ENGLISH TEACHER, WAR CHILD DAY OF THE GIRL

PHOTO GALLERY | ENGLISH TEACHER | HANGAR 34, LIVERPOOL | 10th October 2025 by Lucy McLachlan

War Child’s Day of the Girl concert series brought Leeds based band, English Teacher to Liverpool for a very special intimate evening raising funds for girls and women living through conflict.

War Child is a charity working to protect, educate and stand up for the rights of children living in war zones globally. For their 4th year of fundraising gigs Girli and Katy J Pearson headlined venues in London whereas English Teacher is the first Day of The Girl concert to be held outside of the capital.

Between sets War Child reps came on stage to tell the crowd why we’re all here this evening with a bit of background about the concert series. We’re told that 612 million women and girls worldwide are living in conflict zones, facing violence, equality and trauma. A staggering 50% increase on a decade ago. A sign is brought onstage and everyone is encouraged to get their phones out and donate for the cause. Each ticket and sale of an exclusive English Teacher event t-shirt only available on the night goes to girls living in war zones and we’re told there’s already only 5 t-shirts left even before the main act.

The night of the gig is release day for This Could Be A Remix Album a reworking and remixing of English Teacher’s 2024 Mercury Winning debut This Could Be Texas.  Featuring a stacked list of contributors including Fontaines DC, Daniel Avery, Matt Maltese, Working Men’s Club and Baxter Dury. Which you’d think would be huge deal for a Mercury winning act, but not a word was spoken about the album all night. There were bigger topics at stake as this was a night to stand up for the rights and futures of girls worldwide not a release party.

English Teacher played a beautiful set comprising of most songs from This Could Be Texas apart from ‘A55’ from 2022’s Polyawkward. Then also including new song ‘Toothpick’ introduced as being about “that one time a shark bit off my leg”. Singer Lily Fontaine appearing gracious and charming throughout even taking a break mid set to take a bow to the audience, her voice is understated but powerful. ‘Albert Road’ closed a very successful night with no encore, but after the set we heard what else was left to play? It was one of those rare sets where you get to hear everything you wanted.

Near the end of the set Fontaine informed us that the night had raised £14,000 and all t-shirts had sold out. Thanking Neve Cariad for coming along, she informed us that they got to curate the line up and chose Neve for being an inspiration.

Welsh born, Leeds based Neve Cariad started off playing to a handful of people as the crowd started building throughout her set. Carid’s style are beautifully haunting vocals which reverb around the room, and laid back 60s Folk Americana featuring slide guitars which culminated into an all out crescendo of a jam at the end of her set.

We must admit we were worried about how well attended this would be. Known as a music city, a lot of Liverpool gigs these days from alternative artists tend not to be big sellers unless the artist is from the region. If this would have been in Manchester we’d be looking at a packed out house especially on an album release day whether that would have been the main focus or not.

After speaking with War Child rep Sophie after the show, she told us that their Day of the Girl gigs have always been London based. However, as The Brit Awards are in Manchester next year, they are hoping to look at Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle as potential hosts in their 5th year. Tonight was the warm up for perhaps a Northern takeover in 2026 and we’re looking forward to it.