The Lathums
The Lathums are in Town, that’s the Lathums, but not as we say it round here (down South, in Norwich). You see they are from Wigan (up North), so they say it as The Lath-ums. Get it?
I must confess, I was a year late getting into them, 2022 was my own personal discovery year for their debut album, How Beautiful Life Can Be, and it was my soundtrack as I pounded round the streets, roads, lanes and fields close to home for my London Marathon training during last summer and into the early Autumn. At times, I felt like I was almost skipping round on those, sometimes rather arduous runs as I listened to this masterpiece through my headphones. It was a quite wonderful discovery and easily my most listened to album of the year.
Imagine my excitement then recently at seeing that they were rather unbelievably playing in Norwich and at the Waterfront at that! I mean it’s not even the biggest venue in our Fine City! I thought that they had by now already passed the City’s venues by, such is their status. By comparison they are playing Heaton Park in the summer to an eight thousand strong sell-out crowd.
Fair play to the boys as they head out around the country playing some other similar size venues on this current tour promoting the new, but very capable, difficult follow up (second) album Nothing To A Little Bit More. That’s now two number one albums on the bounce for them, a feat that hasn’t been achieved by many other bands over the years.
It’s fair to say that I have been looking forward to this evening for months.
Pre gig, there was some quite fabulous warm up music on the turntable to really help in getting the crowd going, with some Smiths, Gerry Cinnamon and Sam Fender along with some classic Northern Soul, all really helping to get us in the mood. But there was also an overriding air of tension and just as we were literally a couple of minutes away from the gig starting, a fight broke out to my right. Rather sadly another one started up towards the latter stages of the gig as the band came out for the encore! This time it was a different group that started this particular commotion and once again it had been coming for a while, thankfully both incidents were soon stopped in their tracks by the security team. But it’s just so disappointing to be out on a night out at a gig to see your current favourite band, yet all the time feel rather anxious that anytime soon, it’s all going to kick off and result in someone getting a smack on the nose! I have been gigging in Norwich for forty-five years now and I have never ever seen a scrap occur at a gig in all of this time, let alone two in one night! It was an absolute disgrace to see behaviour like this by those involved and I hope that they never cross the border back into Norfolk again. Shame on them! Please don’t come back.
Lead singer, Alex Moore is very quick to heap some embarrassment on those involved as they re-enter the stage for the encore, “hey, hey”, he shouts from the stage, “what’s going on, were all here to have a nice time aren’t we”?
Thankfully, it was enough to stop the louts in their tracks, but it still leaves you on edge and takes the shine off of what was a very fine performance.
So, did Wigan’s finest sons live up to my expectations then? Well, they certainly managed the sound quality at The Waterfront very well that’s for sure, something that many bands find difficult to master with its extremely low ceilings, they were note perfect both musically and vocally and Moore is without doubt a very fine vocalist and indeed the band are super talented musicians, they really are already a very accomplished outfit.
Moore looks like a seventy’s throwback in his dad’s short sleeved shirt (ha-ha), he is himself a thoroughly charming young man, that’s super polite. It’s a really great mix of a set list tonight.
They burst onto the small stage and straight into Say My Name, a song that already has the crowd singing at the top of their voices, it’s taken from the new album but fits very snugly alongside the older material as do the other new tracks that follow, Land and Sky, Lucky Bean, I Know Pt 1, Turmoil, Rise and Fall, that’s followed by Sad Face Baby and then the excellent Struggle. There is also some room for the earlier songs, such as The Great Escape and How Beautiful Life Can Be.
All My Life surely has to be one of the greatest British songs written during this past decade, it’s absolutely beautiful, oh it’s so totally amazing, what a joy of a song. Such is their class, their quality and their strength in depth within their catalogue already, that it doesn’t feature on either album. The Lathums just ooze so much quality in abundance.
They close with Artificial Screens, its electric in here right now and so good to see it performed live tonight and to also witness live, Ryan Durrans epic drumming skills particularly towards its close.
They have done extremely well to maintain the same brilliant form that was shown in their debut, that’s for sure. It was a really good gig but overall, I just felt that they are a band that’s more deserving of a bigger venue and if we are fortunate enough to have them back in the future, I hope that they play at the UEA or maybe even Earlham Park on a heady summers evening.
