VNV Nation

When most bands say that, it’s debateable whether they’re being genuine or not, but when Ronan Harris from VNV Nation says something, he means it from the bottom of his heart. VNV Nation are arguably the biggest name in EBM, producing uplifting dark dance synth pop for nearly 30 years and playing to thousands at festivals on the continent. This is why no one in the gothic community in our humble little city could quite believe it when they announced a Norwich date. Every goth for a 30 mile radius pinched themselves and half-believed it to be a printing error. Our utter disbelief was obvious even when the band entered the stage, as the VNV frontman kept reassuring us that yes, they were really there and that yes, they were loving every second as much as we were. A friend ran past me to the front of the crowd exclaiming “VNV are in Norwich!! Squeeeeeeeee!!” and that delighted attitude continued all night.

 “This is going to be a fun show!” “Less talking, more dancing!” “Keep it up, we’ll get through this!” Ronan shouted, as they played nearly three hours of material from their entire back catalogue, no support band required. And keep up they did. Everyone, EVERYONE was dancing, singing, whooping and generally grinning from ear-to-ear throughout the evening as the nicest man in dark electronica told us all how awesome we were, how lucky they were to be playing here and how beautiful the evening was. Pure joy was pouring off the stage and the audience was beaming, in spite of being dressed in black (anyone who is still of the misinformed opinion that goths are miserable just need to watch the crowd at a VNV gig).

Evenings like this are one of the multitude of reasons I love Norwich – the sense of community, the acceptance of different folks and the fact that Norwich is so awesome that EBM icons VNV Nation wanted to play here.