Music is very important to me, therefore, I have recently found a deep appreciation of concerts. Over the past year, I have attended seven major concerts and I have two more planned. Half of the concerts I have attended were in the United Kingdom while abroad, and one of the bands is a small group from the UK. The group in question is called Lovejoy. They are a small indie-rock band from Brighton. At the point of writing this, they have released four EP’s. The newest and most popular is called “Wake Up & Its Over.” This album includes their biggest song to date called “Call Me What You Like” which is one of my favorites. The band consists of four members, Will Gold, the main singer, Joe Goldsmith, the rhythm guitarist, Mark Boardman the drummer, and Ash Kabosu as bassist. In 2023, the band has really taken off and has gotten the opportunity to tour around the US and UK, even appearing at Lollapalooza, one of the biggest music festivals in the US.
One key factor that contributed to the band's initial success is the fact that the lead singer, Will Gold has a prominent social media presence. He creates content across multiple platforms and had a devoted following before the creation of Lovejoy. This has been helpful for the band’s growth, but detrimental to their concert vibe. Most of their fans are young and immature, and this becomes abundantly clear at some of their concerts. At this point, I have seen the band perform three times, once in the US and twice in the UK. My experience in the US was interesting because the venue was very intimate and it was a standing-only venue. The crowd seemed very childish, constantly bringing up Will’s social media presence and chanting childish things amongst each other before the show. I had never experienced a small venue show before, so I did not know if these examples were normal or not. Since being in the UK, I know that it was indeed a childish, immature crowd. In Sheffield, Lovejoy’s crowd was lovely, and Sam and I were able to see the concert from such a close view. It was one of the best concert experiences I have ever had. The venue was still small, but not as intimate as the US, and the venue was also standing-only, so we were queued up for a few hours prior to the concert. From my experience so far, most venues in the UK are standing-only, unless they are massive stadiums. My third and final concert was the worst of all my Lovejoy experiences. The crowd was much younger than in the US, or Sheffield. I am not sure why this was, but it made the concert unenjoyable. The younger audience was highly unaware of concert etiquette. For example, in the pit, the venue provided water cups that were to be passed back every so often to prevent medical emergencies. The younger viewers refused to pass back cups because “[they] didn’t need water,” clearly missing the whole point of passing it back. Similarly, everyone around us filmed the concert the entire time, never putting down their phones which made it hard to see and also wrecked the vibe for someone who wanted to be there in the moment. It was weird. The whole experience was mixed and not great. If Will had not had such a prominent online presence, the band may not be as big as they are now, but the concert experience for an older listener who just wants to see the whole band live is ruined sometimes.
Overall, I have no doubt the band will continue to have much success, but as someone who genuinely loves their music, I hope their audience grows up and learns proper etiquette because that could turn away viewers who are unaware of the band’s past and young audience. I have loved being in their home country and having the opportunity to see them perform in the UK twice.
