Frank Turner live review: powerful, punchy, and personal

HMV Empire, Coventry 7 October 2022

Everyone should see Frank Turner live at least once, if not for the music, then at least for the electric atmosphere and feel in the room during the concert. It is impossible to feel sad or lonely or upset at a Frank Turner show, for the exuberant energy he creates. It is contagious, spreading from the stage to the barricade to the back of the room until no one leaves untouched by his catchy folk-punk songs, confessional lyrics, and spellbinding words in between songs.

The three rules for his shows are simple, he says, his eyes glistening as he stands in front of the 2500-capacity sold-out audience of Coventry’s HMV Empire. “Don’t be a dickhead”, he bellows at the audience, a cheeky glimmer in his eye. Most of the audience, or his “friends”, as he took to calling us, are not seeing him for the first time, as people shout it back at him in perfect unison. And with the second and third rules being “sing along if you know the words” and “look after each other”, it’s clear he and the audience are all there for the same purpose: to have fun. 

Turner’s songs are all incredibly personal

But the brilliance of Frank Turner’s gigs extends far beyond this. Whether you came to the show knowing Turner or not, by the end of the show people were dancing, smiling, and singing along in the audience participation segments of the show. Of course, it is difficult not to, when Turner not only encourages dancing but explicitly calls out those who choose not to.

Turner’s songs are all incredibly personal, and it is difficult to not feel honoured when being allowed to listen to them. Silence is cast over the venue when Turner introduces ‘A Wave Across a Bay’, a song about a dream-like encounter with his late friend who took his own life. Similarly, cheers erupt when he introduces ‘Miranda’, an upbeat guitar-led song about his father coming out as a transgender woman and about how much his relationship with her has improved since.

When he speaks in between songs, the rest of the crowd melts away. You are no longer in the packed, sweaty, blue-toned main room of Coventry’s HMV Empire. Instead, you feel like you are sitting down with Turner at a cafe or a bar and listening to his life stories. 

Even Turner’s less personal tracks need an introduction

There lies the appeal of Frank Turner. Not everyone has experienced exactly what he has, but the feelings of loss, love, and triumph over one’s demons remain universal. And with both Turner and his band, The Sleeping Souls clad in plain white shirts and black jeans, it is easy to imagine how anybody and everybody could be Frank. 

Even Turner’s less personal tracks need an introduction, for so much of the enjoyment of his music stems from his lyricism. In 2016, he wrote a song called ‘1933’ about the rise of the far-right in Europe. “Back then, I was in a rush to finish the song. I thought the world would improve and the song would no longer be relevant when I sang it,” he chuckles. “However, here I am six years later still singing it”. And while the statement itself is painfully true, for the three or so minutes the song lasts, there is a sense of unity – a sense that no matter how bad the world may be, we’re all in this together. 

Ultimately, no one says it better than Turner: “Now who’d have thought that after all / Something as simple as rock ‘n’ roll would save us all” (‘I Still Believe’). The practical truth of that statement may be contested, but the fact is, by the end of the night, people were dancing and smiling. That is a merit in itself.

By the end of the encore, his eyes are wide, he’s panting, his shirt is drenched in sweat, and he is grinning from ear to ear. He is bouncing, looking down into the violent glee of mosh pits and crowd surfers. Having played everything from his classic hits (‘The Ballad of Me and My Friends’, ‘Recovery’, ‘Try This at Home’, and ‘I Still Believe’), to his newer songs off his latest album, FTHC (‘Non Serviam’, ‘The Gathering’, and of course, ‘Haven’t Been Doing So Well’), Turner’s 2697th show of his career has finished.