Gavin James raises spirits on a wet day at The Marquee

It was a very wet walk from Centre Park Road to get into The Marquee to see Gavin James on Saturday night, but once inside the positive atmosphere was exactly what we’ve come to expect over the years.

Opening proceedings was Man Alive, a solo project of Mark Prendergast, the lead guitarist of Kodaline. 

His latest single ‘Miles Away’ was released at the start of May and features Gavin James on bass and backing vocals.

Following Man Alive was Lea Heart, who brought her energetic show right to the audience, her cover of ‘Murder On The Dancefloor’ got a great reaction and perfectly prepared the crowd for the headliner’s set.

Roar

The roar that emerged when Gavin James walked out onto the stage was just the start of the huge reactions he and his band got from the audience.

Throughout the show, people were singing along, and clapping in time with the band.

As promised in his interview with The Echo, he left most of his new songs from his next album off the setlist and instead focused on previous singles and radio hits, setting the tone early with a very enthusiastic rendition of ‘Boxes’, the jaunty guitar line that drives the song had the crowd dancing.

At one point when Gavin was explaining his joy at being back at Live At The Marquee for the third time in seven years, he said “it’s not the marquee that makes it so good, it’s you guys…” as you can imagine the crowd roared back with mutual appreciation.

Poignant

He brought out Mark Prendergast to join him on a particularly poignant performance of ‘Afterlife’ which they co-wrote.

Considering his last two records have both topped the Irish charts it was no surprise to see the reaction songs such as ‘Greatest Hits’ received. At one point I spotted the people in the crowd recreating some of his dance moves from the music video. Arguably the best-received song of the night was ‘White Noise’, which he released late in 2023.

While staying away from new songs, he did break his own rule by debuting a song called ‘Goldrush’ which was written last week.

His encore featured ‘Always’ — one of his most streamed songs, hearing it being sung back to him with such passion by a huge crowd had a visible impact on him.