Sam Fender channels US blue-collar rock at Alexandra Palace

Sam Fender flies the flag for British rock’s working-class roots. Literally so: his homecoming gig in Newcastle upon Tyne took place before an audience of Geordies waving Newcastle United football club flags. Fender is one of their own, a local lad from the coastal town of North Shields. His two albums, both number one hits in the UK, have attracted the kind of boisterous football-terrace support that Oasis and Arctic Monkeys once generated. The catch is that he has done so by channelling US blue-collar rock.

Springsteen looms large in his imagination. Fender dislikes the comparison, much as Springsteen disliked being tagged as “the new Dylan” when starting out. But the 27-year-old also can’t help encouraging it. “Born to Run” played before he came on stage at Alexandra Palace and there were two Springsteen covers during his set — one an impromptu, ramshackle version of “I’m on Fire” with the singer of support act Gang of Youths, the other a powerful solo rendition of “Dancing in the Dark”. A lowing chorus of “Brooooce” came from the audience in response. The reluctant “British Springsteen” joined in at the microphone.

His own songs are small-town epics in which big feelings rub up against claustrophobic settings. They make strong use of tension-and-release dynamics, with drawn-out jangling riffs and surging passages of acceleration. Opening number “Will We Talk?”, from his 2019 debut Hypersonic Missiles, soundtracked the tale of a one-night stand with pell-mell drums and pounding guitars, a loud but curtailed act of escapism. “Getting Started”, from his latest album Seventeen Going Under, had a similar feeling of pulling on a leash, with Fender in the role of a teenager from a hard background determined not to give up. Guitars were to the fore: there were three players, including Fender, alongside the bassist, drummer and a horn section of trumpeter and saxophonist.

“Mantra” showcased a calmer side to his musical character with a tender guitar solo, a muscularly crying sax part and lyrics about anxiety. In contrast to Oasis’s belligerence or Arctic Monkeys’ dry wit, Fender has a sincere, heart-on-sleeve manner, characteristics shared with US blue-collar rockers. He sang with feeling, theatricalised by vibrato. Pyrotechnics, confetti and a punchy light show added arena effects to his exhilarating coming-of-age stories.

It was the second of two nights at the 10,000-capacity venue. Fender is at a sweet spot in his rising career, enacting on big stages his songs’ push-me-pull-me between pride in where he’s from and the desire to move beyond it. Keeping that balance going is the tricky part as success mounts and the small-town milieu recedes. It’s easier in the US, whose national culture romanticises class mobility, than the UK, which pays lip service to it. The imaginative catalyst of US heartland rock may prove sustaining to Fender in the long term too.

★★★★☆

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