Frank's is a club well worth joining

FRANK TURNER

Exeter Lemon Grove

FIVE STARS

BEING a first-timer going to see Frank Turner is like going to a meeting of a club where everyone else has been a member for ages.

There are hundreds of people inside the sold-out Lemon Grove on the Exeter University campus for this Sunday night gig.

And, standing shoulder to shoulder and pumping their arms in the air, it seems every single one of them knows all the words to at least a dozen of the songs Frank and his wonderful band tear through in a breathless hour and a half.

There is even, and this is no word of a lie, a smattering of cigarette lighters waving in the air during quieter moments.

But this isn't a club that doesn't welcome new members, and there are precious few quieter moments during a set packed with good humour, excellent musicianship and more than a handful of stop-in-your-tracks moments when the hook of a previously-unheard song makes all the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

Walking on to a darkened stage to the strains of the defiant folk song 'Drink Old England Dry', Frank and his band occupy a position somewhere between folk and punk, where The Levellers lived 20 years ago.

But Frank Turner and his band are harder and faster than their predecessors.

The former lead singer of a punk outfit called Million Dead, Frank is an engaging front man whose devoted young fans hang on his every word.

His energetic acoustic guitar and powerful voice are backed by a terrific band who occasionally leave him on stage to do his stuff alone.

There is even a cameo slot for a member of the audience invited up to have a go at a harmonica solo.

Songs are drawn from his three studio albums, the most recent of which — 'Poetry of the Deed' — gives the show its backbone.

In fact the material is so strong that most recent single 'The Road' — named 'Hottest Record In The World Today' by Radio One — appears as the second song on the setlist. There is plenty of good stuff to follow, and an encore that brings all the supporting musicians on to the stage to join in the raucous fun.

On the subject of supporting acts, a gentleman by the name of Beans On Toast entertains the students with some topical songs before the arrival of Fake Problems.

A four-piece from Florida, Fake Problems really impress with a full-on set containing at least one stand-out pop classic in 'Dream Team'.

GUY HENDERSON