The co-headline tour by Belfast’s Dom Martin and Birmingham’s Blue Nation had wended its way around Ireland and the UK with great shows in Newcastle & York, before its last few dates in London at the 100 Club and Liverpool’s historic Cavern Club.
The bands had alternated who went on last and at the Cavern Club Dom Martin and his band went on first with a line-up of Dom Martin (guitar & vocals), Ben Graham (bass) and Charlie Hanlon (drums).
They kicked off with a great rocky start with Dom’s great guitar picking on ‘Going Down’ and ‘Maxwell Shuffle’ before introducing the band to the audience on what was their debut performance both to the venue and city.
‘Unhinged’ started with great bass & drums backing before Dom’s strident vocals and intricate guitar playing showing his range. ‘Daylight I will Find’ brought on some excellent slide guitar playing and passionate vocals from Dom with great backing from the solid rhythm section from Charlie & Ben (always smiling).
One of Dom’s fans favourites is ‘Belfast Blues’ with its great intricate guitar picking to start, to a great beat from Charlie and Dom’s gritty vocals and Ben’s heavy bass backing.
The next song ‘Hell for You’ Dom wrote for psychopaths with its mellow guitar to start but moving into fast guitar riffs and heavy beat before slower pace middle.
Dom toured with Robin Trower earlier in 2025 but didn’t know he was the writer of the song ‘Alethea’. This was a song on an old MP3 player in Dom’s youth and was now given the Dom treatment with great vocals and guitar.
‘Used to Be’ included Charlie’s drum break with great lead guitar breaks & riffs with Dom’s gruff vocals and lots of Wa-wa pedal.
‘Howlin’ was a song from Dom’s influence Rory Gallagher. Dom’s Dad gave him a Rory cassette aged 4 which on one side had the ‘Live in Europe’ album, from the B Club sessions in the 1970s. Great guitar riffs to start to a heavy beat with Charlie & Ben and great guttural vocals from Dom.
‘Spoonful’ was a Howling Wolf influenced song which is even more relevant today according to Dom. Great guitar riffs to start before dropping into a quicker beat with Dom’s gritty vocals and great drums & bass. Very quick guitar work interacting with Ben with Charlie’s bouncing drums and included a walk in the audience from Dom.
The band finished with ‘12 Gauge’ with Charlie’s heavy drums and great wailing guitars and vocals from Dom.
The audience was now waiting with excitement for Birmingham’s Blue Nation, but due a late illness to their drummer Nick Sharman, Neil Murdoch (vocals & guitar) and Luke Weston (bass) put on an acoustic set with lots of crowd involvement.
They kicked off with ‘Cold Night’ with Neil’s mellow vocals and Luke’s great harmonies and followed with ‘Every Single Time’ with more great harmonies.
After singing a couple more of the band’s songs with ‘Once in My Life’ and ‘Run Straight Ahead’ they were joined on stage by Charlie Hanlon from Dom’s band who took over the acoustic guitar for a couple of Beatles songs with ‘All My Loving’ and ‘Get Back’ with great vocals from Neil.
Before the next song ‘Echoes’ Luke again raised the issue of Men’s health and suicides and the Ian’s Chain charity the band support.
They finished with a rousing version of ‘Down By The River’ with lots of crowd involvement.
For the final encore Dom’s band was joined by Blue Nation’s Neil Murdoch on guitar & vocals and Luke Weston on bass. They played Bad Company’s ‘Feel Like Making Love’ with Dom on lead vocals and harmonies from Ben, Neil & Luke and finished with Cream’s ‘White Room’ with Neil on lead vocals and lots more great lead guitar work from Dom and Ben on the special Blue Martin guitar.