Gig Review: CVC & Hannah Robinson – An Evening At The Grove, Newcastle

Fresh off their latest single ‘The Remortgage Anthem’ being named Purple Radio Track of the Week (in what I can only assume is the crowning moment of the band's career so far), Welsh rockers CVC are embarking on a debut UK headline tour. I had the pleasure of attending the Newcastle leg of the tour, at the 400-cap venue ‘The Grove’ in the east of the city - just up the road from the iconic Gateshead Millennium Bridge.

I arrived at the venue just in time to catch all of Hannah Robinson’s set, the support act for the evening. The role of the supporting act is often to break the wall between the audience and the artists and Hannah and her band fulfilled this role immaculately with infectious vocals and melodic guitar lines. I had seen Hannah previously in an acoustic performance with her guitarist at Northern Kin Festival in April, but this was the first time I had witnessed her in her more natural habitat, with a full band. Playing a beautiful cherry-red Gibson ES, for those of you who are interested in that sort of thing, Robinson and her band set the tone for the evening with what seemed to me to be a faultless set minus a false start on one song, a moment which only served to further bond the band with the audience. Hannah told me afterwards that she had originally bought a ticket to the show as a fan of CVC before later being asked if she wanted to support, but she did not look at all out of place warming up the stage for the headliners.

Hannah’s final words of ‘Enjoy CVC’ also seem especially apt, and could be read differently as ‘Enjoy, CVC’ as that is exactly what the band did as soon as they kicked off their set with the feel good anthem ‘Good Morning Vietnam’. They immediately followed this up with the slower ‘Woman Of Mine’ and after this opening I inexplicably had ended up about 5 feet closer to the stage than I had been merely two songs earlier. From there, the set only went up in grooviness, with particular highlights being ‘Music Stuff’, my favourite track by the band and Mademoiselle - I challenge you to listen to either of these without at least tapping your feet. Both these tracks exemplified the ‘Collective’ in the band’s name - which stands for Church Village Collective, a nod to the Welsh village the band hail from, and the show gave the impression of inviting the audience to be a member of this collective. This was further shown in a later track: the now newly released cover of ‘Lady (Hear Me Tonight)’. It was a track everyone was familiar with, even those who were unfamiliar with CVC, and went far in allowing the band to involve the crowd in the show. This performance and subsequent release sums up the band perfectly and the importance they so clearly place on live performances as their take on the iconic dance track was borne directly out of their live shows.

The energy never dropped, and yet I never felt swept along by the set; its careful curation was captivating. By the time the band got to their biggest hit ‘Sophie’ (the song I will be eternally grateful for showing up on my Discover Weekly) I was barely a foot away from the band and the crowd swayed along to the jazziness of the track. The ability to be so close to the stage is testament to The Grove, an unassuming venue from the outside (the entrance is literally in an industrial estate car park), but a real gem of a small performance space in which the audience can truly feel connected to the band on stage. This feeling of intimacy between the musicians and the fans was played on by the band, as they messed around with the pauses in songs, shortening and lengthened solos and breaks. All of this served to keep the audience on their toes as we sang the lyrics back at them. With the final track ‘Docking the Pay’ the energy in the room came to a head, and not a single person wasn’t dancing.

CVC certainly lived up to their billing as the electrifying live act they are hyped up as, and this definitely won’t be the last time I see them, especially since I was swayed by the show into buying a T-shirt, as they continue to build off the back of their debut album in their fledgling career.

By James Woodward