Lawson @ The Garage, London.

Gabii
Nov 13, 2015
4 min read

Lawson, a four piece pop-rock band, consisting of members, Andy Brown (lead vocals & guitar), Joel Peat (backing vocals & lead guitar), Adam Pitts (backing vocals & drums) & Ryan Fletcher (backing vocals & bass guitar). They formed in late 2009, and were known as 'The Groves' but soon changed their name to 'Lawson' after Dr. David Lawson performed a life-saving brain surgery on the lead singer, Andy. The band were later signed to Polydor Records, and began opening for some big named artists, including Will Young and Jessie J. Their first single was released in 2012, 'When She Was Mine', and it reached Number 4 in the UK charts. Since then they have further released 7 singles, including 'Brokenhearted' featuring B.O.B, and an album 'Chapman Square', with a second album to come in 2016.

Lawson are a band that I hold very near to my heart. I believe they are the reason I got so deeply involved in music, especially the live performance side. They have helped me decide what I really want to do with my life and, for now, I thank them for that. So I can easily say that Lawson is one of my favourite artists to listen to and see. In the last 3 or 4 years, I have seen them over 20 times.

The first thing that stands out to me whenever I go to a Lawson gig, is that I always recognise people in the queue. This is great to know, especially as Lawson have been a bit MIA over the past couple of months! It shows how dedicated fans really are to bands.

Anyway, back to the tour. For this headline tour, they had a competition running on Twitter, where for each city the artist who got the most RT's (retweets) got to be the support act for the night and perform a small set. I think this is a brilliant idea as it helps smaller, unknown artists to gain some experience and show off what they have, as well as gaining new fans at the same time! For London, the winner was Joe Conaboy, who was previously in a group called 'Kingsland Road', who appeared on the X Factor in 2013. He performed a handful of songs, mainly covers, including 'Naive' by The Kooks. He was very talented, and I thought it was good to some covers as it showcased what he could do with songs that a lot of people know! After the gig, he came out and met fans, which is great because it shows he cares about what his fans, and others, think.

The other support act was a guy called Pete Gardiner. He was on all the dates of this tour, and played a slightly longer set than Joe. One of the main things that stuck out for me about Pete, was his stage charisma. There was not a dry moment. In between his songs, which were really catchy, he made jokes, and spoke to the audience. This made his set even more enjoyable! One of his songs that stuck with me is 'Hollywood Lights'. It's really catchy and I love the lyrics, they tell a story, and I feel through this I can relate more to an artist. He also came out at the end and met fans, but he was also giving out CD's. I love when upcoming artists give out their EP's out at gigs because it shows the determination and how much they want their music to be heard!

After a short break, it was time for Lawson. They always play dramatic music to build the atmosphere, and yes I'm going to say it, hype around them. It gets everyone's hearts pumping and you could see from just looking at the crowd how excited everyone was. They started their set with a few new ones including, Under The Sun & We Are Kings. Joel, with his long lucious hair, was wearing a hat that honestly made him look like James Bay! Andy had so much energy, but after a few songs was completely worn out, which he made a joke about, and then carried on like nothing was wrong! Honestly I don't know how he keeps it up, but hats off to him for keeping up such an energetic performance. It really made the atmosphere more fun and relaxing.

They performed a lot of old songs, mainly singles, but one song in particular that always pulls on the heart strings was 'Make It Happen', because they have achieved so much, and powered through so much, especially Andy with his health issues. They performed their first single 'When She Was Mine', which made me close to tears, as it reminded me of when I first met them, on the radio tour for this single.

Lawson are one of those bands that put everything into a performance. Each individual member is so incredibly talented in what they do, and you can tell that they enjoy it.

I managed to take a few pictures throughout the night, I know they aren't great, but for this gig it was more about being in the moment then behind a camera.