Birmingham band Blue Nation have had a spectacular 2025 including winning Emerging Act of the Year at the UK Blues Federation awards night at The Stables venue in Milton Keynes.
They have gigged throughout UK with great sets at the UK Blues, Rock & Rhythm Festival at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival, Colne, Buxton Blues Festival, Maid of Stone and Firevolt. They have also had headline sets at Greystones, Sheffield, Leos, Gravesend as well as supporting Chantel McGregor for her album launch at the 100 Club, London.
This is before we get to the magical co-headline tour the band did with Belfast’s Dom Martin with well received sets in Ireland (Cork, Dublin & Belfast) as well as spectacular shows in Glasgow, Newcastle, York, Fleet and London to name a few (Nick’s favourite show was York and Luke’s was Fleet). Neil & Luke improvised at The Cavern Club, Liverpool after Nick’s last-minute illness with a great acoustic set finishing as always with a great crowd involvement with ‘Down by The River’.
So, the final gig for 2025 was the sold out homecoming gig at The Crossing, Digbeth in central Birmingham.
For this gig they were supporting Ian’s Chain charity for mental health for whom the band and its fans had raised over £5,000 in 2025, with a total of £15,00 raised for all charities over the band’s life.
The evening started off with fellow Birmingham band Lucky Number You with their line-up of Dan Kiener (vocals & guitar), Marcus Williams (drums & backing vocals) & Drew Linforth (guitar & backing vocals).
They have gained a growing following and were excited to be supporting Blue Nation on their home coming show and performed with their heavy beat, dual guitars and powerful vocals on some of their own songs including ‘Hands on the Horizon’, ‘Disassociator’ as well as the newly released single ‘All I Want’ for its live performance debut.
Then it was the turn of Blue Nation with a fit again Nick Sharman on drums with Neil Murdoch (vocals & guitar) and Luke Weston (bass & vocals) to take the stage after a Birmingham over the ages video to the soundtrack from Birmingham band The Move.
They kicked off with a trio of blues rock songs with Nick’s powerful drumming complimenting Neil on guitar & vocals supported by Luke on bass & harmonies to ‘Gimme Some Time’, the title track from their last album ‘Ordinary People’ and ‘Hand Me Down’.
Then Neil started the evening’s usual banter between songs as he introduced Nick, to great applause, after his medical issue at The Cavern Club, Liverpool. He also promised no more jokes about killing the drummer! Nick commented just before he went on stage, he wanted to get thru at least the first 30 seconds. Luke also chipped in with how grateful he was that the fans joined in with the vocals to their songs, which he was very appreciate for.
This was followed by the powerful song ‘The Ranger’ with its long note which Neil had to hold. He couldn’t moan as he had written the song including that long note!
With the band’s great love and devotion to The Beatles the next song Melody/WMG included a segment from While My Guitar Gently Weeps (written by George Harrison).
A song that was added to the setlist after much debate was ‘Let Me Down Slowly’ with its slow pace and quiet start with Neil’s vocals before the song builds with more powerful vocals and tempo.
From the co-headline tour with Dom Martin the one song that was most powerful and full of gusto was ‘The Reason’.
So, Nick was given time to recuperate Neil & Luke then played a short acoustic section starting with ‘Sundown’ which was based on a conversation Neil had with his Mum about having kids and bringing them into the world. It had great dual harmonies and was a lovely mellow song. This was followed by ‘Cold Night’ which was about helping fan get thru a difficult period (He was in the audience and it was the first time Neil had told him the song was about him).
Now with Nick back on drums the next section included ‘Once in My Life’ written for all creatives, ‘Come Back Home’ which was very relevant at the home coming show and ‘Time Is a Thief’ which has great harmonies and builds to a crescendo with Nick’s powerful all action drumming.
The next song ‘Worry’ (with its accompanying video) started with just Neil on acoustic guitar as it was a section to those who we have lost this year including Neil’s Father-in-Law. Part way thru he was joined by Luke & Nick with its heavier beat but tender harmonies.
After great applause and rendition of ‘We Love Blue Nation’ from the fans they returned for an encore with ‘Echoes’ after the emotive introduction from Luke about Men’s mental health and Ian’s Chain charity. The set finished with the powerful ‘Down by the River’ with the audience joining in on the vocals with Nick hammering away at the drums to a climatic finish.
According to Neil 2026 could be even more monumental, but we will have to wait to find out more details early next year.