Frank Turner @ NME Office, London 10.01.12
The unique design of the prominent Blue Fin Building, Southwark, is home to your conventional offices, albeit with a focus on the Media; the reception area has directions for ‘HBO Executives’ whilst the area reserved for today’s performance, sits snuggly between the headquarters of both Nuts Magazine and Angler’s Mail – in the NME office.
It’s a surreal and peculiar setting for a performance, especially so for an artist who’s set to play to the twelve-thousand-people capacity of Wembley Arena this April; Frank Turner arrives armed with only his manager and acoustic guitar by his side and is soon asked to set-up on the desk of one of NME‘s many writers – it’ll be unlikely to witness Turner perform in a more intimate setting than in front of this small crowd, that consists of a handful of competition winners and the staff of NME, all eagerly huddled around as if Turner was an open fire – his songs delivering each listener the warmth against January’s bleakness. Indeed, Frank’s music refuses to abandon it’s rock-n-roll roots despite the minimal environment – he projects his raw voice throughout the office, inspiring a constrained sing-a-long amongst the small crowd, who relish his willingness to take song requests.
After his self-proclaimed ‘first gig of the year’, Turner ensures the fans gathered today have their share of autographs and pictures before making his way through his busy and demanding schedule by leaving for another interview elsewhere.
Setlist
Mr. Brightside (The Killers cover)
The Road
The Ballad of Me and My Friends
Sound Around London 