Grace Petrie – Club Academy, Manchester; February 24th, 2024

The concert in Manchester was my 3rd Grace Petrie show and went above and beyond all of my expectation. Everything about this concert was perfect, from her wonderful guests, to the amazing band and the setlist, but most of all, it was the audience and the interactions between us and the band. They were on fire and we were there to celebrate every moment. I cried – a lot – and was smiling through my tears all night. It was bloody amazing!

It was a long trip from London to Manchester, due to traffic jams, but eventually the bus got there and I still had lots of time. Got a great vegan meal, went to the venue and sat inside reading for a few hours. I had forgotten that the time on the ticket was doors, not show start. Around 7, more people arrived and gathered in small groups. Usually, at Manchester Academy, the queue is outside, but this time they did not kick us out and checked our tickets at the door to the club – nice. Scored a front row spot and had lovely people around me to chat with before the show. 🙂

We were still talking, when Grace appeared on stage and everyone cheered for her. She asked us to cheer if we had seen her before and then those, for whom it was the first time, then joked that the second group sounded a lot happier. 😀  She then continued that she’d never had a bad gig in Manchester and announced the first support act Amy Thatcher & Francesca Knowles.

Their first track was instrumental with Amy on accordion and Francesca on drums and it was a good start to the evening, but I liked it even better, when they started singing on track two. It was only harmonizing then, but I really enjoyed it and they played a few songs with lyrics too. The first of them, ‘Your Song is true’ was about finding your identity later in life. Overall, I really enjoyed their set. 🙂

Grace was back, telling us we would see them both again in her band and spoke about the shows in Dublin and Belfast with Ben Moss. We learned that she and spoken word artist Molly Naylor had met at a benefit for the labor party and she was up next.

Molly started speaking about her love for art and that it should be an invitation for people, so there was some audience participation too. The first poem was exactly, what she had said, inviting people. I already loved it. Next, she wanted to know if we loved dogs, cats or rejected the binary and loved both, leading up to the poem ‘My girlfriend’s Dog’. It was lovely and funny. She also had one about love and how she figured out that real love was an action, something you choose. All her poems spoke to me and made me curious about her other writing too. Loved everything about her set.

After a short break, Molly came back and asked us to go “absolutely bananas” for Grace Petrie and that we did. The band walked on stage to loud cheers. Grace greeted us and mentioned how the new record is a concept album about how she feels about this country and started with a new song called ‘The best Country in the World’. I didn’t understand all of the words, but it was angry and described everything that is wrong with the UK. After a little initial feedback, the band sounded fantastic and the mood was already great.

She introduced her band and told us that Frank Turner produced her album. “He’s a naughty boy…. When I left his house I recorded a folk record and when he sent it back to me it was a punk record.” 😀 It was time to sing along for current single ‘The House always wins’ and our first try to sing “roll up, roll up” was already so loud, she didn’t think we could do better. People around me were already singing along to every word. It was fantastic. Graces songs move me and they often make me cry, yet they always give me a feeling of hope too. Hope, that one day, we truly will be more and there will be justice in this world.

Fittingly, the next song was about trying to “regain some hope” after the general election, but first she joked that the question of the concept album was “Am I clinically depressed or do I live in England?” So, when asked if ‘Start again’ was about her, her girlfriend answered:”Jeremy Corbyn, I’m afraid.” Again, lots of people sang along and I managed the chorus too, wanting to believe every word. Politics may be different In Germany, but many of the problems are the same and it all comes down to unequal distribution of wealth and power, while blaming those that are already marginalized. So I can certainly relate.

Grace announced they’d do some songs we might know now and then added that might be a bit arrogant to assume we’d only know the older songs. Were we OK? Hell yeah! She spotted a few kids in the audience and asked for their ages and names. Then we all cheered for them. she referred to them as her “pension plan”. 😉 ‘We’ve got an office in Hackney’ was announced as “a song about the music industry” and Grace joked that she had a brief moment with the industry and that was enough. We also learned that 10.000 streams on Spotify earned her very little money. So she advertised for buying music instead of streaming.

