Live Review: Spector - Manchester Academy, 31/10/2019

With Autumn touring season now in full swing, it’s hard to believe that October has already been and gone. On Halloween we joined Spector for their mid-tour spooky themed show in Manchester.

The stage was set up with cobwebs and pumpkins, and with spooky themed music playing in between sets, it was soon evident how much effort had gone into making this show Halloween themed. Most of the crowd were dressed up, which of course included the bands too.

As Spector came out, it quickly dawned on me that not only was it Halloween, but the 31st October was also the date that Britain were scheduled to leave the European Union and this certainly influenced Fred Macpherson’s Halloween costume. Enter… ‘dead in a ditch Boris Johnson’, AKA the most iconic Halloween costume of the year!

Kicking things off with ‘Bad Boyfriend’, the crowd were lively from the get-go. Singing back every word, sitting on friends’ shoulders and even crowd surfing; fans were clearly having a good time, and this reflected on the band, who were equally enjoying themselves.

Spector played a mix of everything, which included early singles, album tracks, new songs and we even got a first ever live play! The 2016 single ‘Born in the EU’ had never been played live before and we were there to experience its first ever live performance, which felt like a very special moment. Another special moment for the band came as Fred Macpherson stated that this was the bands biggest headline gig in the city since 2012, claiming “we usually just play Gorilla”.

Instead of an encore the band chose to hold a costume competition instead, I mean, why not eh? This saw a handful of fans selected to come up on stage for a crowd vote. After much deliberation, a rendition of John Lennon and Yoko Ono claimed the prize; tickets to a Spector show and some merch, winner!

Spector finished with ‘Never Fade Away’, ‘Chevy Thunder’ and ‘All The Sad Young Men’, arguably the biggest crowd pleasers of the night. The gig had come to an end, but for some lucky fans that wasn’t the end of Spector’s Halloween shenanigans, the gig was followed by a midnight show down the road at Jimmy’s.

Words and Photography by Abbie Jennings