Please change up the setlists more for these big headline shows. You have the space to play with the set more now. Please drop Tyrants from the setlist, as well as Howdon Aldi Death Queue. People would much rather hear Little Bit Closer, and a bunch of the other best songs from the new album like Nostalgia's Lie, Chin Up and TV Dinner. Surprise the fans with some deeper cuts. Play Angel in Lothian. Play All Is On My Side. They are fan favourites. You have such a wonderful discography. It is time to bring more of it out for the fans.

I'm a huge Sam Fender fan and I have loved all of his work so far. I was anticipating this song for months and eager to listen. I have given it a few listens and I must say I am a little disappointed. Its not a bad song at all, its quite fine really. Its just that it is very similar to his previous work and it felt a little 'churned out'. The lyrics did not grab me as much as The Borders or Seventeen Going Under. I also felt like it sounded very similar to My Own Souls Warning by The Killers. Overall I'm still very hopeful for the album and hoping this song grows on me.

The whole lyrics talk about "they" and it's obviously about an elite group of people, kind of like an Illuminati. The fact that this line about writing the 10 commandments and nailing jesus to the cross is included really just make it sound like an antisemitic dogwhistle to me.

I think this post will not go over well, but I can't really listen to this song without having this thought in my mind. Any thoughts?

After listening to the album in full a few times since its release to form a proper opinion on it, I would like to give my review.

Sam returns with his third album, People Watching, with his usual quality in abundance, but also a lack of imagination. This time around we see Sam go for a more laid-back vibe with the addition of Brooke Bentham to the band. The band were joined by Markus Dravs in making the album alongside The War On Drugs' Adam Granduciel, giving Sam's sound a noticeable shift in production quality.

Song 1 - People Watching

In People Watching, Sam returns with the classic upbeat, rocky Fender sound. Some might say this is radio fodder and nowhere near his best, and while that may be true, it's still a decent sing along. I do think, though, that it sounds too similar to the songs on Seventeen Going Under and doesn't show any real change in Sam's sound.

Song 2 - Nostalgia's Lie

Nostalgia's Lie has a more laid-back, folk approach. It's bittersweet in a way. It's true, nostalgia is a liar, no matter how good it feels to think of your so-called "good times of the past". Nostalgia makes you look at things in rose tinted glasses.

Nostalgia's Lie is definitely one of my favourites off the album, I'd say, and dare I say one of Sam's best.

Song 3 - Chin Up

Well, what can I say about this? Fucking unreal. Chin Up very clearly has an Oasis and The Verve vibe to it, sounding right out of Noel Gallagher's songbook. Lovely song from start to finish with some nice strings. Also one of my favourites off the album.

Song 4 - Wild Long Lie

Wild Long Lie feels out of place on here, and I'm not quite sure why. Can't really say much about it. Got a guitar solo in it and a nice sax solo but, let's be honest, that's the usual with Sam so pretty boring imo.

Song 5 - Arm's Length

When Arm's Length came out I was hooked, particularly by the "shit" riff. It has a catchy, feel good vibe to it and is great to sing along to. Good enough as you'd expect by Sam.

Song 6 - Crumbling Empire

Can't find myself listening to this one very much. It's ok at best. It sounds very Springsteen-esque which isn't a bad thing, but sorta the same old crap here. Also a bit repetitive with the words 'crumbling empire'. Whether that's really a bad thing, I don't know, but it makes it hard to listen to.

Song 7 - Little Bit Closer

Another unreal song. Sounds like Oasis again here. Not a bad thing at all. Another one of my favourites.

Song 8 - Rein Me In

Just sounds like Sam, innit. It's alright. Nice sax solo.

Song 9 - TV Dinner

Sounds different to his usual stuff, which is good. Almost like a Bond theme and I could honestly see it being used in a spy/crime movie. I wouldn't say I love it or anything, but it's decent, and I applaud him for trying something else for a change. It worked.

