The remaining members of Northamptonshire’s Fenech-Soler brought their “Zilla” album tour to Manchester with support from Secret Company and Zola Blood.
Opening the show was Essex band Secret Company, who had their own album launch on 10th March in London. The venue was relatively empty as they began as was expected from an early gig midweek; however it did fill in during their set to a reasonable amount for an opening act. Secret Company looked comfortable onstage and knew how to handle themselves, which was necessary to avoid the mass of instruments on the stage during their performance. Their set went down well with the crowd, with a small amount of people singing along. New single “Alive” had some power behind the performance, however it didn’t engage the crowds attention as much as previous single “Saviour” which a large majority had heard before. Secret Company we’re certainly a different band than the other two on the night, although they didn’t look too out of place.
Zola Blood took to the stage in a haze of spoke and flashing lights. The room had filled and people were pressed against the stage as they entered and received a much better reception than Secret Company. The crowd knew Zola Blood’s tracks a lot better and danced and sang along. They had a good feel to their performance, but lacked real power in their delivery. As the smoke distorted the view of the stage, it all seemingly muffled their performance as it was quite static for a band with such energy in their songs. The audience got involved with Zola Blood’s performance and produced more excitement themselves to make up for the lack on stage.
Ross and Ben Duffy took to the stage for the headline act with their cousin and friend making up the rest of the Fenech-Soler after founding members Daniel Fenech-Soler and Andrew Lindsay left the band in 2016. They received a great reaction from the crowd as they entered the stage in front of a venue filled with people wishing to see the two brothers. They performed many of their old songs from the original band and they worked well together onstage. They had a great chemistry between them and made it clear that they still believed in the music the band was producing.
Fenech-Soler played a cover of Janet Jackson in the middle of their set, however it didn’t get much of a reaction and blended in with the rest of their songs. They lacked power in their delivery and made such energetic sound seems quite boring; Fenech-Soler had great potential in their songs to make the venue bounce along with them, however they didn’t utilised this strength.