakable bass line at the start of ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’. The crowd clapped along with Lily’s encouragement, as the song soared. As their biggest hit, this understandably got by far the loudest cheers so far.
Douglas observed their Brighton show was a “pretty good start to the tour”. “Better than Blackpool?” somebody quipped, met by a light-hearted “Steady on” from the band.
‘Nearly Daffodils’, another up-tempo number, closed the main part of the set. Lily sang standing on the monitors at the edge of the stage, holding the bunch of daffodils from her mic stand and later playing tambourine. There were massive cheers from the Concorde 2 crowd calling for more.
The whole of the main set had been taken from their ‘This Could Be Texas’ album. The encore was a departure. Returning to the stage, Lily apologized saying, “This is not one of our songs, sorry. It’s by LCD Soundsystem.” English Teacher closed a stunning performance with ‘New York, I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down’. This atmospheric song had an interesting guitar part from Lewis, and more prominent synth from Lily. It ended with a rockier sound compared to the rest of their performance, and another example of how Lily held those soaring long notes.
It wasn’t just the cleverly-crafted songs, quality musicianship and Lily’s amazing range of vocals, but also the way they appeared to tweak their songs for the live show, which made it a very special performance from English Teacher to open their UK tour.
English Teacher:
Lily Fontaine – vocals, rhythm guitar and synth
Douglas Frost – drums and keyboard
Nicholas Eden – bass
Lewis Whiting – lead guitar
Blossom Calderone – keyboard and cello
English Teacher setlist: (all from 2024 ‘This Could Be Texas’ album)
‘Albert Road’
‘R&B’
‘Broken Biscuits’
‘Not Everybody Gets To Go To Space’
‘Mastermind Specialism’
‘You Blister My Paint’
‘This Could Be Texas’
‘I’m Not Crying’
‘Albatross’
‘Sideboob’
‘The Best Tears Of Your Life’
‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’
‘Nearly Daffodils’
(encore)
‘New York, I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down’ (LCD Soundsystem cover)
www.instagram.com/englishteacherband
“Junkedelic misfits” Gladboy opened the evening’s entertainment. Led by singer and guitarist George Orton, the band started out in Norwich, before moving to their new home of Leeds.
Gladboy had a variety of styles across their set. The opening number ‘Opener’ was a mix of post-punk and Brit-pop, while ‘Mountain Cloud’ had a dreamier feel. Other songs had rock elements and some others hints of country. On their single release ‘Karloff’ George often screamed out the lyrics, which worked well with the softer backing vocals.
Gladboy appeared to grow into their set. For the final song, their drummer swapped to lead vocals and guitar. This song closed with a noisy instrumental.
Their set ended in an odd, abrupt fashion, maybe because they simply ran out of time. Nevertheless, it still seemed to go down well with many in the crowd.
Gladboy setlist:
‘Opener’
‘Mountain Cloud’
‘Bright Spark’
‘Karloff’ (a 2022 single release)
‘Johnny’
‘Landmine’
‘White Ace’
(All other songs are unreleased)
