There must be something in the water in Stoke which just forces THE SUBWAYS to constantly keep coming back for more, twice they have played at The Sugarmill in Hanley and last night was their debut at the slightly larger venue of Keele University ballroom. Straight from the start it seemed that THE SUBWAYS were out to prove something. Coming onto the stage to huge applause they broke straight into an intense 'Kalifornia' with added effects of a mirror ball to truly set the scene in style.

Touring a new album can be done in one of two ways, either completely play the new album and then chuck in a couple of old crowd-pleasers or secondly completely mix things up by intertwining older tracks with the brand spanking new ones. To spectacular effect THE SUBWAYS chose the latter; this kept the atmosphere of the night at an extremely high level and if things looked like dipping during a new song the crowd were instantly boosted with an old favourite. Saying this I don’t mean that the new album 'All Or Nothing' isn’t good, in fact it’s an astonishing piece of work with numerous memorable tracks, however debut album 'Young For Eternity' was such a breakthrough album that it would take a hell of a lot to beat it.

Some bands are better live than they are on record, however some are the opposite. Even though THE SUBWAYS two albums are both, in my personal opinion, epic, seeing them live has pushed them even higher in my list of favorite bands. Their sheer presence is intoxicating with Billy constantly moving around not allowing himself to stay in the same place for long at all, and Charlotte winning over members of the audience’s hearts, they make a formidable duo.

The fact that THE SUBWAYS are even still together represents their strength enough anyway, what with the drama of Billy Lunn having surgery on his vocal chords which could have left him without the ability to talk but also the heartbreak of him breaking up with his fiancée: bassist Charlotte Cooper. This tour shows that THE SUBWAYS haven’t changed, they still are and always will be one of the most brilliant live bands you will get to watch, and believe me when you’re watching them, any option of taking your eyes off them for a second doesn’t even enter your head. Your ears don’t get a rest either because it seems Billy’s voice post-surgery has been enhanced to a new level of brilliance.

Predictably tracks from their debut album get the most applause, songs such as 'Mary, Oh Yeah', 'Young For Eternity' and 'I Want To Hear What You Have Got To Say'. This doesn’t mean though that new songs like 'Alright' and 'Shake! Shake!' go unnoticed. For me the best part of the gig comes in the final three tracks played during the encore. First of all being 'Strawberry Blonde': a tender and beautiful moment of timid guitars and gentle vocals. Billy singing of a love he has found could bring a tear to the eye with the unique lyrics: 

You're the matador and I'm the bull
You're the brass keyhole I fit into
You're the wind and I am the weathervane
You're the strawberry blonde and I'm the grey

You're the light and I am the firefly
You're the star and I am the blackened sky

The listener can’t help but feel that this is a genuine plea for an affection to be reciprocated. Well if Billy doesn’t receive it from his love then Keele bloody well deemed it fit to give him all the love in the world. Second song of the encore was 'Girls and Boys', a thrashing track reminiscent of NIRVANA, of all people, being the first single from the album and in fact the first song on the track listing of the album that everyone knew the words to -  everyone had their hands in the air and everyone was dancing.
Last of all of the grand finale was 'Rock & Roll Queen',  this 2 minutes 54 seconds of genius was the cherry on top of a particularly stunning cake. Every second there was a different crowd surfer riding the euphoria. Shoes were lost, phones and cameras were dropped, shirts were ripped and sweat dripped but in the end everyone was still having the time of their lives. Especially when Billy split the room into two halves and had everyone in the room scream on his signal, and when you thought that things couldn’t get more frenetic Billy began jumping from the amps into the crowd. It was obvious  that it wasn’t the people pushed right against the barriers or the crowd surfers who were having the the time of their lives last night – it was Billy. THE SUBWAYS isn’t a band, it’s a way of life and without it you can’t see the Hertfordshire trio doing anything else, but we wouldn’t want them to be doing anything else would we?

Band Rating: 4.8/5.0

Review by Alex Duncalf