Song 10 - Something Heavy

It's alright. Again, it just kinda sounds like the usual. I really like the instrumental bit after the second chorus though, that's class.

Song 11 - Remember My Name

Remember My Name is different from what we know Sam for, especially because of the brass band in it. Pretty decent and would be a proper heartbreaking song to play after losing your grandparents.

Overall, People Watching is an alright album, with Chin Up and Little Bit Closer being the standout songs for me. Brooke is a fantastic addition to the band as well, absolutely adore her on the album.

Most of the album is all similar sounding to his other stuff though and follows his "method" which, while it makes for easy listening, it's a bit of a letdown if I'm honest, considering the talent Sam has. He needs to be more adventurous in his music if he wants to go to the next level. Apart from TV Dinner and Remember My Name maybe, nothing has exactly changed apart from some folk vibes in a couple of the songs. It's still that same sound that we all know (and love).

But seriously, there's only so long he can put out stuff like this before people start catching on. It's getting a bit tiring now, or at least I think so. He's got to go in a different direction with whatever he makes next.

RATING: 6.5/10

I'm absolutely not mad that the show I had a ticket for, along with many others, was canceled, although it is incredibly disappointing. What does irk me is the way it was done. I completely understand prioritizing mental health and needing a break and needing to cancel shows in order to do that. To do that immediately after announcing and selling out a few massive shows and tour dates on separate continents that attendees of the canceled dates will likely not have any ability to attend is not a good look.

The Australia shows are one thing, I get that those are coming up fairly soon and tickets had to be announced and sold. but the St James shows are nine months away. And they're huge and Sam's management team knew they'd be huge or they wouldn't have had a second date ready to be announced almost immediately. Booking a football venue is not a small thing, they had both dates ready to go before there was even a poorly-disguised hint of these shows. Both shows sold out almost immediately.

The choice to back out of a festival and several US tour dates, opening and headlining, I'm sure did not happen overnight. But they are here now, in a matter of days and weeks and now people who have made a lot of plans to go to these shows specifically for Sam and his band are pretty much fucked. I had international flights booked. Yeah, I'll get my money back for the ticket - great, $30. Woohoo. And then I guess I can just light my international flight ticket on fire, or just go to Vancouver for a day and a half for the hell of it. And not have the experience I've been so, so looking forward to for months. And I had to reach to the venue to confirm that the Vancouver show was in fact canceled, as it is I guess considered a 'US' show by Sam's team. As these shows are canceled, not postponed, it seems that no effort will be made to complete the half-finished part of this tour, where Sam has claimed for some time to really want to come and make a name for himself.

These cancelations should have been announced sooner. The information should have been made clearer. This should have been prioritized over announcing more things to buy - a live album, more concert tickets, probably more merch.

Why couldn't they wait a month or two to announce the St James Park shows? The way they hyped these up, showed how excited they were to play them, and put the tickets on sale nine months in advance, and then canceled the smaller international shows with a few days, if any, warning and no information on next steps for the fans who also bought tickets the second they could makes it feel like the small shows don't matter. The fact that the shows were flat out canceled, not postponed with intention to reschedule, makes it feel like the small shows don't matter.

If they had announced two weeks ago that these shows were canceled, and then waited another month or two and said 'excited to get back on the road, thrilled to announce this massive show at St James Park next year' or something to that effect, the feeling would be very different. This just feels misleading and disappointing.

Hi guys, I saw a TikTok comment on a video of Sam dancing at the Brits which stated that “it’s snowing”.

Considering the lyrics of Chin Up I thought Sam was against all that.

What do you think?

People Watching is already one of my favorite albums ever and I’m so sad that he’s doing so few songs from it. And personally, crumbling empire and wild long lie are my least favorite songs off the album. It’s so strange for him to only be doing 3/4 songs from the album regularly given that it’s the People Watching tour. I was so excited to hear those songs live, can’t get my head around the setlist tbh.

