LIVE REVIEW: THE SHIRES - FIRST TIME FLYERS - WYCOMBE SWAN

This is third time that #TEAMw21 have checked in on The Shires as their seemingly never ending "Two Of Us" tour keeps getting extended with further dates. Tonight's show will see 900 people sell out a venue in a town where the band have not previously ever played. No doubt aided by good word of mouth, this tour is the true essence of The Shires distilled down into a 100 minute show. They'll make you laugh, cry and dance during the course of the evening and the most heartening thing is that they are as genuine as when we first bumped into them in 2014. The other highlight of the tour is seeing who they have picked for their support slot, The Shires picks in recent years have included Kezia Gill and Sinead Burgess who have both moved on to bigger and better things, this tour alone has among others featured Outpost Drive and Alyssa Bonagura and tonight the honour would fall to First Time Flyers buoyed by their recent addition to the Radio 2 playlist.

First Time Flyers were down to their core members for this show, matching The Shires going acoustic, so this was a different sort of show to the recent C2C shows. Taking to the stage in a pin drop silent theatre, the FTF, would take up their usual positions, Tim Prottey-Jones to our left, with guitar, kick drum and vocal duties, flanked by Poppy Fardell and the ever enthusiastic Vicky Manser on shaker and vocals with Jake Morrell completing the quartet on guitar and vocals.

They would immediately warm things up with "Gold" with it's scene setting guitar into, immediately introducing us to one of the foibles of watching FTF perform and that is their sharing of the vocals.

So while it was Vicky that would take the first verse, it was Poppy who would lead out on the second, Playing acoustically really gave a chance to savour the harmonies and undoubtedly when all four members are singing they make a most powerful sound.

To prove that point the intro to "Primadonna" begins with all four singing the snappy fast paced intro. It would be Tim that would lead out on the Lady A influenced "Looking Back Now". With Lady A mentioned in the intro and a snippet of "I Need You Now" incorporated. this seemed to really play to the band strengths. An unintentioned bit of hilarity came with "First Dance" which was dedicated first,mistakenly to Hayley then corrected to Kayleigh after much stage clarification. Once again it would show the band at it's finest with their four part harmonies, and closed with Vicky wishing Kayleigh "Have a Lovely wedding"

The brand new single "Stay" , is a cunning little tune, the strident guitars, drum and happy smiles from the performers are at odds with the lyrics being sung, but with it's infectious, extended title stretched over many syllables, it is left to the listeners discover that one day for themselves. Poppy perfectly recreated her very special solo cameo on the song which is nice moment in the spotlight. Their short little warm up slot would close with two more singles "Jump" and the the single that kicked everything off for FTF, the more Fleetwood Mac leaning "Happier" which let them leave the stage with warm up duties well and truly completed.

They would later return to help out The Shires to build a party atmosphere on "Nashville Grey Skies

Afterwards a healthy steady stream of new found fans kept the merchandise table, ( with celebrity saleswoman Vic Allen on checkout duties ) busy virtually clearing them out of stock by the end of the evening. It all bodes well for their forthcoming album and tour later in the year.

For full coverage of a Shires show from this tour then check out our coverage of the Hayes Beck Theatre show. The Wycombe show followed similar lines but had slightly different stand out moments.

The transfer of "State Lines" from piano to guitar was an improbable success given the perfection of the original. Crissie's version of "Daddy's Little Girl" always a moving moment was made even more so by various shout out's from the crowd saying quite how much it meant to them.

The great lost hit single "Sleepwalk" did now seem like the sort of classic that should've have been picked up on at the time, now less cluttered and reduced to its core elements.

Of course "Island In The Stream" remains a great communal singalong. With a huge standing ovation at the end, there is most definitely an audience for a resurgent Shires - "It's about time" . let's hope the new album will incorporate and capture the essence of this tour, that has made it such a success.