>I arrived at Gus Dapperton’s gig in Manchester. A line of young music fans waited in anticipation along the dirty alleyway under the railway tracks on Whitworth Street West. After entering through the door to the gig under the tunnel, I noticed the dimly-lit venue, which has a capacity of 600 people, was packed wall to wall, and I was nudged in between hordes of teenage girls.
>At 9:15, the drummer came on stage and started playing a basic 4x4 beat, followed by both bassist and keyboardist, who kickstarted ‘Gum, Toe and Sole’ and without any instructions the crowd instinctively began to sing the leading vocal melody of the song. As the atmosphere rose, Gus Dapperton came onto the stage, holding a handbag and wearing white boots. The quartet looked straight out of a Wes Anderson movie.
>The concert continued with ‘Moodna, Once with Grace’, the first ever single by Dapperton which was released in early 2016, followed by his second single ‘Ditch’, a synthpop dancey song that got the crowd moving even more. This slow piano based ballad, called ‘Beyond Amends’, put the venue into a calmer mood. Next came another brand new song, ‘Amadelle With Love’, which had a disco-like feel created by analogue synths and set the venue back to dancing.
>Now, already into the second part of the set, came the artist’s latest single ‘Prune, You Talk Funny’. The last two songs of the main set were ‘The Fool’ and lastly, ‘I’m Just Snacking’, a chill song with a slight tropical/reggae feel and a catchy chorus that got the whole venue singing.
>As usual, the band left the stage as the crowd begged for one more song, and no more than a minute later they re-arrived on stage, except this time Dapperton picked up the bass. Unexpectedly, the band began the iconic guitar riff to ‘This Charming Man’ by the Manchester band The Smiths, which had the audience in raptures; a perfect finish to the night.
