Sam Fender live in Newcastle review: a star-studded Toon celebration

“We’re tribal,” Sam Fender once said of his Geordie roots. “Anything from Newcastle that does good belongs to Newcastle.”

Sam Fender is, undeniably, “good”: the North Shields singer’s last year has been punctuated by headlining for 45,000 at Finsbury Park, a monumental debut at Glastonbury, and coming “full circle” by supporting fellow heartlands rocker Bruce Springsteen. By Fender’s own logic, he should belong to Newcastle — but as he returns home for a triumphant double booking at St. James Park, the city’s heart and soul are his to command.

For two days, Newcastle’s streets have been flooded by thousands of fans clad in the city’s black and white football strip. Scraps of Fender’s ‘Seventeen Going Under’ — an anthem about growing up 20 minutes down the road — float from every packed bar in town, including a Greggs that’s been converted into a celebratory dive bar for the occasion.

When fans fill St. James’ Park on Saturday (June 10), days of anticipation explode when Fender strides on-stage to fellow Geordie Mark Knopfler’s ‘Going Home: Theme Of The Local Hero’. “Alright, let’s gan,” Fender grins, opening with bouncy crowd-movers ‘Will We Talk?’ and ‘Getting Started’ before switching gears with ‘Dead Boys’, a track addressing the region’s high rates of male suicide. The audience belts back every syllable, carrying that passion into ‘Mantra’ before Fender invites his brother, Liam, on-stage to cover The Boss with ‘I’m On Fire’. Later, Sam acknowledges the rest of his family has also come to watch him play the “best night of my life” — including his dad, whose relationship with his son is explored in ‘Spit Of You’, played before thousands of swaying phone lights.

Despite the heavy subject matter in Fender’s music, the singer has a knack for guiding crowds through his setlist’s emotional highs and lows. With a bracing “howay,” he fires the stadium into frenzied mosh pits with ‘Spice’ and ‘Howdon Aldi Death Queue’, Fender’s most chaotic live tracks made complete with pyrotechnics.

When the crowd has stopped thrashing, Fender seizes his hometown’s energy, leading chants of “Toon Toon” while banners reading “Geordie pride” and “this city is believing again” flutter from the stands. When Fender brings out his childhood guitar teacher to embrace on-stage, it looks like we’re in for a moment of sentiment — but then they’re joined by AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson, and half of Newcastle ruptures their vocal chords in disbelief.

The crowd is still roaring senselessly when AC/DC’s iconic riff for ‘Back In Black’ begins. Fender plays off Johnson’s trademark rasp with a bluesy croon, while a rapturous North Shields guitar teacher shreds to a crowd of 50,000. Moments ago, Fender proclaimed it was a “fucking good time to be a Geordie” — and when the hometown heroes fly into ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’, the sentiment is mirrored in every screaming face.

When Johnson eventually leaves the stage, Fender is speechless. There’s a brief pause as he regains his senses, taking his first ever stage selfie — “I feel like an influencer,” he giggles — before winding down with ‘Play God’ and ‘The Dying Light’, the latter of which he dedicates to everyone in attendance. After a brief pause, the encore arrives with a soulful rendition of ‘Wild Grey Ocean’ and a late ‘Happy Birthday’ sing-along for bassist Tom Ungerer before the hits everyone’s been waiting for: St James’ Park belts out the high notes to ‘Saturday’ before Fender can sing a word; while the hook of ‘Seventeen Going Under’, which has been ringing through Newcastle for the last 48 hours, finally erupts in full force.

When ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ closes out the night and the last Newcastle flag stops fluttering, the sense of community prevails. Tonight, the city has come together for a moment of catharsis — not to commiserate over the issues of poverty, drug use and mental health struggles that punctuate Sam Fender’s catalogue, but to rally together and stand, singing, in spite of them.

As for their prodigal son, this weekend will be a talked-about highlight in Sam Fender’s career for years to come. Tonight also proves Fender is ready to step into stadium tours  — and with a third album seemingly imminent, fans may not be waiting long.

Sam Fender played:

‘Will We Talk?’
‘Getting Started’
‘Dead Boys’
‘Mantra’
‘I’m On Fire’ (Bruce Springsteen cover)
‘The Borders’
‘Spice’ – pyro
‘Howdon Aldi Death Queue’
‘Gets You Down’
‘Spit Of You’
‘Alright’
‘Back In Black’ (AC/DC cover with Brian Johnson)
‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ (AC/DC cover with Brian Johnson)
‘Play God’
‘The Dying Light’
‘Wild Grey Ocean’
‘Saturday’
‘Seventeen Going Under’
‘Hypersonic Missiles’

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