Words & Photography: Alisha Lawton
On the 16th of September Dizzy Magazine was at Manchester Academy 3 for a night filled with female fronted indie rock and alternative music.
After the release of her anticipated second album ‘Girlfriend Material’ in March, the alternative/ indie singer songwriter from the Isle of Wight was to take the stage for the first night of her fourteen-date tour all across the UK and Europe.
First to take the stage on this night was Ugly Ozo who were playing their first ever show in Manchester. The band from the Isle of Wight said after their first song that they were nervous to play, but the Manchester crowd were lovely. During their set they played an unreleased song called ‘Ooo La La’ which even though the crowd had never heard the song before they gave it their all dancing along to the music, they went on to play a new and refreshed cover of Paper Planes by MIA which the crowd also loved where they put a deeper and darker tone onto the song which seems to be their signature twist, all in all they put on a great show and if they continue to do what they are doing we could be seeing them on much bigger stages over the coming years, would highly recommend checking them out!
Housewife was the second and final band before Lauran was to hit the academy 3 stage, a four-piece band from Toronto. This show in Manchester was their first time playing with Lauran but their second time playing in Manchester. The band mentioned that they loved the city of Manchester and that ‘Manchester is too much fun’ and that ‘the crowds are great’.
In the set the lead singer spoke about a song that was previously unreleased called Life Of The Party which is a fantastic song that carries feel good melodies but with deeper material within the lyrics, the lead singer mentioned while talking about this song that she is not the life of the party and that the rest of the band were trying to convince her to go out in Manchester after the show was finished. Near the end of their set, they asked the crowd to help them sing their final song called Fuck Around Phase, getting the audience to sing a melody within their chorus helping to get them excited and warmed up ready for Lauran to hit the stage. Overall, their stage presence was exciting and the music consisted of great melodies and feel-good rhythms, hopefully the next time we see Housewife in the UK it will be on their own headline tour.
When Lauran Hibberd was about to take the stage, the venue went dark and Man, I Feel Like A Woman by Shania Twain sounded through the speakers, the stage had been covered in flowers making the stage look like a garden which she addressed later in the set saying that there was no particular reason for this other than it ‘looking cool.’
Lauran took to the stage, grabbed her guitar and started the set with her song Girlfriend Material which is the title track from her most recent album and was a hit with the crowd as everyone in the room was singing along and knew every word.
Lauran thanked the audience for coming and continued to make a joke about how big the venue was for her show, despite the venue not being completely full Lauran continued to fill the space with her voice and her songs. After playing some bigger shows earlier in the year (one being supporting James Arthur at the Middlesbrough Football Stadium) it is clear that Lauran has the bug for playing bigger shows and has only made her more ambitious to play more shows of that size.
During her song ‘Honda Civic’ she asked the audience to raise their middle fingers, they all obliged waving them in the air joining Lauran, this made for a moment between the audience that you could see made Lauran happy as a big smile was on her face.
Lauran did an incredible job at including the audience into every aspect of her performance singing directly to them and encouraging them to wave their arms in the air. This continued into her song I’m Insecure, where she got the crowd to sing a capella to the final chorus which created a beautiful moment between her and the Manchester audience.
Showing off her funny sense of humour she asked the audience if they had listened to her newest album Girlfriend Material and when they cheered, she sighed and responded ‘thank god’. When mentioning that the album was about her ex-boyfriend the audience booed, she encouraged this which led to her explaining that her band didn’t like it when
she spoke about him but said that because the crowd was booing it was fine.
A few songs later Lauran acknowledged a sign that a fan on the front row had which read ‘what ride are you taking home tonight? A- Honda civic, b- Charlie’s car, c- rollercoaster’ Lauran sighed with a humorous tone and then proceeded to sing her song Charlie’s Car.
All in all, for the first night of Lauran’s tour it was great and can only get better, it is clear to see that Lauran herself has an incredible relationship and connection with her fans and that they love her music, it is clear that she is only going to get better. The music the Lauran plays definitely has a core audience and over the coming years our guess is that she will be filling up rooms much bigger than the Academy 3.