Sam Fender’s Newcastle gigs brought in £15million to local economy
Sam Fender’s recent headline shows in Newcastle are said to have brought in £15million to the local economy.
The slots took place at St James’ Park Stadium last weekend (June 9 and June 10), and were the biggest headline slots to date in the singer-songwriter’s career.
Both sold-out dates saw more than 100,000 fans flock to the Newcastle Stadium on Friday and Saturday, for what would become an iconic moment for the city, and a new milestone for the musician.
Supported by Hector Gannet, Holly Humberstone and Inhaler at the first night of the two-day residency, a highlight of the show included the North Shields singer performing a Bruce Springsteen cover at the opening show. An even more monumental surprise occurred on the second night, when Fender was joined on stage by rock icon and AC/DC legend, Brian Johnson. Here, the two performed covers of ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ and ‘Back In Black’.
Now, less than a week since the homecoming shows took place, business chief Stephen Patterson has hailed the gigs as a “huge celebration of Newcastle, the city, its people and its musical and sporting history”, and estimates suggest that they contributed at least £15million to the North East Economy.
“Hats off to Sam, his team and NUFC for putting on such a fantastic show,” he said (via The Northern Echo), adding that Newcastle city centre businesses reported takings being “significantly up” because of the concerts. “It is massively important for the city to host events of this scale and calibre and we need more of them.”
Newcastle City Council leader Nick Kemp also spoke of the impact that the shows have had on the city, adding: “With Sam Fender selling out St James’ Park on consecutive nights and the annual Blaydon Races on Friday, we’ve had more than 100,000 people coming into Newcastle for these three huge events alone, on top of our regular weekend visitors, all contributing to an incredible atmosphere.”
Elsewhere, the publication also noted that destination director for the NewcastleGateshead Initiative, Ian Thomas, called the weekend a “phenomenal example of regional pride”, and added that figures may even be higher than the £15million estimate.
“There was a united and electric atmosphere in the region, as people enjoyed everything we have to offer,” he said. “We predicted a conservative boost of £15 million to the local economy, but we expect the actual figure to be beyond these expectations, when accounting for spend across the whole supply chain. Hotels across Newcastle and Gateshead were at around 95 per cent occupancy, and anecdotal feedback from tourism and hospitality businesses across the city indicate a significant boost in footfall and spend over the weekend.”
In a five-star review of Saturday’s performance, NME praised Fender for his ability to unite the crowd, and maintain that electric energy throughout his set.
“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,” it read. “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.”
Ahead of the back-to-back concerts, the singer-songwriter also teased fans in the local area with a cryptic poster hinting at a new release.
The posters contained three variations of Newcastle United shirts, each one representing one of his albums. The first showed the garment with the number one on it – representing his debut 2019 album, ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ – and the second showed the number two, referring to his second LP ‘Seventeen Going Under’, which arrived in 2021.
the billboards outside st james park with the qr code go to this page > https://t.co/2QDNTCWU17
maybe we'll have news about a third album sooner than we think
pic.twitter.com/70OJlMKArX
— sam fender files (@samfenderfiles) June 8, 2023
It was the third shirt on the poster that caught fans’ attention, however, which simply showed a QR code next to it.
Upon scanning the QR code, it took fans to a link to pre-order a special edition commemorative St James’ Park picture discs of the musician’s upcoming third album.
Two different picture discs are offered (one for each night of the show) and both will feature photos from the weekend’s gigs.
Both of the picture disks are available on the musician’s online store, and will only be on offer to fans for one week — shutting off at 6pm on Saturday (June 17). Find out more information here.
Speaking to NME ahead of the weekend’s massive gigs, Fender described the new music as sounding “very pretty” with a strong “singer-songwriter” vibe. He also revealed that he has already written a number of songs for the next album.
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Liberty Dunworth
NME
