WILLIE. J HEALEY // THINK TANK?, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
Playing his biggest headline tour yet Willie J Healey entertains Newcastle with his infectious sound!
WILLIE. J HEALEY PERFORMING AT NEWCASTLE’S O2 ACADEMY - 03.03.19
PICTURE BY: WILL GORMAN PHOTOGRAPHY
★★★★☆
The last twelve months have been incredible for Willie J Healey; from teaming up with Laurie Vincen from SLAVES to then supporting SLAVES on their sold-out tour to now having his biggest headline tour to date, the support Healey has received has been great. From doors opening the crowd rolled into the intimate venue excited for the evening. Supporting Healey was local acoustic artist Brother Joe from Morpeth.
Brother Joe played an acoustic set which was refreshing to hear as many artists that play at the venue don’t tend to do these types of sets. Throughout his set I saw multiple people on their phones, opening up Spotify and following him, which is great to see. Having released his album just over a month ago this support will defiantly be great for him. Some tracks that he featured in his set included ‘Loving Is Good,’ ‘English Summer’ and ‘Red Wine.’ It was great to hear the album live first before hearing listening to the album on Spotify. Overall, I enjoyed his set and he sounded cracking.
As the crew sound checked and brought the setlists out on paper plates the crowd began getting excited with people moving from the seats at the back of the venue towards the stage. With now everyone at the stage, the house music stopped, Healey and his band entered the stage welcomed by cheering crowd. Starting the set off Healey began with ‘People and Their Dogs’ which has is his most popular on streaming sites, it’s clear with the feature of a juicy riff and brilliant vocals. Up next was ‘Pipe Dreams’ off Healey’s debut album ‘People and Their Dogs’ which was released last year. This slower song had the crowd singing its lyrics and it was great to hear! After this song a member of the crowd up held some flowers for Healey, he said ‘wow, you got me flowers? I got you some as well.’ He then handed her some flowers and asked the crowd ‘did anyone else bring me flowers?’ This caused some laughs from the crowd.
Some highlights of the evening included the crowd singing at the top of their lungs to ‘Love Lawn’ which has to one of my favourite tracks by him! As the night drew to a close their last track ‘Subterraneans’ and straight away as the group left the stage the crowd cheered. They continued to cheer until Healey and his band returned for the encore.. Finishing the night off they ended with ‘Lazy Shades of Pink’ and ‘Greys.’ Overall, I enjoyed his set and the progress he’s made since the last time I watched him when supporting SLAVES has been great. He sounded great and hopefully we can see another tour very soon.