Sam Fender: Local Hero or Hype?

by

Adam Harkus

Local Singer-Songwriter Sam Fender has just performed the biggest two gigs of his life, to an army of adoring fans at his beloved St. James’ Park in Newcastle. Unlike the majority of my social media feed, I gave it a miss. What on earth is wrong with me?

Sam Fender is a phenomenal vocalist.

One thing that is beyond debate is just what a great singer Sam Fender is. His god-given tenor range sets him apart from the crowd, as people just aren’t used to hearing a male vocalist sing that high. But more than that, it’s the power and emotion in that higher register that makes him a unique vocal talent I greatly admire.

Sam Fender’s approach to lyrics.

Bare, honest. emotional, explicit, and topical spring to mind, and the lyrics-first songwriting method helps Sam to get his message across in its purest form, without such trivial things as music muddying the waters. But the lyrics-first approach has a major drawback in that those well-thought-out words and phrases need to be shoe-horned into some sort of coherent musical structure, which isn’t always easy or successful.

Listen to Spit of You as an example, it’s a great song but you can tell that the lyrics came first in the way the words jar against the music, particularly in the first verse. It feels a little off.

Ostinato and similar chord progressions.

Sam’s trademark sound, in common with many of his musical peers, revolves around an Ostinato style of a repeating musical progression, with interest and variety coming from that incredible voice and range. Take Seventeen Going Under and Spit Of You, again. Very, VERY similar songs that basically loop a chord progression. Sam can pull it off, of course, he can change a verse into a chorus by going up a gear, he can make it work.

There is also such a thing as the Sam Fender chord, a C barre inversion with open G and high E you can hear all the way through Seventeen Going Under. Like Ostinato, Sam also spams this along with an m7 inversion in many of his songs, with only a capo, tempo, and vocals providing musical differentiation.

Sam Fender’s local boy done good schtick.

There are so many elements to this, and hat’s off to Sam, he has a business model, and it’s working!

I want to cover the most obvious element first, and a pet hate of mine: The whole singing-in-a-regional-accent thing. It’s just something I cringe about and don’t find necessary, especially when your vocals are this good. I guess it’s working for him and it’s his choice, but on a purely musical level, I don’t think he needs the gimmick. Some of the greatest singers this country has ever produced: Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Rod Stewart, Tom Jones, Bono… The list goes on. Do you hear them singing in a broad Liverpudlian, Scottish, Welsh, or Irish accent?

But it’s not just accents and lyrics. Sam is a Toon Army fan, still lives locally, and embraces everything North Shields (his and my hometown). Never has that been more evident in this weekend’s gigs, but I still didn’t go, and that’s because nothing I’ve mentioned so far necessarily equates to being entertained by his music for ninety minutes (Although Spit of You is still great).

Sam Fender putting North Shields on the map.

More than anyone else in my lifetime, Sam Fender has put North Shields on the map. He is a local hero and has the awards and fans to prove it. His music has even broken through to an unwilling average Joe like me, which speaks for itself.

I just hope that in the future, Sam produces music that doesn’t need that North Shields connection and that simply stands on its own as being universally great without gimmicks. He certainly has the talent to do so.

Comments

2 responses to “Sam Fender: Local Hero or Hype?”

  1. Paul Barrow avatar
    Paul Barrow

    I think you make some good points in this article. For the record I am a guitarist from near North Shields and I also decided not to go to the concert, possibly for similar reasons to you.
    Firstly I think Sam Fender has done remarkably well in his career so far, and has done a lot both for the local area and for increasing awareness in guitar music amongst a mainly younger audience. I generally enjoy listening to his music, but often feel I would like to hear a bit more prominent or varied guitar parts. I don’t have the knowledge of his wider catalogue that you have, but have played Seventeen Going Under and so get the point on the repeating chord progression throughout the song. Nothing wrong with this, but perhaps there is not quite enough to maintain my interest as a guitar player especially as they are a two-guitar band. He is however a great singer, as you say.
    The other reason I didn’t go to the concert – well to put it simply unlike the vast majority who did go i am not a Newcastle United fan. In fact I support their rivals, Sunderland, and so would find the whole experience particularly uncomfortable. There seems to have been a specific decision to market him with the Geordie / football audience but there is the danger that this leaves others like myself a bit cold. It will be interesting to see how this targeting of a particular audience develops as his career progresses.
    But I would like to end this post on a positive note. When I heard that Brian Johnson of AC/DC made a guest appearance I went straight into YouTube to watch the 2 songs they did together. I was intrigued to see how Fender and his other guitarist (Dean Thompson) tackled the songs. Thompson actually stepped out of the shadows on You Shook Me All Night Long, and got to take the solo on a Gibson SG alongside Johnson. I actually felt pangs of jealousy at this point as this is the stuff of dfeams, and I imagine that he will remember this moment for the rest of his life. Back in Black became more of a jamming session between Fender and his childhood guitar teacher who had been invited onto stage at this point. The band seemed energised at this point and appeared to like cutting loose a bit. Could this be a glimpse of their future of just a fleeting moment? And the other point that generally fascinates me – what did the younger members of the audience who came a!omg to sing along with Will We Talk and Hypersonic Missiles think of the rockier guitar parts? If Sam Fender manages to help bring about a revival in guitars and rock music in general then his legacy will be far greater than a couple of stadium gigs in Newcastle.

    Reply
    1. Adam Harkus avatar
      Adam Harkus

      Thanks for your comment Paul and welcome to the Blog.

      I think the answer to the question is he a Local Hero is a definitive yes, he’s done so much to put the town on the map and getting Phil up on stage was a great gesture.

      For me though, and you also touched on it, are the actual songs. Not the singing, that’s beyond debate even, he’s that good…. Not his story, not Newcastle United, not any of the fluff. I’ve only ever been interested in songs.

      There’s always hype. Which artist makes a living without it? But does it outweigh the songwriting?

      Reply

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