Wonky Pop Tour

The Wonky Pop Tour danced its way to Stoke’s Sugarmill with Alphabeat, currently sitting at number seven in the single chart, Leon Jean-Marie and Frankmusik. Leon Jean-Marie opened the night in spectacular style and had the whole, albeit very young, crowd moving to his soul, funk, reggae rock with a voice that was somewhere between John Legend and Bill Withers. L.J.M looked the part too, him and his band parading and controlling the stage looking just as smooth as they sounded. He’s certainly no one trick pony either, at times you hear the Specials, then Lenny Kravitz jagged soulful rock and then some Anthony Hamilton funk. If as you’d expect, the bands are to get better as the bill gets near the top, there’s definitely a hell of a night in store.

Three-piece Frankmusik entered the stage to fluorescent bulbs lighting the mic stand and the stage but definitely seemed to be missing the swept back eighties fringe they should have been sporting. Frankmusik combine the dirty synths that make up much of today’s indie-rave but hark back to the new-romantic 80’s in impressive fashion, singer James Whitting looked as torn and emotive as his songs sounded in a Brandon Flowers manner. Frankmusik live sound almost how The Killers second could so easily have gone, European power electronica. At times songs became undistinguishable from the next but this seems more a fault with the genre than Frankmusik as it’s a definite recurring theme with many artists of that ilk. Whitting proclaimed the Stoke crowd to have been the best on the tour so far, although leaving out the fact that they’re only five dates into their 17-date tour, and the hordes were certainly absorbing and adding to the intensity of Frankmusik. 

Alphabeat certainly have a lot to live up to with ‘Fascination’ sitting pretty at 7 in the chart and the impressive support bill, expectations are high. Kicking off with an instrumental straight into the marching ‘Fantastic 6’, the sheer fun and joy of Alphabeat is instantaneous and the expectations seem to have been met by the sound of the rapturous reception. The youthful unadulterated pop of ‘10000 nights of thunder’ kept not just the kids dancing to its dreamy lyrics and sweet melodies, a definite ‘Fascination No.2’ it seems. They could very easily be perceived to be going down the road of one-hit-wonders but there was a depth to the set with influences going from Madonna to Daft Punk. The crowd mirrored the sheer energy and enthusiasm of lead singers Anders and Stine, whose male/female contrast do nothing but make Alphabeat an even more endearing creation. Ending their set with Fascination as expected turned the already high crowd into a frenzy with everyone in the crammed venue singing along at the tops of their voices, you can only wonder how that would feel on stage.

Frankmusik joined to conclude the Wonky Pop Tour’s stop in Stoke to perform the charmingly childish Boyfriend. There seems a real connection and enjoyment on this Wonky Pop Tour, Alphabeat Drummer Troels Hansen said, “It’s really nice to be on tour with guys that we’ve talked to, it’s just really nice to do things with people who we really like the music.” He also feels it is a good time for Scandinavian pop with the likes of Those Dancing Days, I’m From Barcelona and Peter Bjorn and John breaking through a Scandinavian music scene that is dominated by English influenced indie bands, but they love their label as a pop band, and on this form there’s no reason not to.