LIVE REVIEW: Frank Turner, Dave Hause, Katacombs @ Newcastle University Students’ Union (08.04.26)

Image by Iam Burn

Frank Turner kicked off his Campfire Punkrock Twenty Tour with a raucous, high-energy sing-along at Newcastle University’s Student Union last Wednesday. This, show number 3135 (his 23rd in Newcastle), marks 20 years since his debut EP. With a set spanning 10 studio albums, the crowd proved that they ‘still believe’ in Frank Turner.

Katacombs opened the night, but she wasn’t always a musician. She tells us she was a woodworker until Covid hit, when she sold her equipment and bought instruments instead. Luckily for us the result is a beautiful set of dark folk pop played out on guitar. Her powerful and intense ethereal vocals singing songs about standing your ground and the emotional trials and tribulations of life. Her addictions since spending time in the UK, she tells us, are Tunnocks Teacakes and packaged shrimp from M&S.

With the world currently feeling like it’s on the brink, and with the second support also hailing from America, it is perhaps no surprise that politics get a mention. Dave Hause starts by declaring “Don’t hold it against me…. I didn’t vote for that motherfucker”. His songs are gritty and real, from Cell Mates to Saboteurs he warms up the crowd before him with his folk-punk offerings. Later in his set he even goes on to dedicate Dirty Fucker to the President of the United States of America. Closing song Look Alive, about living as if it’s the end of the world tonight, is a perfect call and response end to the set.

Then, it’s just Frank Turner and his guitar, against a back drop of neon campfire lights and what looks like two grave stones either side, with the date and number of tonight’s show inscribed. Turner fills the stage with songs and stories from across the last twenty years, including the time he couldn’t find a gig in Newcastle so played a gig in his friend Rachel’s front room. Now, according to Turner, fans in Newcastle complain a lot, including that we are often missed from touring schedules, so he decided to put that right with tonight’s opening tour show. We are treated to an intimate set, with all the hallmarks of a classic Frank Turner gig; high-energy, infectious melodies grounded in folk punk-rock story-telling traditions. His lyrical wit, poetic and grounded, connects us with observations and experiences of parties, relationships and the beginnings of his career.

The songs from that first EP span the hour and a half journey through Turner’s back catalogue. From The Ballad Of Me And My Friends and Thatcher Fucked The Kids, to I Don’t Really Care What You Did On Your Gap Year, with fan favourites I Still Believe and Polaroid Picture to finish. We are even treated to new song Believe In Me, which fits seamlessly into the set. There are the songs that “you should have liked”, including one called The Resurrectionists inspired by Charles Dickens’ journey from Kent to London, detailing the journey of Turner and his friends from Hampshire to London, a journey of growth and self-discovery. St Christopher Is Coming Home is dedicated to Newcastle; a lot of the crew come from here we are told. Controversially Turner admits that in the beginning, he thought Newcastle was a city in an area called Sunderland, although now he knows better. All too quickly the show comes to an end, but with promises of more to come, here’s to the next chapter.