“I thought Nottingham was a made up place...” jokes Ron Pope, on a tour that has hopefully cured him of that misconception, having toured six venues around the north and midlands.

Returning to these shores for the second time this year, the independent artist has recently released a new single ‘Nothing’ which features Leeds based singer, Hannah Trigwell. The song is a rerecording of a track from his most recent album ‘Calling Off The Dogs’, and, on Friday 25th July, he brought it to the crowds of Leeds at the Brudenell Social Club.

Though, perhaps, better known for his country rock sound, this newest album has a variety of different influences he was quick to showcase. After arriving on stage the band launched immediately in to the record’s opening track, ‘Lick My Wounds’, with Ron bursting in from the back just in time join in with the opening vocals. The smoke machine kicked in, giving some visual reference to the night club style atmosphere of the song, the MGMT style keyboard picks up, and the crowd got moving.

From there Ron whisked the crowd through some of the infectious and energetic country rock of his back catalogue, pulling in the tight knit group of fans, almost nose to nose at the front of the stage. The set also drew heavily upon his new work, with ‘Calling Off The Dogs’ featuring prominently in the form of ‘Let’s Go Back To Bed’, building from its simple, catchy piano opening to an epic riff at the song’s climax, and the heavy, crunching guitars of ‘New Friends’, though sadly, album highlight ‘Silver Spoon’, which could have lead to one hell of a sing along, didn’t feature.

And it was fantastic to see Hannah Trigwell perform at her homecoming gig. ‘Nothing’, a touching piano based duet about the breakup of a relationship gave ‘Leeds’ favourite export’ (as Ron calls her) a chance to shine as brightly as the headline act. The powerful vocals of Alexz Johnson from the album version are replaced by Hannah’s more delicate tone, giving the song a much more fragile edge when coupled with the raw desperation of the lyrics.

Ron Pope
Ron Pope

There was also something of a celebratory mood, as Ron took time out of the set to lead the room in a chorus of ‘happy birthday’ for his drummer, as well as treating the audience to a taste of his next album (scheduled to come out “sometime before I die” he laughed), with a new acoustic number, ‘Hotel Room’.

The biggest cheer of the night, however, was reserved for the set closer; internet hit ‘A Drop In The Ocean’. The song, whilst a gentler finale, when compared to other songs in the set, got the crowd singing, and finished the show with an almost tangible sense of unity between the band and the audience.

A show with great energy and a fine balance between the rock and the softer ballads.

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