"I won’t sit down and I won’t shut up/ And most of all I will not grow up", belts out the lean 30-year-old Frank Turner on his rousing anthem "Photosynthesis", and the bolshie folkie from Winchester is the highlight of this inaugural Able2UK concert for disabled awareness.
Turner, a former punk with the now deceased Million Dead and a contemporary of Prince William at Eton, has worked tirelessly on his stagecraft, performing over a 1,000 gigs and garnering a hugely devoted fanbase and a comfortable amount of success on the back of his industry – he played Wembley Arena earlier this year. His blistering solo set is sandwiched in-between turns from the jaunty, Eighties throwbacks Mystery Jets and Friendly Fires' thunderous nu-rave. They can't really compete with this folk force of nature though.
However, before any of them comes the other highlight tonight: a silver-haired Billy Bragg, Turner's biggest influence ("I'm still getting used to playing on the same stage as Billy," admits Frank), and the activist from Barking delivers a typically belligerent set, remonstrating against Rupert Murdoch, Twitter, cynicism ("I've realised the enemy of all us is cynicism") on spiky tracks "Tomorrow's Going to be a Better Day", " Never Buy the Sun" and "I Keep Faith". However good Bragg's protest songs undoubtedly are, though, his more romantic numbers were always more potent lyrically. And, thankfully, he performs "Sexuality" ("I feel a total jerk before your naked body of work") and "New England", two of the most finely crafted ballads by a British musician in the past 30 years. The Independent, TBC Here...
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