WORDS AND IMAGES DESH KAPUR
Tonight, it was Wrexham’s Rockin Chair for a night with Ex Kasabian frontman Tom Meighan on his first solo tour “The Reckoning” since leaving the band,
As the clock ticked to 9.15 pm it was time for the comeback kid to take the stage, and it was exactly what I would have expected.
Looking every bit the Rockstar dressed in a long coat and dark sunglasses, he confidently swaggers onto the small Rockin Chair stage, grabbed the mic shouted something similar to “Hello Wales, Come On Lets F^&in Av it” and launched straight into the new song “Shout it Out” and the room went off, the rise in energy was immediate, Tom’ now standing at the front of the stage with arms spread high into the air just absorbing it.
Without taking a breath he launches into the Kasabian classic “Underdog” and the whole venue is now bouncing and you realize this is a stadium-sized rock star playing in a very small venue, Tom then served up another new song, “Acrobat”
Tom’s new songs seem incredibly personal and self-reflecting written during his time away from the limelight and from the songs on show tonight it was time well spent. But even though the new solo tracks were received with love and lots of noise, as expected it was the Kasabian songs that rocked the venue and when they launched into “Shoot the Runner” it was chaos
The mix of old and new songs continued for the rest of the night, and the venue was going mental, the Rockin Chair is brilliant when it is like this, it feels like pure rock and roll.
It all slowed down for Tom’s first solo single: “Would You Mind” It is such a personal, heartfelt and vulnerable song, written when Tom was at his lowest and its haunting, the vocals on this song are so fragile at times
Tom’s energy and the energy of the band was feeding the crowd and the energy from the crowd was feeding the band and that never stopped from the first song to the last and finishing the encore with “Fire” was a master stroke
What a brilliant night, Tom is back doing what he was born to do, being the frontman in a rock and roll band and there was a humbleness to him tonight you could see how grateful he was to be back on stage and like a phoenix rising from the ashes, he is back, maybe he won’t soar as high as he did with Kasabian but there is a very successful solo music career just around the corner for him, tonight was proof of that
SET LIST
1/ SHOUT IT OUT
2/ UNDERDOG
3/ ACROBAT
4/ SHOOT THE RUNNER
5/ SCARED
6/ RISE
7/ III RAY (THE KING)
8/ DON’T GIVE IN
9/ EVERYONE’S ADDICTED TO SOMETHING
10/ EMPIRE
11/ WOULD YOU MIND
12/ L.S.F
13/ CLUB FOOT
ENCORE
14/ MOVIN ON
15/ FIRE
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FOLLOW TOM MEIGHAN
My life is a soundtrack, i track my life through music, photography is my passion, my escape, my expression. Without both i have pieces missing, thankfully i’m blessed and get to combine both.
Born in Manchester, lived in Australia for 22 years where i was heavily involved in the Australian Music Industry, firstly in bands (Singer) and then managing bands (all original), I moved back to the UK, Wales specifically 10 years ago
