New Rules @ Warehouse, Leeds. November 23rd 2021.

Leeds is known for many things, including a good night out. I can definitely say I had a good night out in Leeds on the 23rd November 2021 – although, the credit doesn’t go to Leeds but the newest pop band known as New Rules while they played at The Wardrobe.

New Rules are an English-Irish band that formed in 2019 when, according to the members, three boys who play guitar decided to play guitar together. They quickly caught online attention and that very year opened for Little Mix on their LM5 tour, which is how they came to my attention. They're made up of Nathan Lambert and Alec McGarry on the guitar and vocals and Ryan Meaney on bass and vocals.

The first opening act of the night was Nathan Gurd, a teenage pop sensation in the making as he immediately lifted the atmosphere up with his music. His set was short and sweet, with all mostly original songs, only covering Drivers License by Olivia Rodrigo.

Nathan Smoker followed him onto the stage, who gained popularity on popular TV show ‘The Voice’. Nathan gave a charming show, with his cheeky grin making a recurring appearance. His set was mostly covers, with a couple of original songs which excellently showed off the strength of his voice.

New Rules started their set with their newest single, Really Wanna Dance With You – a flawless pop song, being both upbeat and catchy. They played through some of their classic songs such as Call It and Night Like This. Towards the middle of the set, they played some of their songs that they wrote through lockdown that were personal to them, admitting that the songs aren’t likely to be properly recorded and released.

The show also included a “name song” - a segment taken from the bands Tiktok, where fans would send in their names and then the boys would write a song about them. The inspiration comes from the promotion for their song Emily which came out last year – also a segment that Alec can never remember the lyrics for. The name chosen was Amelia – and the song started original, before turning into a parody of Cecilia by Simon and Garfunkel.

The boys then continued playing their hits and debuted their newest song, Cheers, by downing Guinness before finishing the set with their most popular song 24 Hours.

When I first saw New Rules in 2019, they were just starting out and whisked away on an arena tour with the biggest girl band in the world. When I saw them this last Tuesday evening, it was amazing to see how much their confidence had grown – as well as their showmanship. In 2019, they went on stage, charmed us a little and played their music; however, they really engaged with the audience on Tuesday. Their showmanship was impeccable, especially as they incorporated guitar solos which gave more of a rock-essence and really showed off how close they are to both themselves and the fans.