{"id":3613,"date":"2014-02-17T13:42:56","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T13:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/?p=3613"},"modified":"2015-12-21T20:04:09","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T20:04:09","slug":"the-smyths-at-the-o2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/the-smyths-at-the-o2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Smyths at the O2"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

25th January 2014<\/p>\n

The Smyths at the O2 Academy Leicester<\/h2>\n

by Kati Howard\u00a0\u220f<\/p>\n

Photos by \u00a9\u00a0Katie Howard Music Photography<\/a><\/p>\n

This weekend I had the pleasure of seeing The Smyths<\/strong> play at their SOLD OUT show at the O2
\nAcademy’s Scholar Bar. First of all, I was a little sceptical \u00a0of whether they would achieve the sound and energy
\nthat The Smiths are so well-known for, \u00a0as a lot of tribute bands I\u2019ve seen don\u2019t quite capture what
\nthey aim to.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Smyths – Graham Sampson
Photo Kati Howard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Arriving late, I could straight away hear the voice of vocalist Graham Sampson echoing
\nMorrissey\u2019s trademark sound as I walked down the steps to enter the show. Upon entering the Scholar Bar, the
\npromoter Andy Wright, told me that there were so many people in there that there would be no way \u00a0for me to get to the front to photograph, and he was correct, there were a lot of people inside although I did manage to get to the front of the stage with my camera!<\/p>\n

The first thing I noticed was \u00a0<\/span>the heat of the room hit me as I battled towards the front with my camera, everyone seemed to be\u00a0singing along and hanging on\u00a0every word sung by the Morrissey surrogate. It shocked me how\u00a0many people there were young, as nowadays most young people don\u2019t listen to music like The\u00a0Smiths, and probably have no clue of their existence.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Smyths
Photo Kati Howard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I reached the front of the stage I noticed exactly how much like Morrissey Graham looked, he\u00a0had the same shirt, hair, glasses and even jaw line! To put this into perspective, Bob Beasley who\u00a0toured with The Smiths said that Graham looks the part! It took me a minute to realise that they\u00a0weren\u2019t the actual smiths I was seeing. Unfortunately, due to my lateness, I only saw around three or\u00a0four songs from the first set, but during these songs the whole band were full of energy, bouncing\u00a0around and dancing along! Graham even cheekily undid his shirt and caressed his nipples on stage,\u00a0in true Morrissey style of course!<\/p>\n

During their set break I had a small conversation with their merch man, talking about how much\u00a0Graham acts, sounds and looks like Morrissey, and he told me about how he \u2018really gets into\u00a0character when he is on stage\u2019. I also spoke to a couple of acquaintances who were at the show\u00a0and they were also shocked with how much they emulated the iconic band. Once the band had\u00a0started their second set everyone had slowly moved closer and closer to the stage, so I ended up\u00a0stood at the side of the stage photographing the rest of their set.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Smyths
Photo Kati Howard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Although the view from side stage\u00a0is a lot different from the front I enjoyed it as I could see everything the band was doing, and I could\u00a0also see the intense reactions from the crowd.\u00a0In my opinion, they are one of the most energetic bands I have seen, and one of the most\u00a0passionate. The bassist, Simon Smyth was dancing around whilst playing his bass, something I have\u00a0never seen before! You could just see his energy, passion and joy in his face whilst he was bouncing\u00a0around on stage. Graham carried on with his amazing energy all through the second set, again\u00a0caressing his nipples and thrusting his hips in a slightly camp manner. It was clear from my\u00a0perspective to see that everyone in the crowd was having the times of their lives, dancing around,\u00a0singing along to every single word and I even saw a young lad who also resembled Morrissey crowd\u00a0surfing!<\/p>\n

I must admit, that I saw one of the most passionate gig-goers I have seen in a while, there\u00a0was a lady stood at the front singing along to every word with her arms in the air with an expression\u00a0that resembled someone praying.\u00a0All in all, it was an amazing show, and they are back on the 7th of November. I know I\u2019m going to\u00a0buy a ticket and anyone who loves The Smiths should buy one too!<\/p>\n

Follow The Smyths on Facebook<\/p>\n

See also:<\/h4>\n

Music diary for February<\/a><\/p>\n

Music diary for January<\/a><\/p>\n

The Last Dandys<\/a><\/p>\n

The Blackout at the O2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

25th January 2014 The Smyths at the O2 Academy Leicester by Kati Howard\u00a0\u220f Photos by \u00a9\u00a0Katie Howard Music Photography This weekend I had the pleasure […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":3615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[110,91],"tags":[114,125],"class_list":["post-3613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-from-2014","category-gigs-in-leicester","tag-gigs-and-shows","tag-o2-venue"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/The-Smyths-by-Kati-Howard.jpg?fit=600%2C623&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p73uhX-Wh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3679,"url":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/dr-x-and-the-bobcats\/","url_meta":{"origin":3613,"position":0},"title":"Dr X and The Bobcats","author":"Trevor Locke","date":"02\/03\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Saturday 8th February 2014 Dr X and The Bobcats at the\u00a0The Criterion by Keith Jobey Saturday afternoon gigs are great to start with, so when I heard about this one, at the Criterion, I decided it was a must do - partly because of the use of home made guitars.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2014"","block_context":{"text":"2014","link":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/Music\/history-of-leicester-music\/articles-from-2014\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Bobcats at The Criterion","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Bobcats-at-Criterion.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Bobcats-at-Criterion.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Bobcats-at-Criterion.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3673,"url":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/royal-blood\/","url_meta":{"origin":3613,"position":1},"title":"Royal Blood","author":"Trevor Locke","date":"02\/03\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Monday 17th February 2014 Royal Blood supported by Tigercub at\u00a0The Musician. by Keith Jobey If the BBC is to be believed, bands are not going to be in fashion this year. 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