Yungblud live: Idols tour in Birmingham

On 23rd April, a dream came true, when I finally got to see Yungblud live. I first heard Yungblud on the radio in about 2018 and I quite liked his music. Then The Funeral came out in 2022 and I got obsessed with that song. Later in the year, I got obsessed with the third album – the eponymous Yungblud – when my younger son went to university. I basically listened to it non-stop for three months from September to December.

Shortly after that, I nearly went to see him at the NEC in Birmingham. I had the ticket and was preparing to pay, then I bottled it. I’d be going on my own and I was nervous about being the only old person there. Since then, the demographic has changed and there are a few older fans like myself. Then my younger son said he would go with me if I ever wanted to go and see Yungblud.. Last summer, he played some small gigs and there was one in Bristol. Again, I had the tickets there ready to go and then I realised I was on holiday and I wouldn’t be able to go.

So I finally got to see him on the Idols World Tour at Utilita Arena in Birmingham and my son came with me. He listened to a few songs and got familiar with them, but he’s not a fan by any means. I checked out the setlist from Sheffield, the first date on the UK tour, and discovered there were a few songs I wasn’t so familiar with.

Fleabag I know from the radio, but it’s not an album track, so I’ve not really listened to it. Loner, which I’d never heard of. Changes the Black Sabbath cover which he performed at the Back to the Beginning Black Sabbath benefit concert in Birmingham last year, just days before Ozzy Osborne died. He won a Grammy for that performance. There was also My Only Angel, one of the tracks he did with Aerosmith. I’d listened to both of those, but not to the extent I’d listened to the album tracks. So I had a good listen to them in the days leading up to the show.

Support at the Utilita Arena was The Molotovs and The Warning. My son and I had standing tickets and arrived just in time for The Molotovs’ last track. We watched the whole of The Warning’s set. They’re a female rock band made up of three sisters from Mexico. They were pretty good and there were some actual fans of theirs in the audience screaming along.

It was quite crowded where we were stood – in the middle of the stage and in the front third of the standing area. We couldn’t get any further forward. To get to the front, you literally have to queue from the early hours of the morning and I didn’t do that!

Yungblud came on stage at 9:15. It started with a montage of the world ‘Hello’ in lots of different languages. He opened with Hello Heaven, Hello – the first (and my favourite) track from Idols. It’s an amazing track. All this white, snowy confetti stuff came down, which was brilliant. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see him at all, but I was watching the screens. The audience was probably 70% female, but somehow there were tall people in front of me.

It was the right track to start with. The first track on the album makes sense to be the first track on the tour. But it’s such a big song, it would also have been nice to see it later. That was followed by The Funeral, which is my absolute favourite, and I went absolutely crazy dancing.

Then it was Idols Part I, so, with the exception of The Funeral, the concert was following the album straight through. Lovesick Lullaby is a fun one, which is next on the album and was next on the tour.

Then it was the Aerosmith track, which is my least favourite. It is very old school rock.

But, whatever the track, Yungblud is such a fantastic performer. After waiting to see him for so long, there was a chance I could have built it up too much and been disappointed. But that definitely didn’t happen! He’s a proper rock star and great at getting the crowd to sing along with him. There was loads of interaction with the audience and everyone loved it.

Then it was Lowlife, which is a single which came out after the third album. It’s a fun, singalong track. He said he wanted to see people up on shoulders for this one. You had to be over 14 to be in the standing area. So teenagers got on their dads’ shoulders, girls got up on their boyfriends’ shoulders and I went up on my son’s shoulders! It was the absolute best experience ever. I could see so much. I was just having a laugh, towering above everyone. There was nobody of my age up there and I absolutely loved it.

As an added bonus, when I got down, I had a much better view and could clearly see Yungblud on stage.

Then it was Fleabag. There’s a tradition with Fleabag that someone from the audience gets up on stage and plays with him on the guitar. So people hold up signs saying ‘I can play Fleabag’ and he picks someone. He picked a guy called James, who’s from Birmingham, and he’d even got the Back to the Beginning Tshirt on. So he was obviously both a big Yungblud fan and a Black Sabbath fan. He did a great job. What a fantastic experience for him, something he will never forget.

Dom (to give him his proper name) got very emotional performing Changes – the Black Sabbath song. He said he’d been shitting himself about singing it in Birmingham, because obviously Ozzy Osborne was from Birmingham. The last time he performed it in the city was at Back to the Beginning and Ozzy was still alive. He was in tears for that. It was a fantastic performance and the audience sang along.

I Need You (To Make the World Seem Fine) was much calmer. It seemed like a lot of people didn’t know this one. It’s the start of Idols (Complete) – the extended album with extra tracks was released in February.

Then it was Fire, Loner and Ghosts – Dom’s own favourite song from Idols. I didn’t know where the time was going to! It was flying by. It was getting late and I knew there wasn’t long left.

Zombie, which is pretty much everyone’s favourite song, was a massive singalong and went on for ages. It kept stopping and starting again and everyone loved it.

The show ended with Suburban Requiem – another track off the extended album and the current single. Unbelievably, there had been only 14 songs in an hour and three-quarters.

I absolutely loved the show. I had high expectations and it totally met them. Yungblud has promised he’s going to come back to Birmingham every year until he dies. So if he doesn’t do that, I’m going to be writing a letter of complaint, because I’m going to be going along to watch every year until I die! With my son. Who did enjoy it, despite not being a fan. And I need to be able to sit on his shoulders. I think I might have converted him a bit! More to the point, I think Yungblud might have converted him a bit.

It was an absolutely brilliant experience and I’m so glad I finally got to see him.