The Beat Surrender

Recently I went to Leeds University to watch The Feeling, supported by Palladium. Palladium are a pop/rock band in much the same style as The Feeling, so I felt that the right band had been picked.

As Palladium walked out to open the night the only thoughts running through my head were, this band are trying too hard! The four piece consists of Peter Pepper on bass and vocals, Rostas Fez on lead guitar, Rufio Sandilands on the keyboard and Rocky Morris on drums. Dress wise all of them looked like they were trying just that bit too much to be different from every other rock/pop band out at the moment.

For me the thing that made this band standout wasn’t their unusual dress sense it was the amazing guitar playing provided by Rostas Fez (known as Fez to most fans). The two tracks that really stood out for me were the last track they played I Can’t Wait For The Summer which they seemed to extend for a good extra five minuets, which pleased most of the crowd because of the exciting keyboard playing. The other track that stood out was High 5 capped off with Fez doing a guitar solo that greats such as Jimi Hendrix would have been proud of. I would give this band 6 out of 10.

Next up were the headlines, The Feeling. It appeared that the 1,800 crowd eagerly anticipating the opening gig of the tour couldn’t wait for the band to come out. Once they did come out they were not disappointed with the strobe lights flashing and the music playing they opened the night with the new release I Thought It Was Over which to me sounds so much better live, because to be honest I didn’t rate this as high as previously released singles.

I was happy with how the night started, I was also not surprised to see Dan Gillespie Sells hasn’t given up on his drinking on stage since the last tour. The vodka bottle attached to the side of the piano, that man really knows how to party. Next up was Fill My Little World, the older songs always seem to work better at gigs perhaps because the crowd can easily sing along and this one did exactly that. For me the older tracks were the stronger of the evening, including Never Be Lonely where Dan spilt the crowd into two and got them to join in with the singing. He really is a showman and engaged with the crowd throughout the whole night.

Strange was also on the set which I was pleased with because Dan got onto the piano for this one. Another good track was Sewn, where the crowd sang the whole of the intro. Another surprise of the night was when The Feeling went off stage and came back on in an unusual way, through the crowd with all of the band carrying different types of drums to lead onto their next song.

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