“This is quite a special place for me,” Fred Roberts admits halfway through his set at Revenge in Brighton. “I’ve been here quite a lot, and now I’m playing it.”
The 21-year-old had shared online about the importance of the venue in his life and his performance as part of the fundraiser feels like another landmark moment.
The London-born singer followed last year’s debut at The Social with a sold-out night at The Courtyard Theatre in March – it’s been quite the nine months for Roberts, all soundtracked by his Sound of My Youth EP. It’s that mini-record which punctuates the set at Revenge.
The pulsing title track makes for an anthemic opener with its supercut coming-of-age tale and the songwriter has Revenge at its most fervent when leaning into his full-blooded production.
‘Runaway’ is a rattling flick delivered with ease and ‘Say’ follows suit with its euphoric chorus masking its story of love lost.
What makes Roberts’ debut EP so head-turning is the candour with which he embraces heartbreak. Those five songs track the end of his first relationship and that tale is laid bare halfway through the set in ‘Naive’ – a ballad laced with the intensity of a first queer love that floats over sparse guitar. “This song is about being gay and it being s**t sometimes,” he eloquently explains.
Roberts’ strongest release to date, ‘Naive’ packs a punch many artists would spend years trying to find. Elsewhere, ‘Disguise’ is transformed from intimate musings to a venue-filler with live production.
In between the EP tracks are unreleased numbers that show there’s still much more to come from the rising star. There’s a retro feel to ‘Desire’, which lands somewhere between the worlds of Troye Sivan and Bryan Adams, and it’s almost criminal to keep ‘Everything’ in the vault.
The singer’s 30-minute set comes to an end with ‘The Slowest Landslide’. Another hearty serving of heartbreak, the track slowly crescendos into a memorable final hurrah – Fred Roberts’ journey from Revenge partygoer to having his name in lights is complete.
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