Tom Grennan completes a triumphant six-concert residency at Esquires Bedford News

Tom Grennan returned to the ‘where it all began’ stage for the final two performances of a sold-out triumphant ‘residence’ at Esquires in Bedford on Sunday.

The chart-topping singer-songwriter announced the concerts in his hometown in March and after the initial dates sold out in seconds, a total of six shows were announced afterwards.

Grennan topped the UK official album charts with his second LP Evering Road, the follow-up to his acclaimed 2018 album, Lighting Matches, and next month he will embark on a 16-date UK tour – which includes a concert at Alexandra Palace in London.

Take a look at other number one artists with a similar influence to Grennan (17 million streams per month just on Spotify) and you suspect the majority would go for the ‘easy’ option and settle for just one gig of return home to a cavernous arena or instead, maybe their local park.

Both have their place, of course, but Grennan’s decision to perform six shows over three dates at Esquires says a lot about the singer-songwriter, the importance of the venue to him and his importance within the music scene. live.

So in recent weeks fans from all over Bedford and across the country have descended on Esquires for some of the smaller gigs you’ll see Grennan performing in the immediate future.

There were many times during his fifth “matinee” concert on Sunday afternoon that he stopped to talk about Esquires.

“I feel like that’s where it all started, on this stage,” he said midway through the set.

While in recent years Grennan has returned to Esquires for high-profile sold-out shows, he has already supported Wolf Alice and The Milk and has honed his craft on location early in his career performing countless times in the bar and in first groups.

Grennan arrived on stage Sunday with an enthusiastic reception after a short set from The Scruff.

His nine-track set consisted mainly of tracks from Evering Road, a few from his early days and his recent collaboration with Calvin Harris.

To be fair, he could have chosen any number of other tracks and the ones packed inside Esquires would have been just as in love.

Grennan was joined by regular guitarist Danny Connors, two backing vocals and fourth member on the keys.

After opening with Amen, by the time the back-to-back hits of Found What I’ve Been Looking For and Little Bit Of Love arrived, the atmosphere inside Esquires was electric.

Following the aforementioned Harris collaboration of By Your Side, Grennan ended with Something In The Water.

After 18 months of largely empty rooms, seeing a full one is still enough to make you shiver.

While other acts have returned to the Esquires stage since it reopened following the lifting of coronavirus restrictions, the hero’s return from the hometown of Bedford for six concerts was a perfect way for the venue kicks off the rest of 2021.

I found what I was looking for