Live Show: The Futureheads - 'Decent Days & Nights: The Singles'
- Tom Dawson
- Mar 11
- 5 min read
The Futureheads - 'Decent Days & Nights: The Singles' Tour
Location: Nottingham - Rock City
Date: 28th February 2025
Last week my wife was fortunate enough to receive guest-list tickets to see The Futureheads, as their guitarist, Ross Millard, is an old friend of hers from when she lived in the North-East of the UK. It turns out that my wife and I were both listening to them simultaneously during the naughties, albeit at hilariously different stages of life since the years between us were a little more conspicuous back then!
Their first three albums - 'The Futureheads' released in 2004, 'This Is Not The World' released in 2008 & 'The Chaos' released in 2010, intermittently soundtracked my secondary school years in the mid-to-late-naughties, swigging warm cider on a park listening to it through a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone, whereas my wife was at university and old enough to be out partying during the golden time for Indie/Post-Punk music. By the time I was going to live gigs, most bands from this time had either broken up, or were starting to experiment with a new sound, so to be able to see these guys play all their biggest hits live was a real treat.
Unfortunately we were running a little late as we had to put our son to bed and wait for our babysitter to arrive before leaving for the gig, but we managed to catch the final 3 songs from Nottingham based, Post-Punk quartet - Cucamaras.
I had never heard of the band before seeing them live, so their powerful performance definitely caught my attention and I've since found myself listening to them more and more. The three guitarists were bouncing about all over the stage and it certainly got the crowd warmed up for what was to come.
In an interview with NME in 2022, frontman Olly Bowley talks about the band's influences changing during the time of the pandemic, discovering artists like Baxter Dury, and Poets such as Patrick Kavanagh. This definitely comes through in the band's sound. I'd liken them to Yard Act, driving guitar riffs and vocal lines which flick between almost spoken word, and grabbing you by the scruff of your neck and screaming in your face. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more local live dates.
Next up was Du Blonde, a 6-piece outfit from the North-East of the UK. Again, I hadn't heard of them previous to this show, but I 100% left as a fan.
Its hard to pin down a specific genre for these guys, it's a real mix of Punk, Grunge & 80s Ballard-Rock. Each member of the band is a musician in their own right, with Beth Jeans Houghton taking the reigns as the creative force behind the project.
Seemingly a jack-of-all-trades, Houghton is an accomplished artist, animator, video director and composer, as well as being mint at music. Leave something for the rest of us, mate! They toured their first album extensively with their backing band, 'The Hooves of Destiny' across the UK & Europe, appearing at all the big festivals including Glanstonbury. Even being invited to perform on 'Later... with Jools Holland' in 2012. The list of artists they have performed with reads like a festival line-up: Bon Iver, Mumford & Sons, Gary Numan, Mystery Jets & Red Hot Chilli Peppers just to name a few.
Guitarist and backing vocalist, Cortney Dixon has also had successes as a solo artist, having featured on John Kennedy's X-Posure show on Radio X & taking to the stage at this year's SXSW Conference in Texas on Tuesday 11th March 2025.
They all do so much that there's not enough room in this post to talk about it, but they have come together to form a wicked group. Glamorous outfits from the whole band, and an infectious on-stage energy, especially from backing vocalist Robyn Walker, made this a recipe for a great show.
Now for the main event, opening their set with 'Beginning of the Twist' - it was immediately obvious that The Futureheads hadn't lost a single ounce of their passion for these songs. I don't know if it was the sound engineer, or the fact that the band have been playing these songs for 2 decades, or both. But they sounded better than their recordings.
The on-stage chemistry that they still have is amazing, interacting with the crowd, sharing funny anecdotes from their tours, it was just a riot from start to finish. One such anecdote was from their 2004 tour of the US with Scottish band, Franz Ferdinand, where the drummer of FF decided to pick apart the opening lyrics of 'Decent Days and Nights'. Remarking that it didn't make sense as there were no clues, to which Barry politely told him where to go.
"This is a brand new problem, a problem without any clues, If you know the clues, it's easy to get through" - He might have a point though Baz... Sorry. It's a banger regardless.
Later in the set the band performed an a-capella cover of the song, 'Beeswing' by Richard Thompson, taken from their entirely a-capella album 'RANT' - released in 2014. Barry explained this project started as Jo Whiley had invited them back onto her radio show in 2012 to perform a new cover, following the success of 'Hounds of Love' back in 2005, which debuted on her Radio 1 show at the time. And the band decided it would be a fun experiment to do the whole new cover without any instrumentation. I couldn't find a video of the original Radio 1 show, so here's one I found of them performing it on BBC Northern Ireland;
If you've been a fan of the band for a while you'll know that they're no strangers to a-capella, as it features heavily in their work throughout the years, but in more fleeting moments, with the exception of 'Hounds of Love' in which it plays a big part. Apparently it took them 4 hours to record 'Beeswing' in Barry's dining room as it's entirely one take, however it was probably take 537 that made the cut.
There were a couple of other a-capella songs at the end of the set, but I didn't catch the names of both of them. One was 'The Old Dun Cow', but it looks like I'll have to indulge in the whole album to find the other at some point.
From start to finish the guys comanded the stage with a presence that only 20 years in the game will get you. The music still resonating with fans, new and old. A truly brilliant show and hopefully, not the last. Unfortunately, this tour ended on 2nd March in Newcastle, but keep and eye on their website & socials for any future tour dates. In the meantime, the band have compiled all the songs from the tour into a handy playlist;
I just want to take the opportunity to thank Ross, Barry, Dave and Jaff for the tickets incase they read this. We both really enjoyed the show and picked up a signed vinyl on the way out, which has already found its way onto my display shelves here at Loud Noises HQ.
Socials;
Instagram: @thefutureheads
Website: https://www.thefutureheads.com
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