‘In New Music We Trust’ Live at Newcastle Academy

This was the first of three nights of live music that Radio 1 are running from Newcastle and the Academy was playing host to what was the guitar night of the tour before dance and hip hop nights at other venues over the rest of the weekend.

The night was split into two distinct gigs with Zane Lowe presenting Plan B, the Courteeners and the Futureheads in the main room before Nick Grimshaw presented two hyped bands of the moment upstairs in the Academy 2; Chapel Club and Frankie and the Heartstrings.

I didn’t see Plan B and I only saw half of the Courteeners’ set which sadly wasn’t enough to convert me into a fan of their quite derivative tunes. There were plenty who enjoyed it in the crowd though and I have certainly seen worse bands in my time.

The real focus, of course, was local heroes the Futureheads. There was no way I was missing them. About to return with a new album entitled ‘The Chaos’, they were able to give several tracks a new airing including single ‘The Heartbeat Song’. The other new tracks sounded promising.

Due to the constraints of being recorded for a radio show, they only played for forty minutes, not long for a band on their fourth album. Still, they managed to cram in all the favourites with ‘First Day’, ‘Decent Days and Nights’, ‘Hounds of Love’ and ‘Skip to the End,’ all getting an airing before they closed with ‘The Beginning of the Twist’ and ‘Carnival Kids’.

To the aftershow and Chapel Club, who I was interested in seeing. They sound at times like a poor man’s Joy Division and at others like a more indie White Lies. I enjoyed their set musically but the contrast between their lack of stage presence and the frenetic sets of the Futureheads and Courteeners before left  most of the crowd underwhelmed.

The same couldn’t be said for Frankie and the Heartstrings who are the young pretenders to the Futureheads’ crown as North East faves. Musically they are different to anything out there at the moment with strong 50s rock and roll and surf rock influences.

However their real strength is frontman Frankie who charismatically dominates the stage with his part greaser, part James Dean, part mackem Morrissey approach. Their set was great fun and a brilliant end to the night.