The Shires at 02 Academy 01/05/2022

Last week, the sounds of a Swedish superstar at Motion (though not, of course, of the blonde, sparkly variety we’re used to). This week, the turn of British stalwarts. Celebrating their tenth anniversary with a new album, 10 Year Plan looks back at The Shires’s decade at the top of country pop. Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes are two strangers who met on Facebook. Ben used to work at the Apple Store in Cabot Circus (a former colleague was in the audience last night). So, since 2012, suffice to say he’s come a long way. Indeed, both members have made it big fast. It was an upward curve, powered forward by Radio 2 and its core listenership (yup, no surprise I was the only student in attendance…). But, though they now share the roost with Ward Thomas, the original British country pop never fails to draw a crowd… middle-agers flood in from Exeter and Edinburgh. Not that they needed to, because the tour, from Weymouth on 22nd April, is heading north right up to Aberdeen.

It sounds exhausting, even for seasoned professionals. But, with a decade crowd pleasing under their belt, the pair are well rehearsed… and well entitled to the perks of fame. The new album’s single, I See Stars, got its airtime, they got their interviews, and now the whiskey has come out… quite literally, on stage, so we can monitor it (too grown up for boozing backstage). They have the stories too, from Daddy’s Little Girl, Crissie’s emotional coming-to-terms with grief, to I Just Want to Love You, the 2015 big hit that took them abroad. Back home, post-postponements, the family sounds of Britain’s Nashville effortlessly entertain both a dedicated fanbase and a broad church looking for a quiet night out.

Review by Xander Brett