Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls, the 3000th show, Live at Alexandra Palace, London

Frank Turner’s 3000th show happened at the historical Alexandra Palace in London. On a sold-out show with more than 10 thousand fans, you could feel the anticipation for the night on the queue, with many fans already wearing Frank’s Merch for the night and some that had probably watched his acoustic set at 93 Feet East on the day before.

The Meffs

On a night filled with great UK artists, we kicked off with The Meffs, from the duo Lily Hopkins and Lewis Copsey bringing the venue to a great start, with a very energetic and alive performance that even some 4-piece bands can’t deliver. After their show, Lily spent some time talking to the fans on the side of the stage, creating an even stronger connection to the crowd.

The Lottery Winners

Right after we got to stage The Lottery Winners, a quite well-known group here in the UK, which besides being a bit less heavy than The Meffs or even Frank, they deliver very catchy tunes and they’re always accompanied by Thom Rylance’s brilliant onstage jokes and crowd engagement, with the song Turn Around getting the whole crowd following the “left-right – side to side – that’s right – turn around” instructions and the emotional “Letter to Myself”, which was recorded with Frank Turner originally.

Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls

Frank Turner was highly expected, with a UK number 1 album and an important part of the UK music scene. Before his entrance to the stage, a countdown started ramping up to 3000, where Frank entered the stage with his guitar to a very excited reaction from the crowd. 

He started with ‘The Ballad of Me and My Friends’ as the crowd sang along and led the opening for the band ‘The Sleeping Souls’ to join him on stage during “I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous” and started getting even more energetic, with a perfect blend of songs from all across Frank’s career, such as “Do One”, “The Next Storm” and “If Ever I Stray”. Every one of the songs had a massive response from the crowd.

After around 13 songs, Frank went back to the stage again alone with his acoustic Guitar, but he wasn’t singing alone, there was a huge choir at points from everyone in the crowd, with some more emotional songs being played. At the end of the second acoustic bit, the screens showed the stained glass fading and The Sleeping Souls coming back for the last part and the encore.

The encore started with one of his most recent songs, “Undefeated,” followed by “Polaroid Picture,” which kept bringing waves of crowd surfers to the stage area. Some were highlighted on the main screens of the stage.

During the encore, we had both The Meffs and Lottery Winners members back to sing and dance together with Frank, highlighting that the night was more than just a celebration to Frank, but to all his friends and fans he made along those 3000 shows.

This was a night to remember, and I’ll be looking forward to the next 3000 or 30000 concerts from Frank Turner.

Artists: Frank Turner, The Lottery Winners, The Meffs