On a quiet Sunday evening in Leeds, hundreds of adoring Miles Kane fans fled to the O2 Academy to watch him finally return to the stage after having to postpone this tour from February.
Kicking off proceedings tonight is female singer-songwriter Brooke Combe, her unique brand of indie rhythms crossed with a true soulful voice are perfect and get the hips of the Leeds crowd moving. Her popular cover of Arctic Monkeys’ track Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High goes down a real treat; obviously any AM song is going to hype up this crowd. There’s a real buzz around the place and when Combe finished her set, she for sure gained a number of new fans tonight.
Having had to wait a couple of extra months to see the Change The Show tour, the fans in Leeds are giving their all for a Sunday night and absolutely lose their shit when their hero Miles Kane takes to the stage. Opening with Don’t Let It Get You Down and the massive hit Rearrange, the crowd are bouncing and Kane and band are vibing from the energy.
“MILES, MILES, MILES FUCKING KANE!” bellow the Leeds mob and the good vibes keep coming through tracks Loaded and Change The Show, the latter we must point out showcasing perfect vocal harmonies between Kane and his on-stage backing vocalist, the incredibly talented Rahh. Her silky tones compliment Miles’ rhythmic twang bringing a real multi-dimensional feel to the whole live experience.
A real treat tonight was Leeds native Corinne Bailey Rae joining Miles and co on stage for the song Nothing’s Ever Gonna Be Good Enough from Miles’ latest album. This is the first time the two have performed the song live together and it went down a storm, there seemed to be a lot of chemistry on the stage too, hopefully, this means CBR might support Kane on a future tour, here’s to hoping!
It’s really not a show in Leeds if the crowd doesn’t scream Yorkshire, to which Kane responded with… “you know I’m a scouser right”… which obviously prompted the response “you scouse bastard!” which tied in perfectly with the fact he was about to cover a Beatles track, the brilliant Don’t Let Me Down.
As the gig draws to a close, the energy in the room does seem to drop a little, maybe people are suffering from Sunday night anxiety or it’s the fact that we’re all just older now and don’t like staying up too late. Colour Of The Trap and Standing Next To Me (cover of his own band The Last Shadow Puppets song) are two of the biggest sing-a-long tracks so far but its the two heavy hitters that closed the show that prompted the best reaction from the crowd. First up the huge Inhaler, the chorus a soaring echo of voices swirls around the venue but it’s Come Closer where everyone lost their shit. The track already has a party vibe to it but the infectious charisma of Kane and his band really bring it to life; there’s not a single person in the audience stood still.
All in all, for a quiet Sunday in May everyone is going home happy. There may be a few sore throats from singing and aching hips from dancing, but surely that just means everyone had a good time right? For obvious reasons, Miles Kane has seemed to be… pardon the pun… living in Alex Turner’s shadow, but now, four full length albums in and countless sold out tours, people are seeing MK for what he really is, a damn fine performer in his own right.
