The Script @ Shepherds Bush Empire, 19th June 2009

Non-music-related eardrum damage


The Script were doing a 5 night residency at the SBE in London – I have to admit that I was surprised that they were able to sell out 5 gigs just coming off the back of a UK tour, but apparently I underestimated their fan base. I have a couple of friends who are huge fans of the Script and had been to a number of the nights and I joined them (at the front of the queue :-)) for the last gig of the run. The fans seemed to be mostly (but not exclusively) young and female and quite screamy being at the barrier was a bit of a mixed blessing – my ears were shot this time not from the volume of the music but the volume of the screaming…

Anyway, first things first. There were 2 support acts and this time I managed to catch both of them. The first was a band called Officer Kicks who I liked but they were probably a little bit too rocky for my tastes. The lead singer was pretty funny though and the bass player was certainly easy on the eye ;) and I enjoyed their set.


Next up quite randomly was my old friend VV Brown. I’d found out she was supporting earlier that week and her and her band turned in the best performance I’ve seen them do. If I’m honest, I was probably more excited to see them than The Script – I love their set and the songs demand that you dance around like a bit of a loony (and possible hand jive). VV did less in the way of percussion bashing and decided against shoes but her vocals sounded great. The band were as excellent as usual, although I had the embarrassment of the John the keyboard player recognising me (I have seen them 5 times now, but that’s not entirely my fault). Shark in the Water deserves to be a summer hit (it’s due out 6th July and you can see the video here), but my current favourite is Everybody – I’m really looking forward to the album coming out later in the year.


So now to the main event. I was particularly pleased to hear a song by The Feeling (it was Sewn in case you’re interested) on the filler music while we waited for The Script to come on, and even more pleased to hear the large group of girls behind me singing along – hurry up with the third album boys!! Sorry, got a bit distracted there. When The Script finally came on the reaction was huge – screaming, cheering, clapping… a huge wall of noise. Much of it was for the lead singer Danny (although I have to say that I thought he was more attractive on film than in person) – pants were thrown on stage and everything – and when he leapt into the crowd on the shoulders of one of his roadies (that man deserves a medal) I thought he was going to get torn apart.

I had only downloaded The Script’s album the week of the gig so I probably need to give it a few more listens but I definitely enjoyed the big singles – of which there are several – to their album tracks. My friend had said that they have a 59 minutes set and she’s pretty much right. As they have only released one album they don’t have a huge amount of material yet and I suspect their set will improve when they have a few more songs to choose from and they can drop some of the weaker numbers. However, they really rocked the house throughout and numbers like Breakeven and The Man Who Can’t Be Moved were fairly epic.

Throughout the gig all the members of the band kept saying how grateful they were to the fans and how much they appreciated their support, and they really looked like they meant it. It was unfortunate, then, that they sped out of the venue from another different door about 2 hours after the gig finished without stopping to say hi to the fans who had been waiting by the stage door. I understand that the band are usually excellent with their fans but I daresay that‘s not much consolation to the people who had been waiting. If they hadn’t been planning to come out then they could have easily sent someone out earlier to tell the fans and there would have been no harm done. As it was they apparently received some boos and upset some kids, which doesn’t sound very clever to me. I had already dashed off by this point to catch my last train but I wouldn’t have been best pleased.

Despite that I have to say that I enjoyed the gig and the band are great musicians. I would definitely see them again and I wish they were supporting Take That when I see them instead of Lady GaGa, but I guess you can’t have everything.

The Script’s debut album is out now