Two weekends ago, we were at Truck Festival to witness Manchester band Spangled headline This Feeling and Hunter Boots stage.
All images courtesy of Alan Wells Photography.
A year earlier, they were on early to a big crowd on the Market stage, and as such, the intimate tent was rammed well before their arrival. The buzz was palpable, sent into a frenzy with radio icon John Kennedy’s rabble-rousing introduction.
Bounding on stage like kids on cherryade, Spangled opened with Swordfish Trauma to show the world everything great about the band. Frontman Ben Johnson’s Roald Dhal via Neds Atomic Dustbin's sense of gambol lit up the playful lyrics. The guitars strayed from the funk of Prince to the psyche of the Roses, sending the packed tent into an Ian Brown shoulder-swaying march of blissed-out glory. As Haliday let loose in the solo, there was a tangible feeling that Hendrix had made the soundtrack to Miami Vice.
‘Crank Up The Splendour’ tapped into the Roses’ cuter songwriting style with the paisley guitars swaying in a hazy glee. Johnson, equally as distinct as Brown was, allows his steeliness to melt and rise throughout. His time on the bigger stage last year has lent him the tools to take a crowd on a journey within one song, let alone a whole set. A masterful performer has been born.
Elsewhere, the set explodes with the amusing ‘Horizon’s Glance’ and the Blur-esque ‘Charlie Hills’, but the heartfelt ‘Good Life Better’ is what sends this audience home with irremovable memories. The gothic psyche guitars sent shivers through the souls of all who witnessed this ode to a lost father. When Johnson sings, “That's when all of the scars inside of my soul were gone” in the closing stages, Spangled transcends to a higher power. Guttural, poetic, and vital, the band shows there is a substance anchoring their gaiety.
Click the image below for tickets to their upcoming show:
