Review: The Commoners / Madison Galloway

The Craufurd Arms, Milton Keynes, July 21^st, 2024

Reviewer / Photographer: Paul Dubbelman

Supporting The Commoners on this tour is fellow Canadian Madison Galloway.

Diminutive in stature but mighty in voice and presence, this is Madison’s first visit to the UK. Backed by Nik Hirst on Keys and George Love on Drums, Madison delivered a short set of mostly self-penned songs but managed to slip a cover of The Black Crowes ‘She Talks to Angels‘ into her set. One of the highlights was ‘The River‘ with Love’s rolling thunder drums underpinning a strong guitar riff and soaring keys and a fine vocal performance. A soulful voice coupled with impressive guitar skills; Madison’s performance was a sass-filled roots-rocker that will surely win her a lot of new fans on this tour. Unfortunately, her short set was curtailed further by a late start caused by malfunctioning equipment during the sound check. Despite this, Madison’s performance was assured, and her affable personality shone through, even succeeding in getting the crowd to join in a sing-along on ‘Devil in her Eye‘.

Madison Galloway is definitely a performer to keep an eye on, and I look forward to her returning to these shores in the future.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Set List:

Freedom

Hatebirds

Love Like Yours

The River

Devil in Her Eye

She Talks to Angels

The Commoners, the roots/rock 4-piece from Toronto, Canada, brought their musical mix of high energy riffs, soulful vocals, and rich harmonies to The Craufurd Arms, Milton Keynes on Sunday. They even brought along a fifth member on keys. For those that are not familiar, The Craufurd Arms is a very well-respected live music venue, situated just outside Milton Keynes, in the town of Wolverton, that has championed live music for many years. The self-proclaimed “Church of Noise” with its stained-glass windows depicting such notables as Prince, Kurt Cobain, and David Bowie, hosts multiple gigs every week in its 275-capacity music room.

It was that room that The Commoners stepped into, to deliver a 90-minute set to a very knowledgeable and appreciative crowd.  From the first note to the final bow, the band never relaxed the pace, never gave less than a hundred percent, and kept up a high-energy performance throughout. Fronted by Chris Medhurst on vocals and guitar, Ben Spiller (bass),  and Ross Citrullo (lead guitar), supported by Adam Cannon (Drums) and  Miles Evan Branagh on Keys, they never stopped moving, dominating the stage equally and collectively, to put on a show that surely won the hearts and minds of the unconverted. This was the fourth night of a 10-date UK Tour promoting their latest album ‘Restless‘. Unsurprisingly, the set list featured a number of tracks from the new album, along with a few from their previous albums along with a couple of covers. Opening with the heavy riffing, drum pounding, ‘Shake You Off‘ before sliding into the keyboard-heavy anthems ‘Who Are You‘ and ‘Devil Teasin’ Me‘ before taking the pace down a little with the soulful ‘Body and Soul‘ and the Allman Brothers-esque ‘Too Soon to Know You‘ and new album title track ‘Restless’.  Medhurst picks up the acoustic guitar for ‘See You Again‘, another beautifully crafted song that shows the band’s more soulful side, complete with great harmonies and some lovely keyboard touches. ‘Deadlines‘, from the previous album “Find a Better Way” is a flowing, mid paced, Southern Rock classic-to-be that slides into a near-psychedelic middle section, before returning to the Hammond-led riff. ‘The Way I Am‘ takes us back in to the heavy-riff territory but gives Medhurst’s voice the space to really soar. First cover of the night is an unusual one in some respects, The Beatles ‘Yer Blues‘. In the Commoners hands, it retains the underlying Blues feel, but is overlaid with some dextrous finger-work from Ross Citrullo – To be fair is fingers have hardly stopped all night as it is. The set closes out with more riffage in the shape of ‘Fill My Cup‘ and ‘Find A Better Way‘, before the band left the band left the sweat -soaked stage, while the crowd, unsurprisingly, roared for more. The Commoners duly obliged with a grooved-up cover of the Dave Mason-penned ‘Feelin’ Alright‘ which summed up quite neatly how we all felt.

The things that really impressed me about The Commoners was their take-no-prisoners approach to the gig, the sheer stamina, range, and power of Chris Medhurst’s vocal, and the musicality of every member of the band. Even after a performance that would have exhausted mere mortals, all five of them came out to the merch desk after to chat to fans, sign autographs and pose for selfies. The Commoners they may be, but they are surely destined to become roots-rock royalty.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Setlist:

Shake You Off

Who Are You?

Devil Teasin’ Me

Body And Soul

Too Soon to Know You

Restless

See You Again

Deadlines

The Way I Am

Gone Without Warning

Yer Blues (The Beatles cover)

Fill My Cup

Find A Better Way

Encore:

Feelin’ Alright (Dave Mason cover)

© All photographs are copyright of Paul Dubbelman / Dubbel Xposure Photography. They may not be altered or used without express permission.