Forever Never Manchester Speak Up show with support from divides-18/11/16

Two bands, one dark dingy venue, and a small crowd of around 40-50 people.

The first of the two bands to play was Div/des who are from Glasgow in Scotland. Divides aren’t really a big band outside of Scotland but last Friday I have a feeling their fan-base grew. They began their set with a song called Show me your skin, every song they played, one after another caught everyone’s attention and held it in their grasp,

Lead singer Nicole Mason knew how to work the crowd encouraging people who were standing at the back of the venue to come forward and join in with the fun and excitement and she was successful people began to come and were swaying along to each song.

I was lucky enough to meet Divides after the show, they are a band with a lot of personality and amazing stage presence, they are definitely a band worth watching. If you want to hear their amazing music check out their new ep/album Anywhere and Nowhere and make a bad day better. (*hint* *hint* new song)

The next and also main band of the Speak up tour Forever Never made a fantastic entrance with the intro track from their new EP (Speak up), each song was received incredibly well by the crowd and even though the crowd was small the sound they made was so loud that it felt like there were 100 people in the venue rather than 40-50 people.

Around halfway through the show Renny Carroll (FN lead singer) hits his head on the ceiling by standing on a white box he had placed on the stage before the show, well there a show without its small mishaps, Renny passed it off with a light-hearted comedic comment of “I really should have tested this out before the show”.

FN also sang an entertaining cover of Boombastic (which they covered as a single with Benji Webbe the lead singer of Skindred, a few years ago,) asking the crowd to participate by making silly noises, some of these noises had people in stitches and others had Renny Carroll speechless, it was a great laugh and added a lot of joy to the show. Another joy of the show was Renny Carroll’s shoes AKA “Moon boots” (Nicole divides nickname for them). Renny was dancing and singing around the stage when he kicks his shoes together and the soles lit up, his face lit up with both a child-like excitement and confusion, a member of the crowd shouted jokingly for him to take them back to the shop.

Several songs later the show comes to a close with the final song off their new album, suitably named Speak Up.

Forever never played many new songs but didn’t shy away from their previous era and a band performing songs such as empty promises and you are the voice.

The regeneration of Forever Never has already drawn in new fans and old fans in with amazing songs and a new style so to speak, this is a new era for Forever Never and its one to be excited about.

Overall the show was possibly the best concert/gig I’ve attended in a long while, it was very enjoyable and a night to remember, a fantastic show with two incredibly charismatic bands.

Look out rock scene here comes awesomeness.