Hannah Trigwell – Live Review – Headrow House, Leeds

By  @Steve Crabtree, Ovtober 2017

After a lovely, quiet drink on Greek Street and a leisurely wander through a deserted Briggate, we’ve arrived upstairs in Headrow House, Leeds. It’s Sunday and it’s gig night.

I’ve kept myself in touch with Hannah Trigwell’s music for the best part of six years. She’s a Leeds-based twenty-something, with a gift for the guitar, and a natural voice that you could listen to for hours on end.

To find much of the truly talented people in the music industry nowadays, you need to switch off your Radio Ones, your MTVs and your X-Factors and go online. Checking out Hannah Trigwell’s YouTube channel frequently, getting updates as to what she’s up to via Twitter and Instagram; she’s social-media-active and she’s forever introducing you to her own songs, covers of others that have been expertly “Trigwelled” – and she’s good… really good.

So, I’m intrigued and excited to be here to see her live for the first time. We’re lucky enough to grab a seat near the front (it’s mainly standing room only in here) as it hits 9pm.

“Delves deep”

She enters the stage absolutely fuss-free, and does her own quick soundcheck as she begins the last date of her sell-out, independently funded UK tour to promote her forthcoming album, Red.

And as she says hello to her home town audience in this perfect choice venue, she’s immediately that genuine and natural girl that comes across on her social media accounts.

Kicking off with title track ‘Red’, then going in to ‘I Blame You’, we’ve had a great start to the night, and Hannah is on good form. She admits she delves deep into her emotions when she’s writing a new song, and when ‘Another Beautiful Mistake’ quickly follows, it substantiates this.

But don’t be mistaken. She’s not your run of the mill artist sounding a bit empty, dwelling on pain, sorrow and making her guitar mope and cry like you might imagine. Far from it. In-fact, in this stripped-down version of the album she cleverly strips it back up again using her loop station and her compositions sound full. Many are upbeat, and you’re in no rush to get the song finished. Even if each new song is as satisfying as the last.

It’s lovely to know that Hannah started out busking on the streets of Leeds, and now amasses over 100 million views on YouTube. She set up TeaPot records, has had top ten hits throughout the world, and two number ones singles in Asia. Tonight highlights how and why.

“Pleasure”

By now, Hannah is in full flow, and she gives us further tracks from the album come out such as ‘Without You’, ‘Filthy Rich’ and ‘Nobody’. She’s delighting her fans with lots of humorous patter between songs, and she’s as likeable on stage as she is across her social platforms – and if the audience needed to warm to her even more that they already do, tonight it’s happening.

We’ve got fans singing along to many of her songs, and she tells us that this is her first tour where she’s played a set-list purely made up of her own stuff. What a pleasure to be here for that.

At the end of the gig I manage to grab a quick chat with her as I buy one of her EPs. Not just a great singer-songwriter, but what a down to earth, charming person too. She’s enjoyed her tour, a week going up and down the country, but now it was time to look forward to a small break before the album is released, scheduled for January.

It’s been a lovely evening at Headrow House, and if you’ve not yet come across Hannah Trigwell just give her name a search on YouTube. You’ll be pleased you did. As pleased as I was to see her in action tonight.