LOUIS DUNFORD – LIVE REVIEW FROM NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY – 07/10/24

“MODERN FOLK BURSTING WITH HEART, GUTS AND SOUL”

Louis Dunford, singing storyteller extraordinaire!

Son of the famous Linda Robson, you might have expected some entitled young man bounding onto the iconic stage at Rock City in Nottingham; instead, true to his proud North London roots, he comes across as THE most caring, likeable lad.

The crowd were warmed up nicely by an upcoming band called The Chase, who delivered some great tunes mixed with some old school ska, getting us all joining in and singing to Ghost Town. Fans continued to unite in chanting and singing to tunes during a short interval: it was like being at the friendliest football match I’ve been to for years.

Over the PA wafts the iconic ‘Come on Eileen’, as a one we’re partying, eagerly anticipating the man himself, Louis saunters on stage and straight into the belter that is Regretamine. He continued his set with Bossman, then his brand new single, Billy Flynn of Bethnal Green, which, hungry as we are for his new stories, we all seemed to practically know already.

Onto My Generation, about the struggles today that we could all relate to. Then, with total support and admiration, Louis opened up about his own struggle with the black dog leading onto the truly emotional Boys Do Cry with many of the different generations of men around me hugging their mates to let them know they’re never alone.

Bringing the mood up tempo it was onto Smash & Grab, getting us all dancing with a rendition of Freed From Desire and totally bringing the house down with Lucy, one that we clearly all loved. I could feel the infamous new floor of ROCK CITY pounding under my feet as Louis continued to bring us all together, jumping around to When We Were Hooligans: getting us to reminisce about the good ol’ days.

Then back to the quiet, sombre Ballad Of Benjamin, with a room full of torches carrying Louis through this song that hits so close to home for him. Seeing his best friend die in his arms of a horrendous knife attack at the tender age of 16 is something no person should have to experience, but he somehow still manages to get his words elegantly across to try to help stamp out the knife culture of today. We all felt this one…. deep.

Then after a brief p… break (Louis tells it as it is, that’s his charm and why we all love him so much – he’s real and honest, something we all crave in this disposable world we now live in) we all joined in with The Local and then what we’d all been waiting for, the iconic The Angel (North London Forever). An obvious hit, not only for all the Arsenal football fan following, but for every single one of us there (sorry to my Spurs-obsessed family, but I love that song so much I might just have to convert).

I’ve never felt so many different emotions in 60 something minutes; it was such a heart-wrenching, personal insight into this really wonderful human being who cares so much about all of us and ensured we had a brilliantly enjoyable evening.