WORDFS BY GARY LAMBERT / IMAGES BRIAN SAYLE
The latest show of White Lies’ UK and Ireland tour took place in Liverpool at Grand Central Hall. It was a night that packed such a punch you’d expect Meatball Molly to be on stage.
White Lies are an English post-punk revival band from Ealing, London. Formerly known as Fear of Flying, the core band members are Harry McVeigh (lead vocals, guitar), Charles Cave (bass guitar and backing vocals), and Jack Lawrence-Brown (drums). The band performs live as a five-piece, when they are joined by Tommy Bowen and Rob Lee.
White Lies formed in October 2007, after writing songs that they felt didn’t suit their original band. After delaying their first performance for five months to build up media hype, they earned a recording contract with Fiction Records days after their debut. The release of singles “Unfinished Business” and “Death” led to tours and festival appearances in the United Kingdom and North America, including a headline performance at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend and a place on the 2009 NME Awards Tour. At the beginning of 2009, White Lies featured in multiple “ones to watch” polls for the coming year, including the BBC’s Sound of 2009 poll and the BRITs Critics’ Choice Award.
White Lies’ debut album To Lose My Life…, released in January 2009, was a number one hit on the UK Albums Chart. Their second album Ritual was recorded in 2010, and released on 17 January 2011. Big TV, their third studio album was released on 12 August 2013, whilst their fourth, titled Friends, was released 7 October 2016. Their fifth album, Five, was released on 1 February 2019, and their latest, As I Try Not to Fall Apart, was released on 18 February 2022.
Opening up were Glasgow’s VLURE. Their sound is part electro, part punk, and all attitude and it was a great way to kick off the show as their intensity drew the crowd into them. Set closer Euphoria saw the band cross the barriers into the audience with beautiful aggression. VLURE are going to be a must-see band pretty soon.
From the thunderous opening of Farewell to the Fairground, it was obvious that White Lies were ready to lift their loyal fanbase with a great show. At this point in time, I don’t know if White Lies are going to pick up any new fans as they’ve been around so long that nobody is going to be surprised to discover them, but I think the band understands that too with a career spanning set which seemed to be designed to give maximum enjoyment to their audience rather than just plug their latest album and offer a token gesture of a favourite at the end.
Six albums into a career gives plenty of options of what you can include in your setlist from the claustrophobic embrace of Death to the disco synth of Step Outside, and it was obvious that none of the songs the band filled the cavernous and ornate Grand Central Hall with were sending people dashing to the bar. Every song was bellowed back with the kind of gusto you’d expect from a Liam Gallagher audience. It was victorious and celebratory from the band’s opening salvo to the second confetti cannon of the night.
SET LIST
1/ FAIRGROUND
2/ THERE GOES OUR LOVE AGAIN
3/ AM I REALLY GOING TO DIE
4/ TO LOSE MY LIFE
5/ BLUE DRIFT
6/ HURT MY HEART
7/ IS MY LOVE ENOUGH
8/ STEP OUTSIDE
9/ FIFTY ON OUR 4HEADS
10/ BIG T.V
11/ THERE IS NO CURE FOR IT
12/ UNFINISHED BUSINESS
13/ TOKYO
19/ MARS
ENCORE
20/ DEATH
21/ AS I TRY NOT TO FALL APART
22/ BIGGER THAN US
FOLLOW WHITE LIES
FOLLOW VLURE
Brian Sayle is a freelance photographer from the North West of England who has been working professionally since 2014.
He used to be a house photographer for the Academy music group but has also covered live concerts for several blogs and publications and also been in print in magazines such as Metal Hammer and Terrorizer.
Multi disaplined with a camera his main specialist areas of expertise are live performance, both theatre and music and also architecture, he has photographed buildings across the UK ranging from modern architecture to Grade I listed buildings, both commercially and for his own pleasure.
BrianSaylePhotography.co.uk
