COURTEENERS – GOD BLESS THE BAND LEEDS REVIEW |

REVIEW | FIRST DIRECT BANK ARENA | LEEDS

Last night at the First Direct Bank Arena saw the beginning of Courteeners’ God Bless The Band tour, a six-concert run across UK arenas. It marks twenty years since the formation of the group and celebrates their career-spanning best-of compilation album. I’ve never been a huge fan of the Courteeners. I’ve photographed them many times but never really stayed for a full set. This time, I couldn’t resist giving them another whirl, eager to uncover the magic behind their fiercely loyal fanbase. Not only that, but the band have clearly enjoyed consistent commercial success, selling more than one million albums in the UK, with each of their last five albums reaching the Top 5. In 2023, St Jude completed an extraordinary journey to the top of the charts, reaching Number One fifteen years after its original release.

The thing that first impressed me, even before I set foot in the arena, was the strong presence of Courteeners fans in most of the pubs. Leeds is such a bloody Northern city that it even makes me sound posh, and that’s a miracle. We were having a drink, and Courteeners songs were already playing, with everyone completely into it, dancing about and singing as if their lives depended on it. We’d not even stepped foot inside the arena at this point. Normally, people like this drive me fucking crazy, especially when you take into account the fact that I’m now 45, and getting me out of the house after 6 pm in winter is almost impossible. I’m fully committed to my annual hibernation, seventeen blankets deep, treating bras like a human rights violation and existing solely as a low-power-mode human who only responds to the arrival of a Costa Uber Eats delivery.

Against every instinct I possess, I went in anyway. The evening started with The Guest List, and I’ve been watching the Manchester five-piece since the beginning of their career. They are still pretty young but already have their debut album, Something Real, under their belt, with its raw, guitar-fuelled sound complementing the night perfectly. The line-up felt very deliberate here. Good booking. Their performance had plenty of those frantic, insistent choruses, and they played with the authority of a band that has spent countless nights on festival stages and in venues across the country. I can’t stress enough the importance of giving upcoming acts opportunities like this, where they can develop the attitude and confidence necessary for playing the big rooms. They carried themselves well in the support slot and delivered an impressive opening set.

Then The Lathums got going, and fuck me, did it get hot real quick. There’s talent by the bucketload here. They are ace at playing live shows and, with two Number One UK albums under their belt, they certainly packed out the room tonight. Their hits from both How Beautiful Life Can Be and From Nothing To A Little Bit More had everyone singing along with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for headliners. Lead vocalist Alex Moore can perform, no question. He delivers those vocals with incredible power, and the melody-driven indie sound the band creates serves as a seamless transition into the evening’s main event. Another reminder of just how strong the North West guitar scene remains. If you like this sort of singalong indie, I can see why this line-up would be absolute fire.

Once The Lathums had finished their set, Courteeners took to the stage at 9 pm. Twenty years on from their first performances, Liam Fray and his band remain true to the straightforward attitude that once made them the biggest draw in British indie rock. What started in the small rooms of Manchester has progressed to arena shows, but they have not forgotten what made those early performances special. The set leaned heavily into the best-of material while still giving space to newer songs featured on God Bless The Band. Classics from St Jude stood alongside more recent anthems, and the fans got into it the way a Courteeners crowd always does, hands in the air, voices at full volume, giving it absolutely everything. Mind you, it didn’t blow my mind, but that was only because I didn’t know many of the songs. If I knew the songs better, I’d have been screaming along like a caffeinated karaoke champ.

Live, they remain a band that thrives on the energy of the crowd. The fans didn’t stay seated or still for a second. Fray’s voice cut through cleanly, the guitars stayed sharp and driving, and the rhythm section locked everything in place so the bigger moments landed properly. An acoustic section early on offered a different texture before the full band kicked back in. International appeared for the first time in years, and a cover of James’s Sit Down briefly turned the arena into one shared moment. The bigger singles did exactly what they always do. Not Nineteen Forever, Are You in Love with a Notion?, and the rest turned the floor into one giant singalong. There was no coasting; the band played with the same urgency they always have, and the crowd matched them every step of the way.

“Twenty years on, they remain one of the few British bands who can make a cold November night in Leeds feel like the centre of the universe.”

As a tour opener, it did the job. The supports fitted perfectly, the setlist balanced nostalgia with material from the new compilation, and Leeds responded as though it wanted the remaining dates, Cardiff, Liverpool, London, Glasgow and Birmingham, to follow exactly the same pattern. Twenty years in, Courteeners still know how to fill an arena with their own people and make it feel like a proper night out. The pub singalongs beforehand only underlined it.

SET LIST

1. Are You in Love With a Notion?

2. Cavorting

3. No You Didn’t, No You Don’t

4. You Overdid It Doll

5. Plus One Forever

6. Solitude of the Night Bus

7. Bide Your Time

8. Acrylic

9. Take Over the World

10. Winter Wonderland

11. Please Don’t