Embrace / Rock City / Nottingham

Sep 16

Sep 16 Embrace / Rock City / Nottingham

Back to our spiritual home at Rock City again, this time to see Embrace on tour with support from The Lottery Winners.

The Lottery Winners are an indie pop band from Greater Manchester, formed in 2008 by Thom Rylance (vocals/guitar), Robert Lally (guitar/vocals), Katie Lloyd (bass/vocals), and Joe Singleton (drums). They released their debut album “The Art of Communication” in 2011 and have released four album now, including their latest “Something to Leave the House For” in 2021. I had hoped to see them back in late 2021, supporting Terrorvision I believe but they had to pull out due to the dreaded Covid in the camp. But here we are and I’m looking forward to seeing both bands for the first time tonight.

Strangely, I was the only photographer in the pit tonight, and I could have done with some backup lol. The Lottery Winners have a real relaxed style on stage, and a great repour with their fans. As they hit the stage, Thom told the crowd how delighted to be back n Nottingham. Then spotting me in the pit asked if I was there to take photos. Pulling poses for me he announced to the almost sell out crowd that we’d take pics for about 15mins and then do a couple of songs lol. I don’t think I’ve even been booed by so many people before! But it was all in good fun and they quickly got into the opening track Headlock from 2020’s self titled album “The Lottery Winners”. This was followed by Little Things from the same album before we were entertained by three tracks from their latest album, “Something to Leave the House For” released in 2021 starting with my favourite track Favourite Flavour and then Sunshine and Much Better.

The crowd were really enjoying the set. The band clearly are so relaxed on stage and interact effortlessly with the fans. Thom was struggling to keep his trousers up and asked if anyone had a belt he could borrow. One was produced and he tried it on and it was way too short !

We then enjoyed The Meaning of Life again from the 2020 album. I was loving it as were the crowd, then I heard the boos. It turns out we were over time, and although there were two songs on the setlist left, the band were pulled from the stage. Frustrating for everyone, as the roadies cleared the stage they were roundly boo’d by the crowd and whenever a band member came on to help thewy were cheered.

But what we had experienced for half an hour was brilliant. The music was spot on and Thom’s vocals were a charm. For someone (me) so keen to see them live, it was a real treat and a tantalising taste of what I could expect in a full set. I’ll certainly be keeping my eyes peeled for an upcoming headline show !

Setlist

Headlock

Little Things

Favourite Flavour

Sunshine

Much Better

The Meaning of Life

Then it was time for the main attraction. Rock City was pretty much full for this one and there was a real buzz in the air as Embrace bounded out onto the stage. With a new 2022 album to promote “How to Be A Person Like Other People” as you’d expect a number of the tracks tonight are from this, but the rest of the set is made up mainly of tracks form 1998’s “The Good Will Out” and 2004’s excellent “Out of Nothing”. No bad thing really, all really great albums.

Opening tonights set is a couple of new tracks from the latest album Death Is Not the End and We Are It, and immediately we can tell that Lead singer Danny McNamara has lost none of his tone and is still sounding as soulful as ever. Death is Not the End is a rousing and uplifting number that really sets the tone. Danny is clearly taken aback by the Nottingham crowd. Fiddling with his remote he questions the monitor setup because of how loud the crowd is. And it is….. Not long ago I was hear for The Struts, and it was incredibly loud the best I’d heard the crowd for a very long time. Tonight topped that. The noise levels were incredible !

Next up we had two tracks from the 1998 album “The Good Will Out” in Come Back To What You Know and My Weakness Is None Of Your Business which had the crowd singing along with gusto. Both were top ten hits I believe, and they haven’t lost their edge today, still sounding just as fresh.

The set continued at the same pace and I really enjoyed Someday and Looking As You Are from 2004’s “Out of Nothing” mid way through. Interspered were some new tracks as well, such as Up and Run Away with Me which went down really well with the crowd.

Perhaps my favourite track of the night was Nature's Law taken from 2006’s “This New Day” which was stunning. As the main set closed, we had an absolutely beautiful version of Gravity, (a song originally written and performed by Coldplay) and finally Ashes. Embrace left the stage to a massive roar from the packed crowd. Rock City was boiling now and the energy levels were off the scale.

The guys returned for a three song encore, starting with The Terms of My Surrender from “How to Be A Person Like Other People” followed by Firework from “The Good Will Out” and then finally we end on The Good Will Out, which gave the Rock City crowd one last chance to sing along with Danny.

I’d not seen Embrace before and I have to say it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. They write good honest anthemic tracks, with great lyrics which Danny’s vocals deliver flawlessly. Although the new album has a different style to it, it still feels like Embrace at it’s core and it works so well mixed in with the older hits. Maybe Embrace don’t get the recognition they deserve, on tonight’s performance they certainly deserve a higher profile.

I came out tired, sweaty and with a huge grin across my face. A great night and a hugely recommended live experience.

Setlist

Death Is Not the End

We Are It

Come Back to What You Know

My Weakness Is None of Your Business

Keeping

Someday

All You Good Good People

Looking As You Are

Nature's Law

Run Away with Me