Venue:
The Deaf Institute, Manchester
Date: 02/04/2026
I was brought along to the Deaf Institute by may mate, Damian who said, dont look up who you are going to see, just go into it blind.
After the support slot from the feisty indie poppers, Hunny Buzz, whos sparky songs warmed the sell out crowd up nicely, I heard the name Tom A Smith mentioned. Its a name that conjours up images of a bearded troubadour singing melancholic songs of the mid west. Wrong.
Up pops Tom A Smith, a cross between Mika ,Bob Geldof and Tim from the Polecats. He appears to have had the blood drained from his veins and replaced with a fixture of adrenaline and charisma.
The songs are what the youth of today would call “Bangers” . They are infuriatingly catchy and have a sound somewhere between the first Killers album and classic `80s synth pop thanks to keyboard player Hannah.
The songs, well (checks CD`s bought from merch desk) SFX is obviously an audience favourite and Tom got the crowd (including me) singing along to ” I Don`t Blame You”. “Fashion” with the hookline
” Lets get some bass in this room” features teethrattling bass from Bassist Katie who doesn`t look old enough to be up this late. The new single “Put On A Record, Tommy” features the mighty Rowetta who joins the band onstage for a full blown attack on the senses. Its probably crying out for a 12″ mix as it isn`t long enough.
The audience:
For such a young chap, the audience was a mix of young and old, but as my mate pointed out to Tom at a previous gig supporting the Lottery Winners, old farties like us are crying out for music like this, uplifting, joyous and full of energy.
It made me think..
The guy is a star. he could and probably will command a bigger stage, so go and see him in a tiny venue while you can. He is touring throughout May ( If you can get tickets)
We saw him support someone last year who for the life of me I can’t remember but what I do remember is that this lad is going places. He was just him on his own but he went down very well .
Thanks for your review @Uncle-Mick. ‘Going into it blind’ is a great idea. For more than 10 years, my buddy, Mick, and I have been treating each other to what we call ‘Mystery Gigs’. One of us will buy gig tickets and the other goes along not knowing who will be performing. Mick and I have different musical tastes which means that we go to gigs which we would never have attended otherwise (Jean Michel Jarre! Who knew?). The ideal is that the other one does not find out who is performing until they come on stage. Unfortunately, most support acts usually provide the info during their set.
I see that Tom A Smith has a couple of gigs in Scotland. Bit far away from me but maybe..
It does help that I`m quite blind without my distance specs and have enough willpower not to check the venues listings! If you can see him, do it. If you dont like him I`ll give you your money back ( Not including travel & overnight accommodation)
Always nice to discover ‘new’. My fave new (to me) acts of recent years have both been support acts at gigs.
Thanks for the tip-off.
Thanks for the tip. He certainly gives it some welly.
Over on his Soundcloud page, he covers World In Motion by The New Orders. Complete with the John Barnes rap, as if done by a Mackem.
Dont do Soundcloud so thanks for the headup @fentonsteve !