Reverend & The Makers @ The Academy
“What the fuck was that?” was the mood amongst the crowd in Manchester Academy on Saturday. Support band Dearly Beloved, or The Dearly Beloved, had finished their set – you’ll have to forgive me for not remembering the exact name of the band. The reason being, their not-so-enigmatic frontman, whose name I also forgot the minute he walked off of the stage, used the time between songs to rant about their Canadian namesakes - who I’d bet my house on being much better.
As I stood longing for something to come and change my mood, and everyone else’s for that matter, Jon McClure waltzed on stage and transformed the atmosphere in the room in an instant. Opening up with fan favourite ‘The State of Things’, the inscrutable Yorkshire man bounced up and down, as his band filled the stage around him.
Swiftly moving on to ‘What the Milkman Saw’, the crowd’s reaction started a frenzy down the front and more than one flat pint was thrown in jubilation. Only for it to rain down on both it’s drinker and everyone around them in a sort of Carlsberg-fuelled Northern baptism.
When ‘The Rev’ lashed into new politically infused tune ‘Elastic Fantastic’ you could feel the mood change for McClure. This was being sung from a personal perspective. After all, it was written as “a fantasy about killing Donald Trump with a bow & arrow”. The rage was evident in his voice, the passion clear in his eyes. This was an ode to the politically disenfranchised and the Manchester crowd couldn’t have been better recipients.
Listening intently, the Manchester crowd took in ‘Shine The Light’, ‘Black Widow’ and ‘Makin Babies’ before McClure and co launched into their most commercially successful song ‘Heavyweight Champion of the World’. It almost felt like it was 2006 again, the only reminder that it wasn’t – a sea of smartphones capturing the moment in real-time.
‘He Said He Loved Me’ followed as the set was reaching its conclusion, it was supported by underrated hit ‘Silence Is Talking’ before the band walked off the stage to a rapturous applause and the communal throwing of beer.
As the audience pined for more, their prayers were answered as the Reverend John McClure and his very talented Makers returned to the stage. As I began to make my way to the doors to get ready to leave, I was sucked back in as the band started their one song encore, ‘A Message to You, Rudy’. You couldn’t have made it up – it was brilliant. I did however keep thinking of how awful the night could have been, had Jon, Ed, Laura, Joe and Ryan not walked on stage to save us from that awful support band.
