Frank Turner follows his own path

CHARLES ANDERSON

In the depths of Frank Turner's encyclopaedic memory - the one where he recalls almost every gig he has ever played but forgets most friends' birthdays - the first show still strikes a chord. But not a good one.

"Terrible," he says. "Absolutely terrible."

He was a 14-year-old from Winchester playing at a friend's birthday and testing out his band's song-writing cred. The peers weren't impressed. His peers' peers weren't impressed. Turner, now 30, put it down to the age-old mistake of playing one's original material rather than Green Day covers.

Then years later, as the lead singer of punk band A Million Dead, Turner was asked to do a charity gig. He was, for the first time, asked to do it solo. He was asked to do Neil Young covers.

Now, years on, Turner is coming to New Zealand on the back of the biggest show of his career - selling out the 12,000-capacity Wembley Stadium. Of course, at that gig Turner played almost all his own material - songs about tales of misspent youth and going to hell, of mohawks, love and fighting against maturity.

"It was pretty surreal. It was not my usual habitat being on a stage in front of that many people, " he says.

Turner is more known for being one man and his guitar standing on stage in sweaty pubs, singing stripped back folk songs to loyal fans yelling along with pint in hand.

There is an intimate feeling that comes with being so close to - and so alone in front of - an audience. But this time, his second trip to New Zealand, he is bringing his band, The Sleeping Souls.

"At the end to the day the one person with a guitar is the skeleton that always runs through, but now the band is integral to what I'm trying to do."

What he is trying to do is a livelier show - to have more sound to play with and more energy to expend. It is a far cry from the scream in your face hardcore that Turner started out in but, he says, no less intense.

As a young Etonian, studying alongside Prince William, Turner always daydreamed of making music a life. However, there was a big difference between fantasy and making it happen. Even now, he says, his life has a dream-like quality.

"There is this fear that it is all a terrible mistake and I have to return to bars playing to no one."

His next tour of England has already sold out and, although playing an arena was a novelty, Turner admits there is definitely potential for more in the future. His fear is, no doubt, unfounded.

Frank Turner plays the Kings Arms in Auckland this Tuesday at 8pm (R18).

- © Fairfax NZ News