With C2C 2018 looming ever nearer, the dates before and after the festival tend to get pretty busy with acts either honing their skills in readiness or getting a chance to play extended sets to their new fans . Tonight sees Catherine McGrath, a perennial opener at many London shows finally get her own headline slot in the capital as her UK tour hits its final date.
Support tonight was ably provided by The Adelaides, also appearing this weekend and they got off to a suitably high octane start with “Jack Daniels” which is almost guaranteed to get the crowd on your side. With a heavy bassline and quite a small space it proved to be a full on experience from the girls as they rattled through a number of original songs and occasional covers. “No Survivors” is their token ‘torch song’ with lighters ( well mobile phones ) duly shining stagewards. An almost inevitable cover of "My Church" was also included (I wonder how many times we’ll hear that at C2C this year…). “Reckless” is an original song about a friend burning their bridges and many of their other originals seem to be based on real life experiences. Final song of the set “Jelly-Baby” raised a few chuckles from the audience, you’ll understand why when you hear it!
Catherine took to the stage at around 9pm and launched straight into recent single “Just In Case”. Rather than being overwhelmed by her first solo sold-out headline show, Catherine seemed to relish the opportunity to run through some firm fan favourites and to introduce us to a few new songs. “Starting From Now” kept the audience before Catherine took the chance to announce that her album will be released in May and played one of the new songs of the night “Good at Love”. This song is very in the ‘country Taylor’ style and finishes in quite a rock style. It was then time for a ‘classic’ song in “Hello Would Have to Freeze Over”, with the crowd joining in enthusiastically. Giving the band a break Catherine chose to introduce us to one of her favourite Rascall Flatts songs, Ellsworth, it's not a well known song so well done for bringing this gem to our attention. Comparisons to Taylor Swift are inevitable and, considering “Cinderella” was written by Liz Rose, somewhat unsurprising – but to live up to that billing just goes to show how much she has achieved in a fairly short period of time. there was a trio of new songs, “Lost In a Country Song”, inevitably put me in mind of Maddie & Tae; “Never Thought It was Going To Be Me” which had a slow bassy start but neat vocals; and finally “Enough For You” which was written in Nashville and is about a relationship you give everything to, but they let you go. The new single “Wild” has been a part of Catherine's set for some time and tells the tale of a fated trip to a Coldplay concert with a guy who’s still in love with his former girlfriend, it is is a great song and should serve to cement her position as a huge prospect in the country scene. The set soon to drew to a close and after a little preamble about how hearing the final song on the radio still seems crazy we were in to “Talk of This Town”. With an audience singing along in the chorus and the pleasure and surprise clearly showing she was off to celebrate her first headline performance.