‘We’ve got an Office in Hackney’ might have been the first song that made me cry that night, because of the “if there’s a single person out there to who this song something means…” line. That’s exactly what music is all about. If that didn’t bring me to tears, I certainly cried during ‘Storm to Weather’, all while smiling and singing along. <3 It was beautiful.

Grace joked about having started as a protest singer 14 years ago and things only having gotten worse since. Someone yelled “Its not your fault” and she replied that she didn’t believe to have that much power. Then she got more serious and talked about things she saw happening in her lifetime where she feels we are moving backwards and that are scary and one thing that left her heartbroken was the overturning of Roe v. Wade and watching how instead of fighting the real enemy, people so often fight each other. It all lead up to a new song called ‘Meanwhile in Texas’ that summed up the rollback of women’s rights perfectly. ‘Pride’ followed, a song that was written after a hate crime in the US. She told us how she had grown up with accepting parents and being gay didn’t seem hard, but how in recent years the climate has gotten rough and especially bad for the trans community. She’s right, standing by our queer siblings is now more needed than ever. As everyone sang along, I felt a sense of community in that room. And for a moment, there was hope.

She talked about people not being able to pay their energy bills, while energy companies made millions and played us the song ‘King and Country’, just alone on guitar and harmonica. We learned that 70% of the new record are angry protest songs and the other 30% about being in love and happy. ‘if I were to outlive you was a song about all the worries that come with being in love and made us laugh.

Ben joined her on stage again and someone yelled “we love him always as much” and made us laugh. She spoke about things often getting worse when you think they can’t, like when Trump was elected president and suddenly people said out loud what they were ashamed to say before and it poisoned many conversations. She also told us about a trip to the Westbank in 2017 and how she does not feel qualified to speak about Palestine, but believes that the conflict between Jewish and Palestinian people stems from white supremacy and that they were collecting for medical aid for Palestine. You build a wall made me cry again and I don’t think I was the only one, who felt it.

For the upcoming love song, Ben was supposed to play a “Hot girl tambourine” as Grace put it and spontaneously the audience yelled “Hot girl Ben! Hot girl Ben!” Her reply “this is my favorite thing that has ever happened at a gig.” 😀 Ben seemed somewhat embarrassed. He did give us a tambourine solo though. 😀 When she asked if there were any Madonna fans in, the reply wasn’t loud enough, so she asked again. Next was ‘Cynicism free, “a song about believing in love for the first time.” It was a really happy one.

Grace then spoke about the house she and Molly had just bought and how it needs work. Speaking to other pople her age, she learned that everyone is overwhelmed, but feels we can all make it. The song about this was ‘Fixer Upper’, sung without a guitar and including a great call and response. We sounded nervous when we first tried, but managed just fine. Next was ‘The Losing Side’ about “trying to keep the faith” and we got a wonderful sing-along going. Grace thanked the band and crew before the main set ended on ‘Black Tie’ and once again everyone sang along to every word, especially loud on “… were a patriarchal structure.”

They left and we cheered loudly until they walked back on stage. We learned that they were running late and thus, came back quickly. Grace told us how she was nervous about playing the next one live until she rehearsed it with the band and they did an incredible job with it. The song was called ‘English Culture’ and sounded amazing. The grand finale was ‘Northbound’, where the sing along is only on every other line of the chorus and we still did it perfectly. 😉 Always a great song to end a show. Once more, we cheered for everyone and then it was over. What a fantastic concert that was!

After stopping by the merch stand I headed upstair, where Grace waited for us in the lobby. There was a long line and she took her time talking to everyone, making connections and signing stuff. When it was my turn I told her I’d traveled from Germany and she asked if she could hug me. “Yes, please” I replied. It was awesome. We chatted a little more about how I’d come by he music and how amazing the show had been. Then she signed my ticket and we got a picture too. I really needed a drink, so I went to the bar in the same building and when I left way after midnight, Grace was still talking to fans. It was lovely. This definitely wont have been the last concert for me.

Setlist

The Best Country In The World
The House Always Wins
Start Again
We’ve Got an Office in Hackney
Storm to Weather
Meanwhile in Texas
Pride
King and Country
If I Were to Outlive You
You Build a Wall
Cynicism Free
Fixer Upper
The Losing Side
Black Tie

Encore:
English Culture
Northbound