Oxford Road’s Academy 3 welcomes the Wayward Sons back to Manchester this evening for their eagerly awaited headline shows of 2021. With the recent release in October of third album “Even Up the Score” to promote, and with a ridiculously low ticket price of £12 and quality T shirts for just £15, where else would you rather be on a wet Tuesday in November?

Scottish rockers Anchor Lane are opening and take to the stage at 8pm. Impressing from the start of opener ‘Stone Cold Hearted’, they play a mix of tracks from their ironically, Toby Jepson produced debut album “Casino”, with some fresh material thrown in too. There’s a strong influence of heavy Seattle sound ‘90’s grunge throughout, and singer and frontman Conor Gaffney is keen to pounce on you from the very first song. These lads have been getting some great press of late and it’s not hard to see why. The songs are strong and well-crafted and full of dynamics. There’s some impressive guitar playing from Lawrence O’Brien who, like his singer, isn’t fond of standing still for too long either. The boys are enjoying it and so are the crowd and he succeeds in his quest of getting the growing audience on the bands side with his stage presence and great vocal ability. Tracks like ‘Casino’, ‘The Mischievous Song’ and ‘Honey’ are laden with twists, turns, cool riffs and make you sit up straight and listen. ‘Nitroglycerin’ smashes you in the mouth with its sheer power before they close out with ‘Blood & Irony’ and their first single from Casino the anthemia sing a long of ‘Fame Shame’. They definitely found some new fans tonight.

Speaking of fans, it had been a long wait for the Wayward Sons faithful to now finally get to see them on their first headline tour of 2021 and there’s a healthy crowd awaiting their heroes take to the stage. A huge roar goes up and the ‘Sons kick off with familiar openers ‘Any Other Way’ and ‘Don’t Wanna Go’. These days they’re a stripped down 4 piece and there’s a decidedly harder and grittier sound to the band. There’s an obvious lean on the new album tonight, combined with a healthy smattering off their first two as well, so we get classics ‘Punchline’ and ‘Ghost’ before the catchy new album title track is played-  and that’s it; they were off at full throttle and didn’t pause for breath well, ‘Until the End’-literally!

 A man who’s never been shy of writing a bloody good rock song, there’s ample sing-along opportunities throughout the evening to help Toby and his band of now slightly less merry men with their faster and punchier sound; and the crowd are already in fine fettle. He’s certainly not lost any of his panache and gives a master class performance to the masses in holding an audience. ‘Faith in Fools’ offers a great dig at the current political situation then there’s more of the blend of older and new material with ‘Alive’, ‘Bloody Typical’, ‘Sign of the Times’ and ‘Downfall’.

It’s a real blood and sweat performance getting warmer by the minute up on that stage with the sheer energy of it, and by the time the highly infectious riff of ‘Crush’ comes crawling out of Sam Wood’s guitar the band are drenched head to foot in sweat; the jacket’s off and they literally are giving it their all. Toby is exhausted, yet like a dog with a bone, will not let go, wringing every last response out of the crowd. You can really hear the band’s various music influences coming through in every song and it really is a pleasure to watch the band absolutely smashing it and having so much fun at the same time. Nic Wastell still dances like his dad and Phil Martini’s seems to be giving his drums more of a clout than usual, with his powerhouse drumming holding it all together tighter than a Yorkshire man’s wallet, with Sam Wood’s excellent guitar sprinkling the fairy dust over Toby’s solid rhythm. It’s a big set tonight and if you ever thought this wasn’t value for money then please leave the building now. There’s time for a good few more like ‘Small Talk’, ‘Land of the Blind’ and ‘Big Day’ before ‘Joke’s On You’ closes the evening nicely.

Quite rightly there’s time for a couple more with ‘Feel Good Hit’ and a magnificent reworking of ‘Fade Away’ to bring us to the aforementioned 1st single.  Tonight has proved that the Wayward Sons are a definite class headline act of their own and I think it’s safe to say that Manchester; you had a new one ripped good and proper- Thank you and goodnight.