LIVE REVIEW: JONNY MORGAN & THE MORAL - VIC ALLEN - THE GRACE - LONDON

A thoroughly packed Grace would welcome Jonny Morgan & The Moral Support as their current tour, promoting their new record "The Hope That Kills" checked in to London. It would be a night of huge musicality from both acts but most of all just good fun that left you with a smile on your face knowing that you had been royally entertained.

Opening the evening, riding her own little creative wave was Vic Allen, hot off the back of a successful C2C debut and an oversubscribed Kickstarter campaign for her second album. She is positively oozing confidence at the moment and her set was a mixture of old favourites and songs currently being recorded for that highly anticipated sophomore album. Starting with "Enough", the song that literally says "I got more to give, I'm wasting away" Vic wasted no time in introducing us to her ever confident guitar playing and her mastery of a classic pop chorus.

One of those new songs that has been floating around for a while is "Mexico", the little bits of early phrasing managing to evoke the spirit of Mexico. The chorus mixes the heat of the holiday romance with the cool realisation that "I got to let you go". Gradually the pieces of the new album are falling into place, a new song "Brighter" sounded another strong addition, blessed with a divine vocal melody that instinctively sounded summery, and with a strong guitar line, it was a song you immediately wanted to hear again within seconds of it finishing.

Vic has pretty much outgrown the thirty minute support slot, such is the wealth of material at her fingertips, "I Can", the brutal break-up song, still delivers some years since its release. In many ways it subverts the usual way of how these songs unfold with Vic painting herself as the villain of the piece, not willing to settle for second best. #TEAMw21 heard Vic play "Hands" for the first time at C2C, introduced as being a bit "spicy", it will certainly raise the temperature on the new album.

A couple of old favourites would close things out, the covid inspired frustration of being unable to travel and realising just what that means, is summed up in "Suitcase", Vic was really able to emphasise the line

"I wish I could be anywhere, anywhere but here". Built around the strong recurring guitar refrain of the verse, the lyrics are Vic's raison d'etre. A singalong would come with the final song, the upbeat romp that is "Drive Thru", closing out another successful performance - 2026 may well be turn out to deservedly be Vic Allen's year.

If Vic Allen is just about to leap on to the up escalator, then Jonny Morgan and Moral Support are just waiting to find out how far up it will take them. An overnight success, five years in the making, they effortlessly invoke a good time feeling, yet with the flick of a switch can be quite tender and reflective. Driven by the twin powers of Joe Coombs's guitar work and Eve Lesedi's raspy sax playing, fronted by knowing cheeky chappy Jonny - who else on being given a hat to wear, would take it off a minute later saying he feared getting lice, and get away with it?

Taking to the stage while Bill Nighy's character from Love Actually played out over the PA saying - "Wouldn't it be great if Number One this Christmas wasn't some smug teenager, but an old ex-heroin addict searching for a comeback at any price?". Jonny & The Moral Support immediately launched into "Another Heartache" an exhilarating blend of Bruce meets Roxy Music, this was a wall of sound that made an immediate statement of intent. Another dip into the new album would come with "Growing Up Slowly", with Eve's sax coming to the fore as Jonny fired out his vocals with a supreme air of confidence that comes six dates into a successful tour.

An early cover in the set would see, a take on "Subterranean Homesick Blues" which was cheekily claimed as being written on the way to the venue. With Jonny and Eve taking the vocals on the chorus and Joe rocking the guitar, it was a rawkus take on the card dropping original. At the end Jonny would declare "It needs a bit of work!". Calming the mood and taking us back to his 2020 EP for "Sarah", Jonny would open this one on his own, the band joining in properly for the second verse. Introduced as a "deep cut" when he was "cynical", "Who Is Really On My Side?" was again a more considered approach.

The back story to "Deleting Pictures" was both funny yet poignant, and revealed as a Jeff Cohen co write. This was again mainly Jonny playing the opening, with Joe adding a truly mournful guitar sound. At times like this it was interesting to see both Eve and the drummer mouthing along, as Jonny successfully brought The Grace to a pin drop silence. For "Lonely In Soho", it was again Jonny leading out solo, with the rest of the Moral Support gradually, subtly joining in. With the "sensitive part of the show" done the band would once more ramp up the volume with "30 By Spring" an excellent way to do it, a rocking ensemble piece.

It seems that the more Jonny decries his song "Jumpin" the greater the reaction to it gets. With Eve's sax at it's most sultry, this bluesy singalong cannot help but engage, even more so when Jonny comically adopted his "I can stand here all day" schoolteacher mode, as he encouraged those at the back to singalong on the "Hey Hey Hey" part of the chorus.

The first single from the album "Don't Come Around" is as pure a pop song as you could wish for, heightened by the excellent backing vocals

. It would lead into their least favourite cover to play in Dire Straits "Walk Of Life" which #TEAMw21 caught them playing in a reduced format at The O2 during C2C, in the Talentbanq curated Amex Lounge. Tonight's full band version, like it or not, was damn good fun.

The night's special guest was revealed to be "Alex Francis who took to the stage for the "The Hope That Kills You" title track, taking lead on the second verse. The main set would close out with more rocking mayhem than The Grace has seen in ages, with "I'm Alright" which would magnificently incorporate a guitar versus sax face off between Joe and Eve which was the icing on the cake of an already excellent evening.

One final rollicking bit of fun would come with the story behind and eventually the song "Play Us One We Know". It did highlight the efforts that an independent band has to put in, just to make recording a record and making this tour possible, as well as being another all round enjoyable rocker which would see the whole Grace singing out "Play us one, play us one".

If you get a chance to see either of these acts, grab it while you can, surely the big time is calling soon.