Louis Dunford Glasgow Review
By Jack Cranmer
Louis Dunford rolled into Glasgow last Tuesday morning on his tour bus and promptly parked it outside the iconic Barrowland Ballroom in the cities east side district of Calton.
The North-London born singer sold out the venue as the third stop of his UK tour following the release of his debut album ‘Be Lucky’ following stops in Newcastle and Hull to kick things off.
The support act of Jasper Hodges was short and sweet, blasting through a short, but well received set before the main event.
Louis Dunford, the 33-year-old son of Loose Women’s Linda Robson and her husband Mark Dunford, has made a name for himself as a down-to-earth musician who creates working class poetry for the man on the street and here he was in one of Britain’s most down-to-earth, working class cities.
He kicked off his set with the same tune that opens his album, ‘Superman’ which much to the frontman’s obvious delight the crowd joined in with immediately, despite a large amount of them still filing in from the downstairs bar area.
A rapturous applause and some quick cheeky London styled banter with the crowd was followed by his tune Bossman, which now sits with over 1m plays on Spotify.
Now this one was sung back by everyone in the crowd, off his EP ‘The Popham EP’ it, along with a couple other songs we’ll get to later, helped kick off Louis’ career in music.
A lyrical poet, the song describes Louis speaking with various guys while out and about whom he calls ‘bossmen’ including a toilet attendant in a nightclub, a London cab driver and a corner shop owner who explain that while their lives aren’t glamorous or ones of luxury, they are winners in life in their own ways despite no monetary successes.
His band was also introduced to receive their own deserved acclaim, particularly his Scottish drummer, who was subjected to the crowds singing of Happy Birthday- which Louis revealed afterwards, was a falsehood and it was in fact not his birthday!
His third song of the night was ‘Billy Flynn of Bethnal Green’ an emotional song of a successful London boxer and hard man who lives a double life on the weekend as a drag queen down London’s Soho district.
The song is beautiful both in terms of lyrics and composition and describes how hard Billy tries to hide his double life but following his successful fight against three transphobic attackers at a bus stop, how he is ultimately accepted following the discovery of his second life.
Again- the crowd loved this, and they also did with his subsequent tunes ‘Boys do Cry’ and ‘Queer’ which target the themes of male mental health and coming out as gay and seeking acceptance, there were many tears in the crowd at these showing just how powerful this man’s lyrics can be.
The next tune of ‘Rave Now, Die Later’ is an uplifting song describing how no matter how low you get, tomorrow can always be a better day, and life can be turned around- again the lyrics used by Louis and his songwriting partner Beatrice Munro, who performed backing vocals on the night, are at show here.
Song 7 and 8 of the night ‘The Unlucky Ones’ and ‘Regretamine’ tackle drug use in different fashions, one from an addiction standpoint and one from a light-hearted recreational one, the latter of which is a personal story where Louis mistakes ketamine on a night out for cocaine, which Louis dedicated, humorously to his mother stationed at the front of the crowd.
These were followed by more songs off his new album ‘PTSD’ and ‘1999’ before one of the big singles from the album ‘Lucy’ was played and the roof nearly came off.
Another personal story from Louis where he, aged 17, is convinced by his friends to visit a lady of the night at a brothel named Lucy, the song describes how Louis, anxious to do ‘the deed’ for the first time simply pays for her time, engaging in conversation and forming a connection.
Again, it’s beautiful lyrically and musically and a standout from an already exceptional album.
Followed up by ‘The Ballad of Benjamin’ a tear invoking tribute to Louis’ childhood best friend Ben Kinsella who was tragically murdered in 2008 as a victim of knife crime.
The song’s lyrics are heartfelt and heartbreaking as Louis describes how he tried to save his dying friend, and the hopes and dreams they shared for post-school life at the time, and it needs to be heard by anybody who has lost someone too young.
The final song of the main show lifts the mood ‘When we Were Hooligans’ is a relatable song to most working-class lads, describing underage delinquency, drinking and mischief that a lot of us got up to- despite whether we admit it or not!
It makes us reminisce of days when life was simple and the most important thing was having a laugh and a good time with our mates and makes us long for these long-gone days spent roaming the streets with no fear or worry of what was yet to come and again, it’s simply beautiful.
Louis then left the stage before returning for his encore of ‘The Local’ and ‘The Angel’ both working class ballads, firstly of the local pub and the shenanigans that take place within and then a tribute to his own North London that despite the localised lyrics can be translated to any old-school city ‘the manor might be changing but the people always last’!
We do, and we will, it was a pleasure Louis, and hopefully you will return to our city soon, and hopefully in a larger venue once the masses hear your lyrical genius, bravo!