News Tour Diary: Benjamin Francis Leftwich (Part One)

Benjamin Francis Leftwich at Norwich Radio.

Stockton - Georgian Theatre

First day of tour!! We got out the new back drop today with the shiny LED stars. Looks pretty sick! The Georgian Stockton Theatre is a really cool venue! Nice crowd too, good first start… So good to have DAUGHTER and Ned from MONUMENT VALLEY on tour too. Went to see Bob Fisher at BBC Teesside as well. Nice guy!

Sheffield - Leadmill

I love Sheffield. Always seem to have good shows there, I think it’s the student vibe… we were playing at the Leadmill which is the gig part of this big club…

The crowd were so decent, rowdy but cool. Apart from the one guy who started talking on his phone on the front row at a really quiet point in the set.

I played my Bruce Springsteen ‘Atlantic City’ cover tonight. I forgot how much I love that song! SUNNY DAY!

Lincoln - Tokyo

Sooo Lincoln Tokyo… Typical Tokyo industries… Weird/shiny nightclub… However… Such nice staff and we managed to get the PA to sound great. The crowd were so respectful tonight, a lot of couples! First Pizza Express of the tour too! Great pizza… well cooked base, not to much tomato sauce… good quality cheese. Really no complaints there. There was also a biggg disco ball in the venue. Cool. See you tomorrow.

Norwich – Arts Centre

First thing today was a trip to BBC Norwich for a chat and a song. Was cool but I smashed one of my Martin guitars by accident. Shittttt.

Norwich Arts Centre is an amazing venue in an old church! The acoustics were perfect. The crowd were SO quiet tonight while I was playing! Was an amazing vibe in there. My favourite venue of the tour so far, was such a great show.

My best mate Pip joined us today on tour, he’s done all my press photos so far and is so talented and such fun to have on the road.

Travel Lodge party to finish the night.

Nottingham – Glee Club

Nottingham was great. The venue was kind of like a small floor plan seated theatre with a balcony. Me and Pip watched Daughter and Monument Valley from the balcony tonight and they were so good. ‘Landfill’ by Daughter is such a beautiful song. I’ve got into the habit of having showers before I go on now… I enjoyed my set tonight but it was weird because there were people sat on all 3 sides of the stage, I didn’t know where to look!

Hull – Adelphi

The famous Adelphi was a lot of fun tonight… I think it is a family run pub… it has a really cool vibe to it and there is a pool table in a side room which has a bar that looks like the front of a bus. Very weird… The dressing room is behind the stage so I stayed in there for 2 hours before I went on tonight… it was nice to have some time to chill. I loved the gig, really intimate vibe. And the crowd were super quiet. So pleased to have finally played the Adelphi.

Benjamin Francis Leftwich in the car.

For Benjamin’s full list of upcoming tour dates, visit benjaminfrancisleftwich.com.