Leaving the city of Newcastle in a sea of black and white shirts for the past two days, Geordie legend Sam Fender hits St James Park for the second night of his sold out shows.
As Sam Fender and his two gigs are the talk of the town, the energy in Newcastle has been through the roof. Followed by local support from ERNIE, four piece indie rock band, Wunderhorse and Grantham indie artist, Holly Humberstone, it was almost time for Fender and his band to hit the Newcastle football grounds once again.
Sam has a tradition of having fellow bandmates Johnny "Blue Hat" and Mark Webb join the stage and welcome everyone with a cover of Mark Knopfler's "Local Hero" whenever he performs in his hometown. Alright, how's it going? he shouts to the 52,000 people who have joined them this evening as Fender and the rest of the band take the stage.
As always, the set opened with fan favourites such as ‘Will We talk?’ ‘Getting Started’ followed up with ‘Dead Boys’ by introducing it as a song about his hometown and the friends that are no longer with us anymore. Fender asked everyone to welcome the person who got him into music onto the stage, his big brother, Liam Fender followed up by a Bruce Springsteen cover ‘I’m On Fire’.
The next two songs were traditionally introduced as punk-rock songs and instantly screams echoed as the crowd knew exactly what this meant as mosh pits opened up in the front half of the crowd as the heaving drum and bass line of ‘Spice’ shook the stadium followed by ‘Howdon Aldi Death Queue’.
After songs like "Get You Down," "Spit Of You," and "Alright" calmed the audience, countless cries of "Toon Toon" reverberated around Newcastle, supporting everyone's favourite Geordie. When Sam invited AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson to join him on stage, everyone was taken aback. Most people were waiting for the punchline since they couldn't believe that two local icons could share the stage in such a significant setting. Together they sang two AC/DC bangers ‘Back In Black’ and ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ before Fender stating ‘It’s a fucking good time to be a Geordie’.
Back to playing the classic tunes ‘Play God’ followed by phone torches and confetti for all our friends that didn’t make the night during ‘The Dying Light’, Fender took a quick break to announce a very special person's birthday. It was yesterday but we just forgot to do it at the gig, Fender announced, but could we please sing Happy Birthday for our bassist Tom Ungerer. The crowd all sang along for everyone's favourite bassist.
He stood looking at all the people who joined him that night from all over the world in awe as he finally realised his childhood dream of playing in his hometown stadium came true. The guys all played "Wild Grey Ocean," which was released last October, before getting the entire crowd to sing back the lyrics to Saturday. Two of Fender’s biggest hits and fan favourites, ‘Seventeen Going Under’ and ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ closed off the set and the final show of his sold out St James Park gigs.
The past two nights saw these Geordie legends make history, fulfil aspirations, and reach the pinnacle of their professions, leaving the city of Newcastle speechless and incredibly proud. We should do this again, Fender informed the crowd, and it seems it won’t be long before it happens and these lads take over the world.
By - Katie Graham
Photo - Niall Lea
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