The Vamps / Royal Concert Hall / Nottingham
A trip out on a cold night to The Royal Concert Hall, for The Vamps, and their 10th anniversary tour. Although there’s no pit at the RCH, I like this venue. The staff are always really helpful and the lighting is usually really good. As you know, here at LiveWire although we have a wide range of genres we cover, we do like things a ‘little different’ lol. The Vamps was something I was looking forward to, but definitely outside our usual fair !
The running order was compact with very little time between acts, and first up we had a very short 15 minute set from Henry Moodie. A young artist progressing his career online through social media, with over 5 million TikTok followers. Clearly well known from this social media following, it was great to see a large crowd in right from the outset. So many times you see low numbers until the headliners turn up, which is such a shame in my view. Firmly in the pop bracket Henry delivered an assured solo performance with backing track, with an acoustic guitar in support for a couple of tracks. Henry is a confident young man and interacts with the audience throughout the set. With his own headline tour coming up next year judging by the crowd’s reaction, it will be a huge success.
With just a 5 minute turn around, The Aces hit the stage to huge cheers from the large crowd. A little less pop, and much more indy-pop/rock The Aces hale from Utah and are Cristal Ramirez (vocals & guitar) and her sister Alisa Ramirez (drums) with Katie Henderson (guitar) and McKenna Petty (bass).
Another shorter set of only about 25 minutes, which was a real shame, because I thought they were excellent. Full of energy, Cristal started off on guitar but soon ditched it to grab the mic and dance around the stage for the rest of the set. Highlights were tracks like Daydream which has an upbeat and catchy chorus, had everyone in the audience up and dancing, and their latest single Girls Make Me Wanna Die which is an old school ‘guitars in your face’ kinda track.
It feels a bit of a tease….. a short jolt of great indy pop/rock that certainly leaves you wanting more. Their performance was bright and lively from start to finish, and personally, I’d love to see The Aces again live real soon.
A slightly longer turn round of about 25 minutes for before The Vamps hit the stage, understandable with the main set to get ready. The young crowd are buzzing now, and with England playing their World Cup eliminator against France, the crowd are belting out tunes such as Three Lions and Vindaloo. Cheers and shrieks go up intermittently as score updates come in, with chants of “It’s Coming Home” regular.
As it gets towards stage time, it’s clear England are not doing too well (and did lose 2-1 to France), and the result is clear as the house lights go out and the stage lights come on behind the big black sheet, before the music starts, the curtain drops and Bradley Simpson (guitar and vocals), Connor Ball (bass), James Brittain-McVey (guitar) and Tristan Evans (drums) burst into the first track.
The crowd go absolutely wild and are on their feet, phones in the air as they dive into a greatest hits set list starting off with Last Night. All the band members bring buckets of energy to the show but Bradley is chatting to the crowd and bouncing around the stage right from the off. There is a confidence in their performance tonight. Connor has a custom bass for the tour with the words “Ten Years Baby” inscribed on the scratch plate. One of the most fun tracks of the night had to be Shades On, where the band members put on sunglasses thrown on to the stage by fans and wore them throughout the song with their names written on the lenses. Many of the audience did the same.
Alongside the hits, they give us their new single Seat at the Table an emotional one about losing someone significant, and the crowd responded, phone torches in the air swaying to the music. The Vamps know their audience well and give them exactly what they want – upbeat tunes full of energy, which sends the crowd crazy track after track. As the set drew to a close, fan favourite Somebody to You rings out and the noise levels ratchet up yet another notch as the crowd belt out the words at the top of their lungs. The Vamps really have created a party atmosphere and delivered hit after hit, and the crowd went home exhausted, with sore feet and sore throats from all the singing and cheering.
It was a really really good night. At the end of the day, its all about the performance, the fans and their experience. The stage set was excellent, a great use of platforms and lighting and video screens, mixed with high energy levels and a rock solid musical performance, The Vamps gave their adoring fans exactly what they came for.
And that, at the end of the day, is what it’s all about. If you like your pop with a rock edge to it, The Vamps are right on the top of their game !
