The Bath based band Young Martyrs, and their support Jess Chivers & Teorstan, thrilled the appreciative crowds at the iconic The Thunderbolt venue in Bristol.
The gig was a final performance before the release of the third Young Martyrs album ‘Might Just Be Enough’. The Young Martyrs line-up was Tom Corneill (guitar & vocals), Rich Beeby (guitar & backing vocals), Lee Cole (drums & backing vocals) and Phil Smith (bass & backing vocals).
In a pre-gig interview the band explained “We looked at what we have done on previous albums to shape what became the new album with songs written by Tom (70%) & Rich (30%). The new album tour kicks off in Bath and also included a date in London and is at both venues we have played before and new venues to us to expand our coverage”
“We (Tom & Rich) are writing more songs, some of which weren’t ready for album three, but will be included in a fourth album. This includes some songs from a previous band called Centerfold which Tom, Rich & Phil were part of which will be re-imagined as Young Martyrs songs. The songs are written from personal interactions and experiences happening around them, as well as other people situations as Tom said live goes on”
Before the headliners we had two local talents up on stage with Jess Chivers staging to the stage accompanying herself on acoustic guitar.
She kicked off with ‘Parasite’ with its strong and emotive vocals and plaintive guitar, and is the next single released from her next EP (released in March 2027), followed by ‘Foreign Land’ and another single which is very upbeat with a joyous feeling, expressive reflective vocals and lovely guitar backing.
Next, we had a slower song ‘Ravens on the Roof’ with its passionate vocals followed by ‘When Winter Comes’ written with her dad and is a gentler song with passionate vocals and eclectic guitar.
This was followed by ‘Rat Race, Summer Came’ also written with her dad and is about Jess’s life working in the NHS, with its very Emmylou Harris style vocals. Then a song about a lady serial killer from about 1911 called ‘Clementine Barnabet’, sung with power & gusto with crowd involvement.
The last couple of songs were ‘My Sunrise Companion’ from the upcoming EP, about her lovely Dad who got sick last year, and is about shame with emotive vocals and plaintive guitar. The last song was the title track from her debut EP ‘Skinny Queen’ with Jess showing her powerful singing voice and guitar accompaniment.
Then we had Toerstan (Tom Martin) whose set worked backwards time wise after a difficult last year.
He started with ‘An Invitation’ with great guitar picking and plaintive vocals sung with upbeat passion, followed by ‘Too Soon’ a song about group chat and a time with he wasn’t ready for dating with its lovely passionate vocals and quiet guitar picking accompaniment.
‘Sparrows’ was about things to learn to live without including cigarettes. It was sung at the beginning just with emotive and passionate vocals and then accompanied with gentle guitar.
Next up was ‘Sirocco’ a nice fun song about heatwaves after being divorced for 9 months and the winds of change. Very emotive and passionate vocals and gentle guitar picking.
‘Infinity Lies’ is about the day when Tom decided that the relationship & marriage had to end with its passionate guitar picking and matching vocals.
The final song ‘Antares’ was written 2 years since the split, and now recorded, and is a depressing song with gentle passionate vocals an emotive guitar picking before giving it his all with full power vocals.
Then the headline act Young Martyrs took to the intimate stage and kicked off with a song from the new album ‘Seventeen’ with great harmonies from Tom, Rich & Lee on a powerful bluesy number with a lively quiet interlude with Tom’s emotive vocals. Followed by ‘5am’ with its great beat matching Tom’s vocals with excellent guitars, multi harmonies with lead guitar break from Rich.
Next was the first single in 2026 with ‘Is There Anybody Out There?’ with its echoey guitar from Rich, strong powerful vocals from Tom, with drums & bass kicking in to make a powerful sound. This was followed by ‘Everybody Else Disappears’ from the 2nd album and is a very upbeat song with powerful rhythm section and emotive & strident vocals from Tom, with great backing harmonies.
Another song from the 2nd album was ‘I Will Sing For You’ with powerful vocals and off beat backing, with lots of passion from Tom for the vocals. Then for the next song ‘Never Gave Me the Blues’ Jess Chivers joined the band to duet with Tom on this great country blues number with great harmonies and guitar break from Rich.
Then a song written by Rich ‘Sugar on My Tounge’ about what it means for the listener with great heavy beat, evocative vocals from Tom and effective rhythm section and powerful harmonies. Then a rework of a song originally played with an earlier band with ‘Talk to Me’ with Tom’s evocative vocals matched with backing harmonies with Lee, and later the whole band kicked in.
Next was ‘Count to Ten’ with gentle passionate vocals to start from Tom with gentle guitar picking from Rich with Lee on vocal only duties. Harmonies from Tom & Rich & Lee and is a very different from the other songs in the set.
The night finished with another song from the new album with ‘Only You’ and then a topical song with ‘Just the End of Summer’ finishing to loud applause from the enthralled crowds on a very hot night.
This is a band that have developed and have a mixture of blues, country and Americana songs with powerful harmonies, solid rhythm section and great guitar playing, and so go and see them live and you won’t be disappointed!