Heritage Live 2023: Razorlight

Heritage Live:

Heritage Live have become experts at creating line-ups that flow seamlessly from top to bottom, and tonight may be their best work yet. A perfectly curated line-up contained four of the UK's best early 2000's bands, all of whom have received huge resurgences in recent years. The night's headliners were indie giants Razorlight, who delivered an epic set crammed full of non-stop hits. Embrace were second on the bill, providing a huge sounding set of late-ninety, early-noughties brilliance that puts them in perfect stead ahead of their 'The Good Will Out' 25th anniversary tour. The Feeling provided a feel-good set that had everyone dancing with huge smiles on their face, whilst Toploader opened the day with their upbeat indie-pop greatness. This was a day that had your eyes glued to the stage from start to finish due to breathtaking indie brilliance. Scroll to read our thoughts on the night's individual sets.

Razorlight:

Any band that can have a hiatus and come back with as much conviction as Razorlight have, deserve to be topping bills. After fully reforming the bands most commercially successful line-up in 2021 Razorlight have gone from strength to strength. They have never shied away from showing confidence, but when their live shows are as good as this one, who can blame them.

Opening their sit with 'Rip It Up', the energy from stage was instantly felt across Audley End, and it didn't take long for the hits to be brought out to make this energy skyrocket. 'In the Morning', 'Stumble and Fall', and 'Golden Touch' all came early in the set, being met with by far the loudest singalongs of the day. Lead singer Johnny Borrell is a man of few words on stage but brings so much energy that he has to be considered as one of the best frontmen around today. His Jagger-esque dancing, met with his high-octane guitar playing and catchy lyrics is so infectious

The hits continued throughout the set, proving Razorlight must be one of the most underrated bands this country have produced. You end up forgetting just how many huge hits they have released; it was so easy to be completely engrossed by their music. Huge songs like 'Vice', 'Wire to Wire' and 'Before I Fall To Pieces' were scattered throughout the set meaning every second was can't miss. 

The main set closed with a rousing rendition of 'Somewhere Else', before 'Don't Go Back to Dalston' opened the encore. During the final solo in 'Don't Go Back to Dalston' Borrell took to the mic to remind everyone that Razorlight "do this all on their own, just 5 men playing their heart out, with no gimmicks, and no bulls**t", and that really does sum the band up superbly. They embrace the rawness that can come with rock music, and make it sound incredible. The encore closed with a brilliant rendition of Good Night' followed by the band's biggest commercial hit 'America', before taking in the mass adoration from the crowd

Embrace:

Before they head out on tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of debut album 'The Good Will Out', Embrace have been playing a number of special festival shows, including this special guest slot at Heritage Live. The band have a huge loyal fan base, and with the number of Embrace shirts around you would be excused for thinking they were the night's headliners

Storming onto the stage with an epic performance of 'All You Good Good People`, Embrace immediately had the attention of everyone in attendance. Lead singer Danny McNamara encouraged the audience to move from their seats and come down the front to "join in the gig", creating a huge pit of people lapping up every word that left his mouth.

Embrace sound near perfect to their studio recordings, with hits like 'We Are It' and 'Come Back to What you Know' blowing the crowd away. After a stellar performance of 'Nature's Law' it was time for Embrace's guitarist, and Danny's brother Richard McNamara to take centre stage, providing lead vocals for their huge sounding track 'Refugees', before Danny came back on stage to create the most stunning harmony for the final chorus

The stage presence of the McNamara brothers shone throughout, being complimented by the incredible musical craftmanship of bassist Steve Firth, drummer Mike Heaton and keys player Mickey Dale. Songs like 'Keeping' and 'Gravity' really showed the band at their best, with Danny again encouraging everyone to get out their seats and come dance. He really could get movement out of a rock he is that personable on stage

Penultimate song 'Ashes' had the large crowd that had now gathered bouncing up and down in unison, before 'The Good Will Out' ended the most brilliant set filled with post-britpop bangers. Embrace's winter tour will be must-see action

The Feeling:

By the time the second band of the day The Feeling took to the stage, the sun was out everyone was warmed up, and the stage was set for an hour of feel-good brilliance. There were potential stumbling blocks laid out with lead singer Dan Gillespie Sells suffering from a cold, yet he powered through to deliver the most brilliant vocals and stage presence throughout. Another potential stumbling block was the absence of the band's bassist Richard Jones for this gig, however again The resiliency of The Feeling shone through with Iain Hornal, a touring member of 10cc and Jeff Lynne's ELO, stepping up for bass duties.

As you may have guessed by now this was very much a set about overcoming odds and yet The Feeling smashed it out the park in every conceivable way. The band opened their set with the most brilliant sounding rendition of 'I Thought It Was Over', yet it was revealed when the song finished that Dan's guitar wasn't working throughout as he joked I have been playing a guitar part for 20 years that is clearly not needed".

The Feeling weren't afraid to get their big hitters out early with 'Fill My Little World' and 'Never Be Lonely' coming next, the latter saw Gillespie Sells split the audience in half for a singalong with a twist. Each section was given a different note to sing creating the most stunning audience choir. 

Other highlights of the set included the explanation of how one of the band's most stunning song 'Rosé' came to be.  When writing their debut album, the band went to Tesco to try and find cheap alcohol. When they got there they saw Rosé was on a 2-for-1 offer, and being the insanely talented musicians they are, they managed to turn this into one of their most emotional and meaningful songs.

A cover of Buggles' 'Video Killed the Radio Star' and a performance of 'Everybody's Talking About Jamie', the title track of a musical written by Dan Gillespie Sells, received huge responses from the audience. 'Sewn' and 'Love It When You Call' were the set closers, bringing the end to the most fun and energetic set. The feeling really are riding the waves of their revival and the UK scene is so much better for it.

Toploader:

Toploader opened the day at Audley End by prove to everyone just how good a band they really are. Drawing a huge crowd, the band themselves joked that everyone was only there for 'Dancing in the Moonlight'. However, those who arrived early were blessed with so much more. An hour set of indie-pop brilliance flew by consisting of top-tier original music intertwined amongst some very special covers.

Opening their set with 'A Balance to All Things', Toploader instantly received a huge reception from the crowd, which would just grow more and more throughout the next hour. 'Roll With the Punches' and the ever brilliant 'Achilles Heel' came next, being played to perfection, before the band showcased a new song 'Sleepyhead, If thiswas a sneak peek into the direction Toploader are heading in, then this could be
the best music Toploader have made in decades, if not potentially ever. It is a modern take on early noughties nostalgia.

Lead singer Joseph Washbourn then took to the mic asking the crowd if they wanted to hear a song about the moon, before jokingly
saying "well it's not that one, but if you are under 30 then we wrote this one" leading the band into a stellar cover of The Waterboys 'The Whole of the Moon' which had anyone still left seating firmly up on their feet.

Highlights of the next part of the set included another briliant new song 'Signs of Life' which featured something "no band has ever done before...a sing-along section". Another highlight was the brilliant cover of
Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer'.

The set, as you would expect, closed with the bands worldwide smash-hit cover of 'Dancing in the Moonlight'. It has become near impossible to talk about Toploader as a band without mentioning this song, and it being played live it fully lived up to expectation, but it was only the icing on a cake filled with some of the most brilliant and underappreciated indie-pop music.