Live Review : Royal Republic + Dea Matrona @ New Century Hall, Manchester on November 3rd 2024

Are Royal Republic a rock band? They say not, but a capacity crowd at Bloodstock 2023 begged to differ and let’s face it you’re not going to argue with 20000 rabid metalheads, are you? They have been blowing audiences away with their brand of humorous pop-rock patter for a good few years now and here we have a full UK tour in support of their most recent album “LoveCop”. Tonight the Royal Republic train is hitting the buffers in Manchester to show us what they’ve got.

The first thing you notice on entering the spacious room is that there seems to be a plethora of comedy moustaches in attendance. In fact you could be at a Freddy Mercury convention just going on the amount of extraneous facial hair! However, we’ll get to that afterwards. First there is the support act to savour. Savour is the correct term for Dea Matrona because these young lasses from Belfast are a bit delicious. They too skirt the boundaries of rock and pop, with their first song coming straight out of the Suzi Quattro playbook. The band has been rounded out recently with the addition of a full-time drummer and second guitarist, leaving besties Orlaith and Mollie with more sound to play with as they trade bass, guitar and lead vocals throughout.

Despite still maintaining a certain amount of lightness and frothiness this is now a band rather than just a couple of buskers who got lucky, and their sound is well-rounded and complete. Influences abound – as well as Suzi there is a whiff of Republica in the air and in places the influence of the Queen of Soft Rock, Stevie Nicks, is oozing from the speakers. They even cover a Fleetwood Mac song, but it’s the blues weirdness of “Oh Well” rather than any of the later radio-friendly songs. At one point they give the lads a rest and sing acoustically which is a beautiful treat that produces goosebumps in the attendant masses. So are they rock? Wiki says yes, ROCKFLESH says probably not. But does it matter? They are damn good at what they do! 

Royal Republic come on to the Thunderbirds theme. No really. International Rescue to the, erm,  rescue! Opener ‘My House’ immediately brings to mind fellow Swedes The Hives, only a bit less black and white. It also makes one feel at home, and a look at frontman Adam gives a source for the comedy face furniture. His own moustache is all-natural, but it’s also quite alarmingly obvious and the fact that so many in the crowd have aspired to look like him is quite something.

The music is punky but in a new-wave way rather than a 3-chord shout-and-spit way. ‘Baby’ sounds like Kiss done in European disco, and when Adam exhorts us to dance until our boots come off during ‘Boots’ – well, what else are you going to do? The set is nearly 2 hours long including encores, and covers most of “LoveCop” with a fair bit of older stuff mixed in.

The other thing it is, is happy. This is a hard thing to describe, but the longer the show goes on the more the mood in the room seems to lift. Dour people are smiling. Smiley people are displaying face-splitting grins. Although this band is not necessarily the hardest rock you will ever encounter they certainly have moments when they let loose and proper rock out, using the twin guitars to full effect in “Can’t Stop Moving” and even chucking in a drum solo for good measure. The music continues, the humour creeps in continuously, the good vibes intensify. Adam lets us know, via a series of serious motherfucking, that this band has been trying to offend Europe for over fifteen years, but we don’t believe him – Royal Republic are surely just too damn nice to offend anyone? 

They prove this when all four band members line up at the front of the stage to do two acoustic numbers (‘Wow! Wow! Wow!’ and ‘Boomerang’) complete with a variety of accompanying instruments. There’s harmonica, there’s some kind of horn, there’s even a kazoo, When did you last see a kazoo on a rock stage? Ah, but is this even a rock stage? It’s more of a barbershop quartet for this little bit. Pure cabaret, sheer entertainment, Oh and a fair bit of raw talent too.

Things continue in a bouncy country and western fashion, and people are line-dancing. With the comedy mustaches added to the mix it’s all a bit surreal! So how are they going to follow that? Well why not get your goth on and play ‘Electra’, which is a full-on black eyeliner of an anthem that sounds like the Sisters of Mercy? Royal Republic are nothing if not versatile, so the only direction they can go from goth is of course cowbell. Adam is in the crowd, he’s handing out a cowbell to a random punter and he stays there for a whole song. Cavorting with cowbell, minds are blown and the main set ends.

After another stab at power pop with the first encore song the question we have been asking ourselves all night is finally answered definitively. Don’t blame us if you don’t like this one says Adam, blame Metallica – as they launch into a full-blown balls-out version of ‘Battery’! The crowd is now not only bemused but also exhausted, but as the final notes of the final song ring out the applause is deafening and the smiles have reached Cheshire cat proportions. Are Royal Republic rock? Oh, hell yeah! 

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Royal Republic + Dea Matrona