Word and pictures by Rhona Murphy.
There’s a lot of gig competition in Southampton tonight (11/4/26) with Wigan quartet The Lilacs playing a sold-out show at The Joiners so it’s a testament to the quality of this Heartbreakers show with The Kairos headlining that it’s also sold-out and absolutely rammed. Who said guitar music is dead? Evidence suggests this is untrue with both Southampton venues doing a cracking job in attracting great bands.
The opening band was Skäl, a 5 piece from Winsford in Cheshire. They launched straight into a high energy rock/indie set with the lead singer Ev Kirwan giving some Happy Mondays Bez vibes. Skäl has a new single just out ‘Waiting (To Be Free)’ and a busy year of gigs ahead of them including Noisy Weekender Festival in Liverpool in May.
Skäl
Florentenes are the main support on this tour with a newly released single ‘Undiscovered Colours’ from their upcoming next EP ‘Breaking News’ which is out on May 13th. I love the artwork on the new single too.
Florentines
This young band from Bolton is quickly building a reputation on the indie circuit via some great tour/gig support slots including The Rolling People, Jamie Webster and The Royston Club. They also played an excellent set supporting Portsmouth’s Crystal Tides at Gorilla in Manchester at the end of March this year. All of which is contributing to a rapidly increasing fan base and the number of people wearing Florentenes tee shirts at Heartbreakers was impressive.
Florentenes
‘Breaking News’ will be the third of the band’s EP trilogy with the first EP ’14:17’ out in 2024 followed by the second EP ‘Homegrown’ out in 2025. ‘14:7’ was named because all the band members were aged between 14 and 17 at the time of release which means that in 2026 the drummer Liam Fiddy is still only 16.
The Heartbreakers set of seven songs including favourites ‘Madeline’ and ‘The Gun’ was fast paced and tight and I can see why legendary Rockfield producer Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers/Ocean Colour Scene/The Who/Jamie Webster) is talking up this band even comparing Liam Fiddy to The Who’s Keith Moon.
With support from Radio X and BBC 6 it’ll be exciting to follow Florentenes musical trajectory over the next few years. Catch Florentenes again locally when they play Golden Touch Festival in Portsmouth this June.
There was a very quick changeover from Florentenes to The Kairos before the lights went down and the crowd started the ‘No Kairo, No Party’ chant as the band came on stage.
The Kairos
This Liverpudlian band is super tight and Tom Dempsey (vocals/lead guitar) kicked straight into ‘Suspend’ . The set was fast paced with each song moving almost immediately into the next although Dempsey engaged and interacted with the crowd from the start. It didn’t feel like a ‘them and us’ gig experience it was very much ‘us and us’ and that made for a happy and very enthusiastic crowd experience.
The Kairos played through a 13 song setlist before ending with ‘Punchline Fistfight’ from the recently released EP ‘Kneeslappas’.
No one wanted to leave and indeed the band and the fans just moved from the stage to the merch table when the set ended.
The Kairos
The Kairos have a busy year planned including playing Portsmouth’s Golden Touch Festival alongside Florentenes in June as well as Isle Of Wight Festival (River Stage), Neighbourhood Festival and Rock N Roll Circus Festivals in Norwich and Sheffield with more dates to be announced.
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Florentenes
Florentenes
The Kairos
The Kairos
The Kairos