It’s a damp, cool evening but even at this early hour, Derby centre is thriving, with every pub we pass absolutely heaving. We have little time to stop, however, as we’re racing through the town to get to Vaillant live, a 3,500-capacity venue that opened earlier this year, to catch the Levellers.
A purpose-built space, Vaillant Live is surprisingly well thought-out, with two entrances (premium and standard); a large foyer with bars, food, and merch all readily accessible; and a main auditorium with multiple entrance points, additional bar and food outlets, toilets, and an accessible platform. That said, there seems to be a shortage of staff at the various bars, and the queues remain sizeable throughout the night – hopefully something that will be addressed as it becomes a more regular fixture on the UK touring circuit. Additionally, it suffers from inflated drinks prices which, while not as egregious as, say, the various O2 venues, are substantially higher than might be expected. Still, such occupational hazards notwithstanding, Vaillant live is decent venue, providing a solid focal point for live music in Derby.
We arrive after Grace Petrie has started, unfortunately missing the first few songs, but catching enough to get a good flavour of the set. Originally hailing from Leicester, Grace is an engaging presence, juxtaposing deftly written folk songs with witty, between-song banter that keeps the noisy crowd largely on side. With songs like the hope-tinged Black Tie mixing powerful social commentary and personal experience with sweetly sincere melodies; and Northbound getting the bulk of the still-growing crowd to sing along to a memorable song that finds the singer making her weary way home, Grace notes that she was brought here to warm us up, and this she effectively does, with the venue having filled up nicely by the time she takes her leave.
With the house lights up, the sheer number of Levellers T shirts across the auditorium become visible. From younger, first-time attendees proudly sporting just-purchased shirts to older punks who’ve been around since A Weapon Called The Word, everywhere you look, the band’s logo is on display, which makes it all the most surprising that, when the band do blaze onto the stage, the vibe remains somewhat low key among the bulk of the audience.
We’re getting ahead of ourselves, however. We’re here to celebrate 30 years of the excellent Zeitgeist. Originally released in 1995, it briefly shot to number one in the charts – no small feat – and it has just received a fantastic remix / remaster (reviewed here). Tonight, the band are playing the bulk of the album in full, albeit a touch re-ordered for live purposes, and with the odd b side thrown in for good measure, making for a worthy celebration of an excellent album.
The show kicks off, appropriately enough, with The Fear – a propulsive, steel-edged track that hauls itself out of a short ambient intro to hit the audience square between the eyes. With Jeremy and Jon Sevink providing the energy, the band sounds fantastic but something feels off, with less of a response from the crowd than you would expect. It’s a feeling that persists throughout the night and, despite the band giving their all, the majority of the audience only really shake off their torpor during the final thirty-minutes although, depending on where you are in the crowd, there are pockets of resistance to the apathy, with little groups bouncing and singing along throughout.
Fortunately, the band are on fire and, for those who are up for a good time, they more than deliver. Leaving little room for breath in the wake of The Fear, they plunge headlong into the ferocious slide guitar of Hope Street, one of Zeitgeist’s most powerful singles and always a blast live. This, they immediately follow with Exodus – one of my favourite songs and wonderful to hear in the flesh, especially given its lengthy absence from the band’s live show. As always, it’s the battle cry of “bring the peace back” that informs the core message of the song and, in these febrile times, it feels more pertinent than even it did back in 1995.
The pace finally calms a little, with both Maid Of The River and Saturday To Saturday bringing the folkier side to the fore, all acoustic guitars and lilting melodies, albeit delivered with the band’s trademark energy. Rather more surprising is the addition of explosive b side Alive to the set. A punky firecracker of a song with a huge riff at its core and dense blasts of percussion, for those that know, it’s a treat, although it still leaves a portion of the audience somewhat static.
Sadly, 4am is absent, but Forgotten Ground is present and intact, as is Fantasy, which still packs a bittersweet snarl into its lyrics. Meanwhile, the crushing P.C. Keen (always one of the band’s heaviest songs) sounds absolutely immense, the roar of the guitars nailed down hard by Charlie Heather’s doom-laden beat. A highlight of the set, it could have been written with today’s surveillance state in mind, and few can doubt that the power of the band’s performance is increased by just how prescient the lyrics have proven to be.
From there, we’re onto the home stretch. A reworked Just The One just keeps getting faster, as it is wont to do on stage, the track finally exploding into life with barrelhouse piano and fiddle racing against one another. The heartfelt Haven’t Made It Yet, with its picked banjo melody, provides a neat counterpoint to the frantic Leave This Town, before Dan Donnelly steps up to the microphone to sing Men-An-Tol, bringing his own presence to a track that remains a windswept wonder within the band’s canon. It makes for an awe-inspiring finale, and the band take their leave as pin prick lights gleam like stars from the smoke-laden stage.
Following a very brief pause, the lights come back up to reveal a UV-painted Simon Boakes, who leads a short jig.
“Who the fuck was that?” asks Mark with a grin. “Do you want him back?”
The crowd, now apparently woken from their slumber, roar their assent and Boaksey returns to help drive the effervescent One Way to even greater heights. It’s interesting to note, as you get older, where the emphasis on the lyrics lands, and there’s certainly an added weight to the line “the noise we thought would never stop, died a death as the punks grew up”, yet there’s life here still, and the final chorus finds the audience matching the band for volume as the guitars swoop and dive through the mix.
Keeping things lively, the band race through the lovely Carry Me to land upon a mighty Cholera Well, the latter a highlight from Letters From The Underground and easily among the best songs the band has ever written. Driven by a taut beat and delivered at ferocious speed, it sees a good portion of the audience dancing, and even the seated crowd on the balcony have come to their feet, drawn upright as if by some invisible hand.
The final three songs seal the deal. Dan returns to the microphone for a lovely Four Boys Lost, a nod to 2020’s excellent Peace, before the band wrap things up with the one-two punch of The Road and, of course, Riverflow. A beautiful, brilliant finale to the night (that first “hooray” in the verse damn near takes the roof off), The Riverflow is one of those songs that cannot fail to bring even the most recalcitrant of audiences together, and it ends the night in a blaze of joy and good fellowship.
Overall, it is a bit of an odd night. The Levellers, as always, are exemplary but, for whatever reason, the crowd seem a little unwilling to surrender themselves to the moment. It’s a shame because reports from other dates on the tour have been overwhelmingly positive. However, this is absolutely no reflection on the band, who give their all and they remain one of the best live bands this country has ever produced. It’s nice, too, to hear a number of songs from Zeitgeist that have long been absent from the set – especially P.C. Keen, Exodus, and Alive, all absolutely killer tunes that excel in the live environment.
With the tour being filmed, we can look forward to reliving this special set soon but, in the meantime, we should be thankful that The Levellers, now nearly forty years into their career, continue to play with all the passion and power of their youthful selves – even if their audience can’t always keep up! It’s a very special set from a very special band and we’re already looking forward to the next tour, even as this one heads on to Manchester and then to Europe for a few last dates.
