Red Rum Club @ Bedford Esquires, Wednesday, 7 October 2026
Whenever you see a giant tour bus outside Bedford Esquires, you know a big band is performing, and tonight it’s Scouse Americana band Red Rum Club’s turn.
The band are here as a special warm-up gig prior to their headline show at London’s 2,300-person capacity Kentish Town Forum, so we are lucky to have them here, indeed.
Opening up proceedings was a solo acoustic set delivered by Dan from the band CUSP, who was called up as a last-minute replacement as the original support band pulled out due to illness.
CUSP is an indie rock band from Milton Keynes, and has previously supported DMA’s and The Sherlock’s. Dan opened his set with their track “English Country”, and his vocal delivery reminded me of artists in the Brit Pop era such as The Wonder Stuff and Shed Seven.
Other tracks in the set included the recent single “Forever, Forever”, taken from their debut album, which is due for release on 16 October.
Dan joked with the crowd that they were seeing the worst version of the band, with only him performing, but the crowd definitely disagreed with this.
Dan even played a couple of fan requests, including “Breathe” and “Crazy Money”, which Dan said wasn’t made for the acoustic guitar, but he pulled off a perfect rendition, and he even seemed pleased with it himself, stating, “That was live music! It was better like that!”
I was super impressed with Dan’s performance, and you wouldn’t have known he had very little time to prepare for his set.
Mariachi Merseybeat
Next up was our headliners, Red Rum Club.
I previously saw them play Esquires in Room 2 in 2021, and it’s great to see them return, this time for a sold-out show on the main stage.
The six-piece band blend their instruments to create their unique “Mariachi Merseybeat” sound, merging the genres of indie, rock, pop and Americana.
Red Rum Club played a mammoth twenty-track set, ensuring punters got their value for money for their ticket.
The set opened with a trumpet solo by Eli, before launching into “Vibrate” from their third album “How to Steal the World,” and instantly the crowd’s hands were in the air.
This was followed by punchy “American Nights & English Mornings” where the band really got into it, bouncing around the stage.
Lead singer Fran not only delivers on fran-tastic vocals, but also has a great stage presence and is almost constantly moving, either shaking his hips, dramatically raising his arms in the air, leaning on the microphone or seductively pushing his hair back.
The rest of the band also clearly looked like they were having fun, in particular trumpet player Eli, who was grinning from ear to ear.
The positive vibes from the band flowed through to the crowd, who sang along to many of Red Rum Club’s hits, including “Honey”, “Eleanor” and “Kids Addicted”, all fast-paced tracks made for bouncing along too.
However, the set was varied, with some of the band’s more recent tracks such as “Godless” and “Crush, TX” delivered a strong Americana sound. “Godless” in particular made me feel like I was a cowboy being chased by horses with the fast-paced thumping drums.
Even cowboys have a cry in the saloon sometime, and the set featured a section of ballads.
Fran explained the purpose of this was to be a “breather before going mental at the end” and encouraged the crowd to use their vocal cords on these songs.
Track “Houdini” continued to deliver the Americana sound, sadness with a Western twinge, whereas track “Eighteen” had the audience swaying and feeling wistful for the past.
Closing the set was a triple whammy of bangers including “Would You Rather Be Lonely,” recent single “Any Minute Now”, before ending on the stomp of “Vanilla”, an epic closer that earned the band rapturous cheers and applause.
Red Rum Club delivered an epic career-spanning set covering releases over their ten years as a band, proving they won’t be running out of ideas and hits anytime soon.
Fran stated during the set that as soon as he came out on stage and saw the crowd, he thought it would be a good one, but he was wrong – it wasn’t just good, it was tremendous.
