The Amazons bring the house down in Manchester

Hailing from Reading, The Amazons are currently embarking on their first headline tour since pre-pandemic times. The tour, promoting their latest top five LP ‘How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me’ sees the band headline some of their biggest venues to date.

They were supported by The Deep Blue, an all-girl folk band from Manchester, who played through a half an hour slot with ease. Sparkly strings and pretty melodies, this was a truly mesmerising performance. Their stand-out track was ‘He Said She Said’ which saw the band teaching the audience the words to repeat back to them as the song progressed. 

Half an hour later, and it was time for the main band. They kicked off with the title track ‘How Will I Know?’ which was the perfect opening to their set. The track immediately had the crowd screaming and bouncing with excitement. They followed up with ‘Ready For Something’ - a real stand out off the new album, and ‘Ultraviolet’ a real classic Amazons' song.

Next was ‘There’s A Light’ which sees singer and guitarist Matthew Thomson powerfully belt out the lyrics “Wait // Hold on baby // I believe there's a light at the end of the dark // I believe there's a light in spite of it all” this song is a real power ballad and really translated with the crowd in a live setting. Everyone was swaying along to the song and reciting the lyrics back to the band. 

Storming through their set, the band decided to play track ‘25’ - a song of which they added to the set in a last minute whim. “I’ve just told them that we’re going to play this” said Matthew, moments before the band erupted into sound.

“We’ve got a discord page for anyone over the age of 30” Jokes Matthew. “And all we ever hear from you guys are requests for Nightdriving. So here we are, you get what you ask for” all of the band took to the front center of the stage to perform a special acoustic version of the track. We saw guitarist Chris Alderton take to the mandolin, whilst drummer Joe Emmet was on tambourine duty, whilst the whole band provided vocal harmonies. The performance of this song felt very special. It’s a song that the band had very much retired in a live setting, and you could see from the faces of the audience just how much it meant to them to hear this song live again. 

Now it was time for a cover. “We like to play a song on each date of the tour that originated from that city. Manchester has shaped music in a way that nothing else has, and without Manchester none of us would be here. And this song really encapsulates the beauty of Manchester” Matthew explained. The band burst into their rendition of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ by Joy Division. The crowd were entranced from the first note. Everyone looked up in amazement and excitement as the band played through this classic Manchester anthem.

The band played their standout song ‘Junk Food Forever’ before exiting the stage for an encore. They ended with ‘Bloodrush’ - one of the singles from their latest album. This really is an extraordinary song, The whole crowd knew every word. They followed it with a golden oldie ‘Black Magic’ which closed their set beautifully. The band played for an hour and 50 minutes altogether, getting through a 19 song setlist. This whole gig was monumental, and the possibilities for this band are endless. 

Jazz Myatt 

@jazzshoots_