Sam Fender rocks Wythenshawe Park in Manchester
For 363 days of the year, Wythenshawe Park in Manchester operates mainly as a place for dog walkers or joggers to congregate.
For this weekend only, though, it transformed into a festival, of sorts, with 30,000 people attending on Friday for Fontaines DC before Sam Fender closed proceedings in triumphant style on August 16th.
With any outside concert, the weather plays a crucial role and could turn a perfect afternoon into a nightmare within the flick of a finger. Thankfully, it was scorching heat in Manchester across the weekend, which meant crowds at both shows were dressed in their respective football shirt uniform.
At the Fontaines show, the crowd was blue and pink as far as the eye could see, thanks to Bohemians FC’s collaboration with the Dublin band on their third shirt. Meanwhile, at Fender, his flock of hometown support had made their way down from Newcastle to Manchester in their thousands, and wore black-and-white to ensure everybody was aware of where they’d come from.
Having seen Fender earlier this summer at St James’ Park in Newcastle, I expected an almost identical show at Wythenshawe Park, which wasn’t the case. Often, with big productions of this nature, even the words uttered by artists between songs are rehearsed and rehashed to the point they lose all meaning.
Although there was a capacity crowd of 30,000 in Manchester, Fender’s energy was much more relaxed, and this was reflected in the setlist, which also only included 15 songs. For the first time in his career, he began a set with ‘Angel In Lothian’, which only appeared on the deluxe edition of his second album, Seventeen Going Under and had only previously been performed a handful of times.
While it was an unconventional opener, the anthemic deep-cut had the crowd members who were familiar with it singing their hearts out. Comedically, about an hour into the set, Fender addressed a fan who was still holding up a sign demanding that he play ‘Angel in Lothian’. Presumably, they must have been at the bar for the opener.
After being forced to cancel a series of shows last month due to vocal issues, including what was supposed to be his first major European festival headline set at Rock Werchter, Fender appeared to be relieved, more than anything, about being back on stage. He was in a jovial mood throughout the show, whether this was enquiring if they had a toilet on-stage because he’d drunk too much water to soothe his voice, or doing his best Frank Sinatra impression to serenade his guitarist, Dean Thompson.
There were also heartwarming moments, too. He invited a 16-year-old fan, Noah, from the crowd to play rhythm guitar on ‘The Borders’, who passed his audition with flying colours. At another point, he paused the show momentarily to tell security to come to the aid of a couple of crowd members who appeared to need assistance, and the situation was immediately eased.
Despite the show being in support of his latest album, People Watching, Fender didn’t let the record dominate his setlist, only playing a sprinkling of cuts from the chart-topping release. Despite that, the rendition of ‘Arm’s Length’ was a high point as he duetted with Brooke Bentham, who has added a whole new dimension to his live show.
One of the few elements that did remain the same from his St James’ Park concerts was the unfurling of flamethrowers during ‘Tyrants’. The crowd-pleasing move was greatly pleasing on the eye, and the heat could even be intensely felt from where I was standing near the back of the field.
While Fender placed many B-sides and deep cuts into his set, which were all met warmly, the crowd did find another gear when he delivered the big hitters like ‘People Watching’, ‘Seventeen Going Under’, and set closer, ‘Hypersonic Missiles’. Judging by his closing remarks, it’ll likely be a while until Fender hits the road again, as he promised to focus on sorting his voice out and come back eventually when the time is right with his fourth album.
Today, Wythenshawe Park returns to normality after a weekend of musical celebration, but organisers should be proud that they looked to the future rather than the nostalgia-soaked past.
