Sprints began 2024 by releasing their debut album Letter To Self via City Slang on 5 January. What followed has been simply extraordinary. A couple of US tours, support for Idles, unofficial appearances at SXSW, curating a stage at Mutations festival, tour in the UK and Ireland, festival appearances including Bearded Theory and TRNSMT, indeed the list goes on and on and on. As 2024 draws to a close, they played their biggest headline show to date at London’s, O2 Forum (which will forever be The Town and Country Club to those of a certain vintage) as part of their current UK tour. The 2,300 capacity room was packed to the rafters, its wide stage and upper tier making it feel much more intimate than the numbers suggest.
Tonight’s opener is Belfast trio Chalk, who merge techno and punk creating an exhilarating soundscape. They easily held this stage with lead singer Ross Cullen prowling back and forth. It was refreshing to see drummer Luke Niblock situated to one side and forward whilst guitarist and keyboard Ben Goddard also made the most of the room afforded to them. 2024 has been a hugely successful year for this band. The combination of quality single releases including ‘Claw’ and ‘Bliss’ featuring Fears plus the Conditions II EP (following on from their debut EP release in 2023) and extensive touring in the UK, Ireland and EU has galvanised strong support. Chalk round off their Conditions era with the release of third EP Conditions III early next year and set out on an extensive headline , EU and Irish tour beginning at the iconic King Tuts Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow on 27 February. These support dates with Sprints will have added to their fan base, no question.
It’s fair to say that the excitement in the room grew as it neared show time for Sprints. It was clear from the very start that they’re moving into a new era with lead singer and guitarist Karla Chubb beginning with a keyboard on this tour, for the first time. A new song ‘To The Bone’ opened the night, calm and quiet, the crowd almost holding their breath with anticipation. With a mention for their debut album Karla then declared “We’re from Dublin and we’re here to show you a fucking good time” before launching into the double header of ‘Shadow of a Doubt’ and ‘Adore, Adore, Adore’
Current single ‘Feast’, the first release post-Letter to Self received its deserved spot early in the set indeed the obvious consideration that went into this gig created moments of utter euphoria. ‘Heavy‘ blended seamlessly into ‘I’m In A Band‘ with the pulsating drum beats of Jack Callan providing the glue. This was followed by live favourite ‘Delia Smith’, and as the moshpit was gathering pace and growing with every song Karla reminded everyone to look after each other. ‘Shaking Their Hands’ and ‘Can’t Get Enough of it’ were played one after another, both standout tracks from Letter To Self, both emotive and gut wrenching, even more so live.
Bassist Sam McCann was completely taken aback such was the response of the crowd to every song, and he introduced a second new track ‘Somethings Gonna Happen’ with “don’t judge us”. Back to Letter To Self with ‘Up + Comer’ , ‘Cathedral’ and ‘Letter To Self’ before yet another surprise, ‘The Cheek‘, the first song Sprints wrote together which was released in 2020. This was followed by another firm favourite ‘How Does The Story Go?‘ from the 2022 EP A Modern Job.
With time running down Karla declared there would be no encore malarkey, they were just going to make the most of every second. ‘A Wreck / A Mess’ saw new guitarist Zach Bryan (who joined the band after original guitarist Colm O’Reilly chose to leave) spot his best mate in the crowd which led him to get into the pit and closer to the crowd. Karla has always had strong words during Sprints gigs and this would be no different. She states it’s important to use the platform to highlight LGBT+ rights, Free Palestine and urges all to stand up against the rise of the far right. This is someone who suffered inappropriate behaviour at least twice while crowd-surfing this year, and went public condemning it. Karla also went out of her way to thank Jack, Sam and Zach – together they have created something very special. A highlight of the night was ‘Literary Mind’ accompanied by the launch of confetti into the crowd.
It was obvious this gig meant everything to Sprints. The emotion was real and they were completely blown away by the crowd’s response throughout. The band simply stood and soaked up the applause before launching into final song ‘Little Fix’. They stood for a while. It was a nice touch to see a couple members of the band Adore joining the band onstage towards the end. Illness of a band member had prevented them from playing as a second support as planned. It was a triumphant end to an extraordinary night, with Karla crowdsurfing and mayhem everywhere yet the music still so tight. This band are professionals, they know the music is the most important thing, but chose tonight to make it extra special.
2024 was a great year for Sprints, but boy oh boy they are on the march. There is no doubt they will surge on into 2025. Remember Letter To Self was their debut album. Lets hope and pray there will be many more.
All photos: Julia Mason
For more information on Sprints please check their facebook and instagram.
For more information on Chalk please check their facebook and instagram.
