Last night, 29 March 2018, we attended Yes Lad’s Spring Tour at the O2 Academy 3 in Birmingham. Support acts for the band were Will Homewood and Danny Dearden. It was pouring down with rain, but all three artists managed to make it worth waiting outside for the doors to open.
Yes Lad greeted every single person upon entering, this was such a heart-warming thing to see as they truly care for their fans. Will Homewood was also doing a meet and greet beside his merch table, near the bar, allowing fans to have a picture with him too. The O2 Academy 3 is an intimate venue that allows for a small audience to watch their favourite artists perform. The stage is perfectly located, allowing every gig attendee to see the performance.
First on stage was Danny Dearden. He seemed more like a host than an actual support act as he talked to the crowd and got us excited about the upcoming acts. His energy was addicting as he sang some great songs and showed off his vocals.
Danny Dearden sang three songs in total, with the last one being a cover of “Heaven”, originally by Bryan Adams but made famous by DJ Sammy & Yanou feat. Do. His vocals were on point and he totally geared us up for Will Homewood, who was next on stage.
We last saw Will Homewood perform almost six months ago at The Hara’s Only Young Tour in October. Every time we see him live we forget how crazy talented he really is until he sings his first few notes down the microphone. He started his set off with a cover of “Scared To Be Lonely” originally by Martin Garrix and Dua Lipa. As per usual, he had really connected with the song and easily sent out the emotions of the track to the crowd.
He sang some originals mixed in with various covers; we heard “Crossroad” and “Weight Of Us“, the latter of which ended his set superbly and can be downloaded and streamed on all platforms. His originals are always a highlight of his sets as he manages to nail them perfectly and really excites the audience.
There were various covers performed by Will Homewood, but he totally impressed us with his version of Niall Horan’s “On The Loose”. He made the song sound as if it was made for him, and it just blew us away completely.
Will Homewood certainly managed to excite the audience for the main act, Yes Lad. This five-piece boy band, consisting of Cian Gleeson, Joel Healey, Sonny Hardman, Lewis Maxwell, and Jake Donlan, sure knows how to perform and engage the audience from the get-go. The group sang quite a few original songs, most of which were amazing to hear live. If you’re wondering where you’ve heard the name from before, they were a contestant on The X Factor series 13, where they got to Judges’ Houses.
Throughout, they danced to their songs, bringing incredible energy and managing to entertain everyone. They smashed it on the songs that they have officially released, including “Walk Away” and “Nada”, the latter of which we heard twice throughout the set and the song got stuck in our heads all night.
They stripped the set back in the middle, giving us some acoustic tracks, one of which was an acoustic version of their single “Something More”. Which we simply adored as it totally worked as a stripped-back acoustic version. We also loved “SOS”; these guys have flat-out amazing harmonies that resonates deeply with every single listener.
The covers that they sang included a snippet of Tough Love feat. Ginuwine’s “Pony (Jump On It)” as Jake Donlan danced, a cover of Bruno Mars’ “Finesse”, and a Jackson 5 mash-up which saw all five band members don afro wigs.
We have to admit, we had one of the best times seeing all three acts perform at the O2 Academy 3 in Birmingham. Yes Lad deserves chart hits with their amazing songs, dance rhythm and on-point harmonies. We can’t wait to see what the future will bring for these guys.
We Snapchatted the show on our story, so if you haven’t already added us on Snapchat, our username is CelebMix – we highly encourage you to do so. The full Snapchat story video has also been uploaded on to YouTube, so if you haven’t got Snapchat, or are reading this gig review 24 hours after the gig took place, then you can watch all that occurred below.