The Slow Readers Club, Media City Studios. 8th October 2026

This is a weird one. Tactically not a gig gig, but a gig as part of an industry event. This shouldn’t be important, but it does mean the mood is a little different. The venue is too, we’re in a TV studio at Media City. The other odd thing is the hour, it’s early with the headliners and by that, I mean the more established bands are on first, the line up is upside down, meaning this has been a real scramble to get here for The Slow Readers Club. I’m not wearing a Beyond The Music event lanyard and am I wearing a Readers tshirt, if I did have a lanyard, it might’ve been a bit easier to get in, to say it’s a proper faff really doesn’t do the bonkers levels of bureaucracy justice. Anyway, enough moaning. Once inside, I dry out and and settle in. It’s very civilised… and quiet. It’s a bit weird. The stage is draped black, the band dressed in black, the guitars and drum kit is black. It’s all a bit cold. There’s minimal lights firing as they play ‘All I Hear’. The atmosphere aside, they sound bloody great. ‘Technofear’ is majestic, but there’s little coming from the crowd and it makes it a bit of a struggle. A gig is as much about the crowd as the band and the band are doing all the work. There are a few “Readers” calls between songs, there are fans in, but not enough. Readers are not short on confidence though and as Aaron stands defiant and belts out ‘You Opened Up My Heart’ it doesn’t matter what the room is doing. Maybe everyone just needs to warm up, ‘Plant The Seed’ gets some arms waving and some group hand clapping. I knew this would be a weird one tonight, but you can hear buttons being pressed on the sound-desk between songs. The speakers sound like they’re hanging on for dear life on ‘Everthing I Own’, not because it’s loud, but because as one of the sparser songs, you can hear the drums pound that bit harder. The sound in here is good though, especially with it not being a dedicated venue. Aaron stomps and Jim looks close to levitating during ‘Forever In Your Debt’. As I close my eyes and the lights detonate through my eyelids, it’s me levitating. This is just pure joy and probably the reason I keep coming back for more, tonight is my 23rd Readers gig. It’ll stick in my memory as one of the weirder ones, but who doesn’t love a bit of weird. There’s one lad down the front that absolutely loves ‘Two Minutes Hate’ and ‘Boy So Blue’. I’m still struggling with the later, it still sounds like Coldplay, I can’t shake it. It’s like nothing else they’ve done, that one random song a band records to go on a Disney film soundtrack or some other curveball experiment. There’s no denying it sounds like a stadium banger though and threatens to break out of this quite intimate feeling space. I find myself toward the end bobbing my head. Damn it. Speaking of soundtracks, ‘Know This I Am’ is pure cinematic power and really packs a punch. Before ‘Modernise’ hits the aggressive disco button. Absolute fucking monster. ‘I Saw A Ghost’ would normally be a massive crowd tune, but it hits different in here tonight. It’s not stripped back, it’s quite faithful to the record, but it feels even more haunting than usual. ‘Lunatic’ closes as usual, instantly identifying the die hards in the room, if you know you know and then we’re done. It’s not even 10 o’clock. Like I’ve said, weird. Brilliant but weird.