'Ticket's There' – Irish and International Music Blog

Re-capturing youth? Nah; TURN fans are still too young to worry about such things. It was only seven years since their last show together and most of us remember it like it was yesterday. In their time, TURN managed to release three critically acclaimed albums, achieve success both at home and in the U.K. with fiery, brooding heavy singles such as ‘Beretta’ and ‘Beeswax’, sell out almost every venue Dublin had to offer and tour the country relentlessly, assuring their place in Irish music history. Now they’re back (for a little while at least) to play a much anticipated show at this year’s Electric Picnic and tonight’s ’secret’ warm up show.

There’s not many local bands who could pack Whelan’s with an unannounced show on the starting day of the nation’s biggest and most beloved music festival; but that doesn’t seem to stop the Kells’ legends from doing just that. Taking a break from their solo ventures, Ollie Cole, Gavin Fox and Ian Melady are back together along with former bassist Ciaran Kavanagh on guitar. As the house lights go down and the excited crowd grin from ear to ear with excitement, the four familiar figures stroll on stage and kick off the show fan favourites ‘Never Needed’ and ‘Beretta’.

Turn both look and sound sharp, losing none of their on stage performance and power. ‘Anti-Social’ thrills Whelan’s with bar staff even attempting a look in for the obligatory sing along. ‘Summer Song’ and the sombre ‘You Got Style’ move us towards Turn’s seminal years before the gentle yet booming, ‘Heart Attack’, causes the band and crowd to explode to life with Ciaran’s second guitar giving the song the extra hitch it needs to fulfil it’s true quality.

As well as losing none of their power, it also appears that Gavin and (the recently married) Ollie have also retained their classic on stage quipping and banter, joking together and sharing a dedication to Ollie’s new bride. There’s a little more nostalgia when the band pause during ‘Queen of My Heart’ to allow Ian his classic live solo, aided of course by chants of ‘IANO’ before launching into ‘In Position’, one of the band’s most accomplished songs. The thundering ‘Harder’ ups the volume a few notches before the colossal ‘Beeswax’ shreds through the PA, sounding as fresh as the day it was written. Before bowing out to travel towards Stradbally, Turn thrill fans with one final performance of ‘Another Year Over’. Obviously delighted with the turnout and success of their first reunited show, the band amble off stage, ready to take on the waiting hordes at Electric Picnic tomorrow. Whatever their plans for the future, it would be a shame if this was the last we saw of them.

Never Needed

Beretta

Anti-Social

Summer Song

You Got Style

Heart Attack

Queen of My Heart

In Position

Harder

Beeswax

Another Year Over

This entry was posted on September 2, 2012 at 11:47 pm and is filed under Gig Review, IRISH NOISE!, Music with tags Ciaran Kavanagh, Electric Picnic, Gavin Fox, Ian Melady, Oliver Cole, set-list, Turn, Whelans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.