Lost Horizon, Friday 11th March 22
Friday night’s gig took place in one of Bristol’s newest music venues “Lost Horizon” which opened July 2021 and was brought to Bristol by the team behind Shangri-La at Glastonbury Festival. It’s only fitting, then, that one of the most prolific performers at Glastonbury Beans on Toast makes his debut at the venue.
Before we get on to the main event however, the evening’s entertainment is opened by Kitty Liv who is also part of Beans’ current touring party. Kitty was originally part of a family band, “Kitty, Daisy & Lewis”, which we later found out is how Beans’ first met Kitty during a gig when she was just 9 years old.
Tonight, she plays alone with just an electric guitar. It’s clear that Kitty has years of touring ability as she manages to captivate the room just by herself. Mainly focusing on songs from her EP “The River That Flows” (which had unfortunately sold out during the rest of the tour) she manages to warm up the crowd for the main event, she caps off her set with an acapella song bolstered by her incredible vocals and a show-stopping harmonica solo that gets a rapturous applause.
Highlights of the set include “I’m Coming Up”, which Kitty explains is about “falling in love whilst on drugs” and “Feeling of Wonder” about her first boyfriend which she “must have been in a good mood” when she wrote it. On to the main, folk singer Beans on Toast is here to promote his latest album “The Survival of The Friendliest” and is joined on stage by Kitty (on bass this time) and Jack Flanagan, of the Mystery Jets, on guitar.
The theme of the evening and the latest album is positivity, despite creating the album during these turbulent times Beans still believe and stands by the positive message and celebrating love saying that “if you have the ability to have a good time, let’s f*****g have it!” – and have it the crowd do, it’s a rowdy affair in Lost Horizon – one drunk reveller steals the microphone from Beans’ at one point to proclaim “I hadn’t heard of you before tonight but now I’m a lifelong fan”.
However, there are no shortage of fans here with over half the room wearing Beans merch and singing along to every song. In such a vast back catalogue (“Survival of the Friendliest” being Beans’ 14th studio album) his lyrics cover a whole host of themes from his hedonistic early life style, love, politics, human nature and everything in between and during the set we’re given a mix of all of these interspersed with facts around the songs.
We’re treated to new album cuts such as “Not Everybody Thinks We Are Doomed” which explores how we should embrace the unpredictability of life and focus on making the most of our future as well as “The Commons” which Beans’ explains was inspired by “The Book Of Tresspass” by Nick Hayes who he later sent the song to and went trespassing with in order to reclaim private land. They plan to create a trespassing tour which we were all invited to.
At one point later in the set, Beans’ asks the crowd who is currently in love and dedicates “Let’s Get Married Again” to a couple at the front of the crowd with other 30 years of marriage.
The theme of love recurs in songs such as “Home When You Hold Me” and “The Record of The Day” which is about how when off the road Beans’ spends time with his daughter listening to music together and shaping her musical tastes.
Beans’ also talks about what band helped shape his love of music with a cover of Politics is explored with “A Whole Lot Of Loving” being one of the biggest singalongs of the night along with “The War on War”. Interestingly that song contains the lyrics “and I don’t do MDMA no more, but I do still sing that song” which he immediately followed up with “MDMAmazing” which he acknowledges is his most popular song. Despite it being the most popular song, Beans explains how he still loves playing it and appreciates the attention that it has given him, allowing to have the life and career he does now.
Part of what makes Beans on Toast so appealing is his natural ability at storytelling (if you don’t believe me, go read the two books he’s released) and he prefaces the song by explaining how the third verse is actually a lie but made a better ending than the truth – going home alone on a National Express.
That positivity emanates from Beans’ tonight, you can tell he enjoys entertaining and making people happy, including taking requests from the audience and playing “The Chicken Song”.
The evening was all about celebrating life and embracing every moment you get and, after the last few years, it was the perfect celebration
& 
Craig J Simmonds Media
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