The Royston Club shut down the streets of Liverpool with intimate secret set

Picture this. You're sat at home, ten or so in the morning, two sips into your first coffee of the day, expecting nothing of the next 13 or so hours. Then, out of nowhere, The Royston Club, a band you have paraded to everyone who has ever spent more than three minutes in your company to their dismay, announce a first-come, first-served gig in Liverpool...and the queue is already 20 people strong. You'd be an idiot to book the next train from Manchester and hope that 80 other people haven't opened Instagram sooner, wouldn't you? On top of the promise of a set, came the chance to own a one in one-hundred Cariad on vinyl, performed in a 1950s Voice-o-graph at the Jacaranda, irresistible.

Tense doesn't quite do it justice. Armed with a "Songs for the Spine" tour t-shirt, unwashed hair and frankly heinous coffee breath, off I went to chance it. This particular Welsh Indie band are set to head out on another tour, after joining Richard Ashcroft for a series of arena support slots that transcend what your typical guitar-wielding Wrexham lads are meant to be capable of. They sounded absolutely massive on that tour, full scale, all guns blazing, so to explain how nervously giddy I had become for the prospect at a 100-person-only show, crammed on a Liverpool high street, is impossible.

To my shock, I made it in, thrust into a back alley behind the iconic Scouse record store, eagerly anticipating the next hour to bugger off so I could get inside. The boys appeared to a roar unfit for a room of the size, crowds had followed now onto the streets, and the people outside probably could hear far better than anyone in the thick of it, but we were there.

"This is gonna be easy", said Faithfull, as the opening riff to The Patch Where Nothing Grows echoed through the shop doors and out onto the people outside, as the people matched the energy perfectly, not missing a beat, singing through every pluck of the acoustic strings. View-wise what I had was impeccable, having the lads through a window, gave the set an unrivalled artistic feel to it, watching the six-track set like gazing at a painting on a gallery wall.

The Royston Club playing their acoustic set at The Jacaranda (Credit: Alex Duncan)

They followed with another track off their latest album, Glued To The Bed, before throwing it back with the 2023 track Blisters, then the biggest treat of the day. Royston debuted new song, Puddles, to an admiring silence, a special performance that stole the eyes and ears of the audience immediately. While the track was limited to the acoustic guitar and voice only, boy did it carry, Faithfull and Matthias flaunt their harmonies on yet another song, and in a room so small this sounded absolutely colossal.

The small matter of hit singles 52 and Cariad close the set, you know only some of the loudest and supreme "crash-out" tracks of the 21st century, a 7-hour wait for most was felt during these choruses, thrashing through the room louder than any arena could muster.

People awaited them outside, just to get a taste, a little look, maybe even hear some of the set only to then gaze at the Jacaranda window to Ben and Tom, atop a windowsill amidst a crowd of hundreds in the middle of the city, ready to serenade the masses, no amps, no mics just a guitar and an eager audience, and a final belting of Patch and Cariad to send everyone home buzzing.

It's moments like this that transform this band from the important to the imperative, they must be heard.

The Royston Club tour the UK and Ireland in 2026, with support slots abroad with Indie legends Two Door Cinema Club.