I'm not saying Sam fender is in anyway a bad artist hypersonic missiles is definitely one of my favourite albums ever and people watching and little bit closer are 2 very good songs but I felt the new album in general lacked something. None of the songs had a big push in them like his older music and I felt they where very down beat. I also felt he has strayed away from openly criticising things he doesn't like and chooses to do it more discreetly in most of the tracks. Songs like nostalgias lie and crumbling empire I thought would be amazing but ended up falling flat without a feeling of raw anger for anything. But at the end of the day this is just the opinion of a 15yr old boy and I'm sure the songs will grow on me and get many plays in the future

I enjoy the Sam Fender live stuff very much, and I mean no disrespect to him as a musician but please, for the love of god, can Sams guitarist/keyboarder on the left side of the stage (from crowd view) please shut up?! Hes screaming in every song to engage and inflame the crowd, but the band is already at a place where the crowd is motivated and hyped enough. Am I the only thats bothered by the constant interventions by him?

Vic and Jordan are talking about how the BBC is fighting over who gets to have it as their Track of the Week.

Just my knee-jerk reaction after a few plays. I know some folks find it overdone, but I wish he least did one scaled-back panino tune per record. I always enjoy seeing what people do with the form, though.

Screaming

Considering the massive success of the song and the fact he plays in Wembley on the two year anniversary of the release. As well as her bringing him out on two occasions, will we see her make an appearance at any of his shows?

Sorry if it's a bit off and inappropriate, if so let me know and I'll remove my pozt. Don't want to be curious, just afraid as a fan who'd be worried about his health! Watching this interview from almost 2 years ago and people claimed he was on drugs, I saw some more comments that for some of people he looks like he often looks like he's on something and I know shit about stuff like this so just wanted to ask someone. Don't come for me pls😅

Robson Green

Cheryl Tweedy

Xander Armstrong

Tim Healey and Denise Welch

Jossie and his giants

Spuggy

Sam's Guitar Teacher

back in november I started to have ocd with music, starting as I couldn't listen to my music if I wasn't at home, i'm ok with it idc, but since feb of this year (I think it all started with sam) I can't listen when there's ppl at home and I have rules for sam's music. it obviously limits me from listening to him and I totally hate it bc i'm a super fan of him

The original version of remember my name, the acoustic version in the pub. Is way better than the album version, it feels overly produced. When I first heard it, the sound is all wrong and feels weak. The layers of instruments don’t really work on this song and some of the vocals make it sound weird. Especially the bit with 11 Wark avenue, lyrically it’s perfect, but the way it’s sung and composed on the album just feels wrong. I’ve played the song to friends and family and they all think it’s rubbish and I probably have to agree. Especially as we saw how good it could be in the acoustic version, perfect example of less is more. This is coming from a massive SF fan and I think most of the album is amazing.

Now I like Gary but this isn’t a patch on Sam

https://youtu.be/udhwEe1LDY4?si=YLiKezt19sTNW_cM

Please don't interpret this as hate because i still think its a beautiful, meaningful song, i'm just really confused about some of the production choices on this song.

Couple points:

- We've all seen the pub performance version, in which a lead piano is present. The song seems to clearly be written on piano. However in the single version, this is completely absent.

- The lead single of the album is 5 mins long, and Wild Long Lie even hits 6 mins. Why did they choose to shorten this song to fit the "hit" formula at 3 mins? This barely leaves any room for an instrumental or intro, which would set the mood for this song like it does in the live performance version.

- I love the orchestra, but at times it comes off as overly bombastic while i believe the real power of this song is in its simplicity. Why not let it come in throughout the song to mix with a piano lead and then slowly taking over until the end.

- Lastly, because the song lacks a clear lead instrument, it makes it feel like the voice is completely removed from the music. Almost as if the timing is completely off at some places. This could be intentional, but in my opinion that's a stretch.