Playing a show at Manchester’s stunning Albert Hall venue, to me, is always a pivotal in an artist’s career and more times than not is a significant point in a musicians rise to the top. That being said, when I heard Thomas Headon had pencilled in a special show at the famous Manchester venue, I was excited from the get-go. I was lucky enough to witness the Australian born singer-songwriter play a special show in Manchester last year at the Manchester O2 Ritz where I detailed how this young talent has such an adoring and loving fanbase, and It’s only grown since then. Since his last tour the indie-pop sensation has played a string of festivals across the UK, announced a joint US tour with fellow rising artist Alfie Templeman and has a highly anticipated single ‘Georgia’ releasing in the next week. Thomas Headon now finds himself knee deep into his biggest headlining UK tour yet. Support for the night came from the incredible Harriette and Will Joseph Cook.
It was an interesting start to the show as the beautiful Albert Hall venue faded into darkness, the sounds of Frank Sinatra’s ‘New York, New York’ filled the venue and with the reaction that it drew from the near-sold out crowd in Manchester it certainly felt like we had been teleported into a sold-out Madison Sqaure Garden. Thomas then graced the stage to greet the fans in attendance and kicked the night off with ‘How do I know’, and it wasn’t long before Thomas Headon made this one of the most chaotic shows I’d seen in recent memory. During this first song Thomas would climb onto one of the speakers onstage and make his way up to the upper seating/balcony area that surrounds the standing section, holding onto one lucky girls’ hand for stability as he serenaded her and the crowd were sent into a frenzy, it was pure chaos and everyone loved it. This was just the beginning of the fan interactions for this show, in his third song ‘Butterflies’ Thomas Headon made his way off stage and into the photopit to get up-close with those who had queued for hours in the Manchester streets to get the sacred barrier spot and he stood right Infront of them and continued performing. Thomas Headon would go on to perform his soon to be released track ‘Georgia’ alongside a string of amazing cover songs which Harry Styles’ ‘Fine Line’, Taylor Swift’s ‘You Belong with me’ and even covered ‘Sex’ from Manchester’s very own The 1975. As the night continued Thomas Headon played fan favourites like ‘Urban Angel 1999’ and ‘Clean Me Up’. By the time the show had finished it was quite clearly apparent that Thomas Headon had blown the roof off of this iconic venue and is continuing to make his rise to the top.
THOMAS HEADON
Photos + Review by Lewis Roberts | Exclusively for Music, Why Not!