Wythenshawe’s finest play storming home town gig at the O2 Ritz Manchester
Words and pics by Andi Callen
Nearly 13 years to the day that they released their eponymous debut album, Slow Readers Club tonight play to a rammed O2 Ritz in front of a sell out home crowd. To an outsider it feels like you’ve stumbled into a massive party, where everyone knows each other and you are eyed with suspicion. Still working their day jobs, it’s refreshing that the band can find the time and energy to engage with their loyal fan base on a short UK tour, their first since the end of 2023. With a new album, Out Of A Dream slated for release in March 2025, the band opt to spoil us with a career spanning set, cherry picking 2 or 3 songs from each release and 4 from the upcoming LP.
During the first lockdown of 2020, Slow Readers Club channelled their energies into producing a new album, 91 Days In Isolation, even though they’d only just released one, The Joy Of The Return in the March of that year. And so it is that they kick off proceedings with my favourite from said album, and from the general reaction around me, many others too, with Yet Again. As the last notes fade away, Aaron Starkie taps his microphone next to his heart and his grin is a mile wide. He looks pleased and moved in equal measures. I sense that tonight is going to be remembered for a long time in the minds of everyone present. James Ryan’s brooding bass and Kurtis Starkie’s gently lilting guitar, announce the arrival of The Wait, ” now you are here, you are all that matters”, sings Aaron as if to underpin the communal feeling of love in the room. Animals is up next, the most recent single and gives us a glimpse of maybe what to expect when the new record drops on 14th March. Despite only being out 2 weeks, the majority of those around me seem to know the lyrics, and greet it like an old friend.
As they power through the 16 song main set, charged with every emotion possible, we are witnessing a band on top of their game, deserving of a much wider audience, something that Out Of A Dream might propel them towards, if the 4 new songs showcased here are anything to go by.
By the time they return for a 3 song encore comprising of I Saw A Ghost, the Teardrop Explodes-esque Knowledge Freedom Power and more of Kurtis’s trademark guitar in Lunatic, a great number of the crowd are drenched in sweat and hanging onto each other like drunks at New Year. The band wave and cheer, picking out friends and relatives in the crowd as they take their curtain call. And indeed 2025 could just be their best one yet, with a handful of album launch shows around the UK, before heading off on a whistlestop 5 day mini tour of Netherlands and Germany, followed by a prestigious support slot opening for fellow Manc legends Elbow, in July at Castlefield Bowl as part of the annual run of open air gigs held there every summer. Take a brolly!
| Set List Yet Again/ The Wait/ Animals/ Plant the Seed/ All I Hear/ The Greatest Escape/ Lay Your Troubles on Me/ Little White Lies/ Sirens/ All the Idols/ Technofear/ Afterlife/ You Opened Up My Heart/ Forever in Your Debt/ Boy So Blue/ On The TV Encore I Saw a Ghost/ Knowledge Freedom Power/ Lunatic |
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Feb. 7, 2025 Dublin – The Slow Readers Club + The Fae
Feb. 8, 2025 Belfast – The Slow Readers Club + The Fae
Mar. 14, 2025 Bury – ALBUM LAUNCH SHOW
Mar. 15, 2025 Liverpool – ALBUM LAUNCH SHOW
Mar. 16, 2025 Leeds – ALBUM LAUNCH SHOW (matinee and late show)
Mar. 20, 2025 London – ALBUM LAUNCH SHOW
Mar. 21, 2025 Kingston Upon Thames – ALBUM LAUNCH SHOW
Mar. 22, 2025 Nottingham – ALBUM LAUNCH SHOW (matinee and late show)
Apr. 22, 2025 Amsterdam, Netherlands
Apr. 23, 2025 Nijmegen, Netherlands
Apr. 24, 2025 Groningen, Netherlands
Apr. 25, 2025 Köln, Germany
Apr. 26, 2025 Hamburg, Germany
Jul. 2, 2025ManchesterCastlefield Bowl supporting Elbow
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