The Netherlands loves the Reading-based band Only the Poets, and Only the Poets loves the country right back, as apparent by their many appearances in the country over the past few years. On the 29th of April, the four men ended the tour in support of their debut album, And I’d Do It Again, in Amsterdam’s Paradiso. As support acts, they brought Tommy Lyon and Murdo Mitchell with them.
Only thirty minutes after the doors opened, it was time for Tommy Lyon to take to the stage together with his guitarist (who also played the keyboard). While the show was not sold out, the room was pretty full and kept filling throughout the singer’s set. Quite a few fans were already familiar with this singer, as he used to be part of the boy band Here At Last. Lyon opened his set with ‘Ruins’, and the fans had already lit up the room with their flashlights before he even sang the first word. “It’s a bit sad [that] this is the final night of the European tour,” Lyon said afterwards. “However, it’s my first time performing in Amsterdam!” Lyon told the audience in between songs how he’d met Only the Poets in a pub about four years ago, and that getting to open for them on this tour felt like a full circle moment. In between his own songs, Lyon threw in a cover of Olivia Dean’s ‘The Man I Need’, which got the entire audience singing along. He followed this up with a wedding song he wrote called ‘Last First Dance’. Before playing it, he asked if anyone in the audience would be getting married soon, which led to only a few shouts. Despite that, the crowd was definitely excited to hear it and eagerly lit up the room with their lights once more. Finally, Lyon finished his set with a song he’d been teasing on his socials a lot, ‘Hotel Room’, and his latest single, ‘All That I’ve Known’. Quite some fans sang along to the final chorus really loudly, showing how much they appreciated Lyon. “Hopefully I will come back soon!” he shouted before leaving the stage.
At 20:10, Murdo Mitchell entered the stage with just his acoustic guitar. He told the audience he’d open the set tonight with a song he’d only sung once before, as he wrote it at some point during this tour. He’d “flown in especially for this last show” after having missed part of Only the Poets’ tour, and while he’s aware his music fits a slightly different genre than the other acts on the stage tonight, he hoped the fans would enjoy it anyway. “Be nice to me this evening, please!” Fortunately for Mitchell, he definitely received a lot of love: one fan was even wearing a shirt with his face on it. On top of singing some of his own very catchy songs like ‘C’mon Lucy’ and ‘French Defense’, Mitchell also performed a cover of Justin Bieber’s ‘Ghost of You’. In between the songs, the singer joked around a lot, which made the audience appreciate him even more. He mentioned several times that he’d be selling CDs tonight and that he also brought a pen to sign them. As the man said himself, they will not be worth anything unless he becomes a superstar and then dies, but you know, he will “definitely…die!” As part of the joke, some fans had even brought him a CD player as a gift. Murdo Mitchell ended his set with ‘One Glass,’ and for those who enjoyed his music, he mentioned he’ll be playing his own show in Amsterdam on May 21st.
At nine, the introduction to Only the Poets’ debut album and to this set played over the speakers, the instrumental track ‘And I’d Do It Again’. One by one, the four band members walked on stage: bassist Andrew Burge, guitarist Clem Cherry, drummer Marcus Yates, and finally, lead singer and guitarist Tommy Longhurst. The four of them dove straight into ‘I Keep On Messing It Up’, followed by ‘Over & Over’. Longhurst has surely picked up some Dutch during his many times in the country and said a quick “dankjewel” to the fans when the song was over. “You’re looking fucking beautiful out there tonight,” he stated before moving on to some more songs from the debut album, namely ‘God Knows Where You Were’ and ‘Don’t Wanna Know’. Longhurst was visibly excited when, during the former, the crowd moved their flashlights up and down to create a cool effect that reached the entire venue.
Five songs in, Longhurst mentioned how this was the last show of their European tour and that the band’s aware they “just missed a very important holiday of yours”. Two days prior, the Dutch had celebrated King’s Day, and so all four members showed off their bright orange socks that they’d been gifted by a fan. The band then continued with ‘Emotionally Hungover’ and ‘Looking at You’. The latter is a true fan favourite, and during the lyrics “looking at you, looking at him”, the fans pointed first at Burge (his nickname being Roo, which of course sounds similar to “you”) and then at Cherry. As Longhurst stated afterwards, the band finds it important to not only play songs off their debut album, but also older songs, such as this one, that got them to this point. They followed with another older song, ‘Every Song I Ever Wrote’, before playing the newer track ‘You Hate That I’m in Love’.
It was then time for a little section of covers. Only the Poets kicked this part of the set off with a cover of Ednaswap’s ‘Torn’, which got everyone singing along, even the older people in the audience who may have just stumbled upon this concert by accident. The band didn’t necessarily plan to play more covers, but several fans held up signs asking for specific songs to be sung. Longhurst wanted to do a mash-up of Robbie Williams’ ‘Angels’ and Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’, but unfortunately, Clem Cherry was not familiar with the chords of the former. Therefore, Longhurst decided the band would first play ‘Wonderwall’, giving Cherry the time to practice before also playing ‘Angels’. True fan service! Cherry even got to do a little guitar solo at the end. The band went right back to playing more songs from their debut album, including the slower track ‘Madeline’ that got the entire audience lighting up the room again. Afterwards, the cheers and applause went through the roof, and it just kept going as the four men were taking it all in.
For the next song, Longhurst preached to the audience to “be vulnerable, because that should be celebrated”. Yates and Burge had left the stage, so that it was just Longhurst and Cherry performing ‘waking in the dark’ together. The two returned right after, as it was then time to perform a surprise song that the band changes up every show. Tonight, the crowd got treated to ‘Even Hell’, a song many fans had been hoping to hear, and so the audience was louder than ever. They continued with ‘Saké’, ‘Freeze’, and the first song they wrote for the debut album, ‘Guess She’s Cool’. During this song, the audience held up little pieces of paper that said “I guess other bands are cool, but they will never be you”, which made for an adorable moment.
After playing ‘Bad’ and ‘All This Time’, Only the Poets had a special announcement for their Dutch fans. “We love coming to the Netherlands so much, you guys are an incredible crowd,” Longhurst said, before telling the audience that their Halloween event, One More Fright, would be taking place in Amsterdam this year. After the show, the fans would be handed flyers with a QR code so they could be the first to buy tickets to this exclusive event. They then played ‘One More Night’ before leaving the stage. Of course, Only the Poets also came back for an encore, which consisted of ‘JUMP!’ and ‘emotional’, which always features the only mosh pit of the night, giving the fans one final chance to get wild as the concert, and with that, the tour, came to an end.
