Words and Pictures: Sophie Hextall / MindHex Media
As rock and metal icons start to come to the end of their careers, the music industry is increasingly on the lookout for new up and coming artists. Fresh off the back of a very successful time starring in the West End musical School Of Rock, four talented young musicians have come together to form what might be one of the next big names in rock music.
Chapter 13 will have first been seen by most people on a Saturday night on ITV performing on Britain’s Got Talent. Impressing judge Amanda Holden who awarded the band her golden buzzer, Chapter 13 rapidly gathered an adoring army of fans up and down the United Kingdom. After progressing through to the live semi-final, Tom, Jake, Jacob and Noah now find themselves on their first major UK tour. MyGlobalMind were lucky enough to have a photojournalist and fan on hand to cover the show.
It was quite a lengthy wait from the moment that the doors opened to the band’s arrival on stage during which time, groups of fans were screaming and singing all the lyrics to the band’s original songs in excitement. When they made their appearance on stage, to what felt like the scream of a thousand girls, they opened with one of their original songs (and most well known thanks to BGT), “We Own This Town” to which nearly everyone was singing the words and jumping up and down. Launching into each song with the sort of energy only teenage boys can possess, Jake seemed a bit overcome with excitement and decided to expose it in sudden outbursts that may have been too much for some of the parents lounging around at the back to cope with. Tom, looking every bit the vision of the clean cut American apple pie teenager, hid his more rebellious rock n’ roll visage, but only until his hand strummed his electric guitar. At that point he transformed from high school cutie to a serious rock musician.
Being the high school cutie, or at least looking like one is something that has never troubled either Jacob or Jake. With one of them wearing a backwards facing AC/DC baseball cap and the other wearing a t-shirt sporting the slogan “Who the fuck is Liam Gallagher?”, they wear their rock n’ roll creds firmly on their sleeves. Whilst we may all wonder the same thing about Mr Gallagher from time to time, we’ve never been confident enough to have it emblazoned across a t-shirt for anyone we come across to see. Fair play to Jake as Liam would probably have something to say about it, should they ever meet.
With Tom and Jake having the potential to become a famous front man/lead guitar combo, it fell to Jacob and Noah to drive the rhythm section with some serious energy. Hidden behind his drum kit for most of the show (more on that in a moment), Noah pounded the skins with the sort of ferocity usually reserved for a punch bag in the gym. To his right, Jacob was a constant ball of energy never once staying still and at times seemingly able to levitate into mid air such was the number of jumps that he put into his performance.
There were multiple stand out moments during the show not least when they decided to have a dance battle between the four of them on stage and then proceeded to get the audience to participate. First to dance was Jake, showing off by doing the worm, then Jacob showed off some of his moves and Noah rose from behind his drum kit to actually show himself at the front of the stage and tried his best to impress the audience (judging by the screams, he succeeded). Next up was Tom who laughed as he tried to persuade Noah to begin the next song to save himself the embarrassment of dancing in front of everyone. As the crowd chanted for him to dance he said that he “will only dance if you all dance in the next song”, encouraging the fans to really have a good time.
He then said that it would be a competition and the winners would receive a “special prize”. The band then played the next song and the audience were of course showing off the best moves they were able to in the cramped space they were in. When it was done, they announced who the winners were and Noah proceeded to give his drumsticks to them.
Before we knew it, the end of the night arrived. 14 songs including an encore of Forgotten Castaway, the song the tour was named after and then they were done. For those lucky enough, meet and greets would take place after the show or, as they were billed, “hug and a selfie”. A must have for any serious Chapter 13 fan.
Overall, a wonderful opportunity to see one of the first shows at the beginning of what will hopefully turn into a glorious career for the band. If they can avoid too much sex, drugs and rock n’ roll (well the sex and drugs for the next few years anyway) then they’re going to go a long way.
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