There’s a big ol’ crowd in town tonight, thousands and thousands of people. True, they’re here for the Boss, but around the corner from the Principality Stadium, The Feeling are playing Tramshed – albeit with what bassist Richard Jones calls an “unorthodox” difference. Due to lead singer Dan Gillespie Sells losing his voice thanks to a “weird virus”, the band cancelled the first two dates of their Greatest Hits tour, meaning it was touch and go as to whether tonight’s show would go ahead.
Luckily, there is a saviour in the form of 10cc’s Iain Hornal – a longtime collaborator with the band, he steps up where Sells can’t and belts out the hits. “He literally flew in to do this gig for us tonight!” Sells says, with uncharacteristic husk, before the band kick into Fill My Little World.
The Feeling have just released their seventh album, San Vito, but only one song from it is aired tonight, The Right Wrong: it’s the ‘hits’ that bulk out the set nicely, the majority of those coming from triple-platinum debut album Twelve Stops And Home. Sells isn’t meant to be singing tonight at all, under doctor’s orders, but that doesn’t stop him from taking the reins where he can – including on a tender moment for Rosé, where he and his piano take centre stage under a spotlight.
Hornal does get his own request in for the set, with Strange being added to the set at the last minute at his request (“we forgot about this song!” Sells admits), and there’s also time for some covers in the form of the Buggles classic Video Killed The Radio Star and the title track from Sells’ West End Olivier award nominated musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.
The main set finishes with a run of Sewn, Join With Us, and (of course) Love It When You Call. By this point, you wouldn’t guess Sells has the lurgy either, from the way he’s jumping around the stage like a man possessed. For the encore, The Feeling throw in I Thought It Was Over before finishing with a cover of Queen’s Fat Bottomed Girls. To quote Sells this evening, tonight’s show “was in some ways totally chaotic but in others completely beautiful”.
The Feeling, Tramshed, Cardiff, Sun 5 May
words JOSHUA WILLIAMS photos JON LUTON
