The Levellers / Vaillant Live / Derby
A short trip along the A52 Brian Clough Way to Derby and a first visit to the magnificent new Vaillant Live on Colyear Street to see The Levellers live.
First up in support is a set from Leicester born singer-songwriter Grace Petrie, who has released 10 albums from 2006’s self-titled debut to 2024’s “Build Something Better”. A folk singer in the vein of the likes of Billy Bragg and Beans on Toast, with a social conscious and ethos at the heart of her writings.
What sets Grace apart is her almost stand up comic stage persona, chatting and laughing with the audience between each song. Introducing herself from Leicester some of the derby crowd booed to which she retorted ‘for fucks sake at least I didn’t say. I was from the West Midlands’. Her sharp wit a really highlight of her act.
The songs are a wonderful mix of social observations on the world around us today and the political landscape, and humorous songs about her own life and experiences.
The song Ivy is a great example, as she explains to the crowd about how she was at Glastonbury when she was told her sister was going into labour. She explains about the long journey back to Leicester and the acts she would miss, and then her sister’s labour took 48 hours, and a humorous sense of being the one that missed out! A funny track and a loving tribute to her new niece.
Farewell to Welfare is a heartfelt political song about the NHS and welfare state. The set ends with another personal track Northbound about her travels across Canada, and the convoluted and winding route she took.
Grace is a huge talent, with a fantastic voice. A thoroughly entertaining introduction to the night.
Setlist (part)
Ivy
Farewell to Welfare
Black Tie
Northbound
The stage is prepared, the instruments sound checked and tuned and then it’s time for the smoke to pour out and the lights to dim ready for the arrival on stage of The Levellers.
Formed back in 1988 in Brighton, The Levellers are an anarcho-punk, folk-rock band. They have released 13 studio albums from 1990’s debut “A Weapon Called the Word” to 2023’s “Together All the Way”.
Tonight we’re here to mark the 30th anniversary of the release of their classic album “Zeitgeist” which came out in 1995. As they took to the stage top huge applause from the Derby crowd, they ran through “Zeitgeist” from start to finish, opening with The Fear.
Next up is, in my opinion, one of the best songs to come out of the 1980’s, the emotional and politically charged Hope Street, a powerful inditement of the reality of growing up on the inner city streets of Briton at that time, and yet still so relevant and powerful today.
The band, dressed in their overalls with slogans and Mark Chadwick in his iconic pork pie style hat own the stage, with a huge painted backdrop from the “Zeitgeist” artwork designed by Jez. The huge lighting rig fires up dramatically for Exodus, which continues the sonic barrage. The pace drops for a while with more casual Maid Of The River, before Saturday To Sunday start to build the energy levels again reaching a peak with the fearsome Alive. The crowd is a great mix, of long time Levellers fans, and younger fans, but everyone enjoying every second of the performance.
What I love about these kinds of shows, playing through a whole album, you get to hear live tracks you rarely hear otherwise, here in the form of gems like Fantasy and the venomous PC Keen. We get another short breather in the form of Haven’t Made It gives everyone in the room time to catch their breath, before the punk angst of Leave This Town and the power and beauty of Men-an-Tol bring the curtain down on the run through of “Zeitgeist”.
But there’s more, there’s still some time for some classics and the main set comes to a close with Carry Me from 1989’s “An Agreement of the People” and powerful “The Cholera Well” from 2008’s “Letters from the Underground”.
The Vaillant Live was jumping, The Levellers have always been great performers, who deliver high energy entertainment that gets the crowd rocking.
The band returned for a three song encore consisting of Four Boys Lost from 2020’s “Peace” The Roadand finally The Riverflow both from 1991’s “Levelling the Land”.
With so many classic tracks, there’s bound to be favourites missing, and for me, I would love to have heard What a Beautiful Day and my favourite Levellers song 15 Years but, that’s just me, and in all honestly, getting g the chance to hear “Zeitgeist” played through in it’s entirety, is an experience not to miss !
As always The Levellers deliver banger after banger to the delight of the packed house. Just as powerful, as raw and emotional as ever, the Levellers remain as relevant today as ever.
Setlist
The Fear
Hope St.
Exodus
Maid of the River
Saturday to Sunday
Alive
Forgotten Ground
Fantasy
P.C. Keen
Just the One
Haven't Made It
Leave This Town
Men-an-Tol
Jig
One Way
Carry Me
The Cholera Well
Encore:
Four Boys Lost
The Road
The Riverflow
