Surrounding Newcastle-born singer-songwriter Andrew Cushin is a rather unique and conflicting aura of vibrant youth and a deference to all that is vintage. This is certainly reflected amidst tonight’s sold out audience; within the stark intimacy of the 250 capacity room, one can observe Cushin clone young lads sporting neat pudding bowl haircuts, lyric savvy girls no older than their late teens/early twenties, but also a generous helping of bald heads and glasses belonging to gents of a certain age.
The variance within Cushin’s audience is likely explained by his affiliations with some of British indie/alternative rock’s elder statesmen; he has been championed by Noel Gallagher, with whom Cushin has both toured and collaborated, and he is currently signed with Pete Doherty’s record label Strap Originals. Clearly in thrall to the musical past, Cushin has further cited Bob Dylan, Paul Weller, Donovan and The Beatles as influences. Thus, just in his mid-twenties, Cushin is in the business of both preserving the musical past and bringing a certain kind of classic singer-songwriting to a new generation.
Cushin arrives on stage, riling up the crowd, arms aloft a short moment after his four bandmates on drums, bass, lead guitar and guitars/keys. Opener ‘Love Is For Everyone’ – the title track from Cushin’s four week old second album – quotes The Beatles within it’s first two lines (“all you need is love”) and the hearty singalong that ensues is evidence that Cushin can, like his hero Gallagher, tap into a communal spirit with big, anthemic choruses.
‘Alright!’ is another example of this; an effectively catchy chorus, backed by a spiralling guitar riff, evolves into a “Whoa Oh Uh Oh” singalong and the lyric “I will raise my glass to anyone who feels the same” induces many in the crowd to thrust beverages skyward. There’s the always charming fan-comes-on-stage-to-play-along interlude as Cushin invites youngster Toby on stage to help perform ‘Catch The Sun.’ Cushin jokingly asks “You know the words don’t you?”, causing a humorous moment of panic with Toby planning to merely deliver rhythm guitar duties.
‘Catch The Sun’, it being a lyric used by Gallagher in his 2014 tune ‘The Dying of the Light’, is another instance of Cushin nodding clearly to his retro influences. The “song for the lovers” lyric during ‘A Song For You’ – just one of a full twelve tracks that Cushin performs from the new album – references Richard Ashcroft. Another newer track ‘Kiss The Sky’ brings to mind Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Purple Haze.’ Furthermore, Cushin’s Oasis style Gibson semi-acoustic and use of Orange brand amps, add to the pervasive sense of nostalgia.
While he and his band mostly fire through the setlist, the moments where Cushin engages with the audience reveal him to be affable, sharp and possessed of his native-Geordie wit. As the temperature rises in the packed, sweaty room, Cushin jokes “No expense spared” when he uses an oversized blue towel to mop his brow and, upon his drinking a yellow liquid from a clear water bottle, he acknowledges that it looks like he’s consuming his own piss. Later Cushin jokingly puts the crowd on the spot when he asks whether we prefer the first or second album (“Fucking answer that one, then”) and, after expressing surprise that Bristol Rovers are “still a thing”, he playfully skewers the Gashead majority by comparing their success to that of a pub team.
Cushin’s lyrical style is one utilising a direct, emotive earnestness, rather than anything particularly literate or artful. In the world of wordsmithery, it’s more Oasis than The Smiths, but Cushin does have a certain knack for the communal connection of a big chorus that echoes the former. Older favourite “It’s Coming Around Again”, induces the mass sighting of hands and pints being held aloft and it’s not often that one witnesses both teenage girls and men in their sixties mouthing the same lyrics.
‘Where’s My Family Gone’, a one off track from 2020 that was produced by Gallagher, is the first of the evening’s tracks to be primarily stewarded by keyboard, and its crunchy guitars set an anthemically dark timbre. ‘Wor Flags’ (presumably borrowing from that Slade/Oasis quirk of deliberately misspelled titles) is propelled by stabbing, staccato chords and culminates in multiple boisterous “La la la” singalongs.
Cushin and his band return for a three song encore, including ‘Hollywood’, a fierce rock stomper while ‘You Don’t Belong Here’ contains a Franz Ferdinand-esque flavour of Indie Disco. As well as his anthemic approach to songwriting, the pervasive chants of “Andrew, Oh lay, oh lay, oh lay” that have been heard all night, is further evidence of Cushin’s ability to connect with his audience. And it doesn’t seem to matter if it’s a teenage girl or bald, 60 year old gent.
Scott Hammond