FEATURE:
Play Devil’s Advocate
Sam Fender and the Realities of Touring
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WHEN it comes to artists who do not have…
much luck with their voice, Sam Fender must be near the top of the list. It seems he has been struck down with a chest infection, so he has had to reschedule a load of gigs here. I guess artists cannot avoid it because, like all humans, these things do happen. This NME article reveals more:
“Sam Fender has been forced to reschedule shows on his UK tour for the second time, after suffering from continued ill health.
The ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ was set to begin a run of postponed shows in Birmingham, Bristol and Newcastle tonight – which were originally shelved when he suffered a respiratory tract infection in December 2019.
In a message to fans this afternoon (January 30), Fender has confirmed that the shows will be rescheduled once more after he experienced continued health issues and a family bereavement.
“I’m gutted to have to do this again.. I’ve had an absolute shocker with my health,” Fender told fans.
“It’s been a series of unfortunate events this last month with chest infections, laryngitis and a family bereavement, and now I’ve come down again with tonsillitis. I’m raging, all I want to do is get back out and sing, but I just can’t.
“We’re going to reschedule these shows, and will let you know on the new dates as soon as possible. I know this is massively inconvenient, I can’t apologise enough, I’m so sorry.
“My immune system is totally shit at the moment, I’m doing everything I can to combat that. The only thing I can do is tear the fucking roof off when we reschedule again”.
Fender, it seems, has not been fortunate when it comes to illness and gig timing. I will source from this Guardian interview of August 2019 later, but Fender talked about his voice and problems with it:
“This is, to be fair, possibly the worst time Fender could be doing an interview. Tomorrow’s show is the first since his voice went on strike a month ago. The following day he is due to support Neil Young and Bob Dylan in Hyde Park. Last month, his voice problems meant he had to cancel his scheduled Glastonbury appearance; until yesterday, he didn’t know whether he’d be able to sing this week at all, let alone do a press interview. “I did too much and haemorrhaged my vocal cord on the right side,” he says. “I’ve not stopped touring for two years, and then I crashed and burned. I realised that you can’t maintain that high. And now I’ve got myself back on my feet and I’m naturally a bit scared. Because this thing, it can destroy you, it really can”.
One can appreciate fans have been waiting to see him play and, with the release his debut album, Hypersonic Missiles last year, the demand and buzz has increased. I do wonder whether there is too much pressure on artists to perform, and whether we take into consideration the effort and resilience needed. There was a social media backlash against Fender. Many were wondering how he could be blighted by vocal issues yet again. Again, musicians are human beings, and one would not slag off their local mechanic if they took some time off now and then to recover – or maybe they would.
Things are worse for musicians, as they are naturally in contact with a lot of people; they also use tour buses, so are in close confines. Avoiding illness and issues is, sadly, part of music. In Fender’s case, maybe there is a deeper issue that needs addressing. One cannot speculate as to his overall health and prognosis, but he must be feeling stressed and gutted having to reschedule. The sort of opprobrium aimed the way of Fender has been galling. Fans do pay a lot for tickets; they have to book time off and look forward, but most will not lose money, and it is a necessary move from Fender. I have written a feature about Madonna, who has had to cancel a few of her gigs lately because of pain and ill health. Regardless of age of how many dates you play, there is that risk of injury or illness. Fans are entitled to feel annoyed, but I find little use blaming an artist or wondering how they could get ill. Artists like Sam Fender do not do it on purpose and, added with the pressure of gigs and the long hours on the road, I am surprised that tour cancellations are so uncommon. I will end by stating why we need to have more compassion for artists but, before, I want to return to that interview from The Guardian. As a working-class artist from the North, Fender has had some years of struggle, but the tag of a ‘poor’ or ‘struggling‘ artist is not something Fender associates with himself:
“Fender has the guitar, but also the cheekbones of a supermodel and songs about male suicide, the spice epidemic and fear of nuclear disaster. The only songs in his repertoire that are in any way romantic are about drunken casual sex. His foamier lager anthems recall Liam Gallagher, if Liam was in any way woke. But Fender really can write songs. His singles, such as Hypersonic Missiles (also the name of his forthcoming debut album), are lethally catchy – like a more brooding Killers coupled with a boyish, brass-loving Bruce Springsteen, albeit more Newcastle than New Jersey. And his voice is nothing like the pigeon-warble of his peers, often high-vaulting to Jeff Buckley levels of vulnerability. Elton John is a fan. So is Stormzy, who recently left him a nine-minute voice message about how much he loved his song Dead Boys, a title that leaves little to the imagination.
Fender says he feels uncomfortable being lumped in with the Toms, Jameses and Georges of guitar pop. “I don’t see myself as part of that, because I’m from Shields, and up here is a very different world,” he says. It exasperates him a little that most people “can’t see that – they probably assume that I’m privately educated”. Or, worse, manufactured.
He stops himself. “[I sound like] I’m playing the whole ‘poor northerner boy’ sympathy card. I hate that. You don’t want to cling on to the whole ‘I’m a class hero’ thing, because it can seem not genuine at all, like. Technically, I started off quite comfortable. I lived in a council estate for half of my life, but not the beginning of it. Before my parents split up, we lived in one of them terraced houses, which was quite nice. And my dad was working, and my mum was a nurse. But if I’m honest about it, the past 10 years of my life were tough. It wasn’t easy”.
Sam Fender is an artist worth supporting, and someone who will enjoy a very long career. Over the past few years, we have heard of artists living with depression and mental-health problems. It is tough being in the limelight and not letting fans down. So many artists have to put on a façade, and a lot people do not appreciate the hours an artist has to put in. Fender will make it up to the fans who were due to see him on tour very soon. It must be difficult playing so many gigs when you have a voice that has faced problems in the past. Some people are vilifying Fender, whilst the man himself has apologised and feels bad about the situation. It is annoying for fans when a tour is cancelled, but the artists cannot help it so, in the case of Sam Fender and other artists who are afflicted by illness, let us…
PLAY Devil’s advocate.