A day, a night and a hangover with Only The Poets

As my eyes slowly opened onto another winter’s day in Reading, words formed in my mind, then locked on repeat and simply wouldn’t stop.

“I’m over, being emotionally hungover. Now I... I’m sober.”

If you know who Only The Poets are, you might already know those words.

Poets are an indie-pop band from Reading, and they’re on the verge of breaking into the big time. Their debut album, And I’d Do It Again, is at No 10 in the midweek UK album charts.

Those words, repeating endlessly in my mind like all good earworms do, are lyrics from their song Emotionally Hungover.

The trouble was, I was Actually Hungover. Alcoholically Hungover. Headache, Shivers and Painfully Hungover. As melodic, energetic and catchy as that song is, it was not what I needed.

How had it come to this sorry state of affairs? Well, that was Only The Poets’ fault too.

It all began coming back to me. That had been one of the most surreal days I’ve ever known in Reading.

Only The Poets on stage at their homecoming gig last Saturday at 3Sixty, two days before their headline Brixton Academy show. Picture: The Reading Reporter.

I should have realised that it wasn’t going to be an ordinary day when I arrived at the Purple Turtle at 3pm last Saturday.

You’d expect the bar to be happy for custom in the middle of the afternoon but the welcome was a suspicious look from a bouncer and then, eventually, a question: “Are you here for the band?”

Yes I was. And when I walked inside it became clear why I’d been considered potentially a bit iffy. The place was rammed full, mainly with hundreds of teenage girls. I stood out like, well, a 42-year-old man at an Only The Poets gig.

They had queued along Gun Street before the Turtle had even opened, waiting to meet their heroes. Only The Poets had come home for the day, but people had come from all over Europe – particularly Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands – to be here.

After a battle of the bands – won by SEREN and Belle Dame, whose prize was to be the support acts for Only The Poets at their Brixton Academy gig on Monday night – the boys themselves took to the stage under the low ceiling in the Turtle’s tight main bar. Waving printed “Welcome Back Home” signs, their joyful fans sang every word back at them, so loud that it almost drowned out the band themselves. Any hands not holding signs were thrust in the air, painted nails pointing high.

My friend Andy, a Reading veteran, agreed: we’d never seen anything like it. “Beatlemania,” we joked, taking it a bit far – but it was still something quite special. In our combined 90-odd years of living here, no one has ever made the Purple Turtle look a little like Shea Stadium in 1965.

Andy and I had the chance to meet the band in the Turtle’s downstairs dungeon bar. Tommy Longhurst, the charismatic lead singer and guitarist, still lives in Woodley. He’ll be easy to spot: there’s not many blokes down the precinct wrapped in an ultra-chunky black and white scarf while wearing orange-lensed, thick-rimmed glasses. Bassist Andy Burge is also from Reading, while guitarist Clem Cherry and drummer Marcus Yates are from Banbury.

Longhurst, despite his flamboyant appearance, is firmly down to earth. He used to be a painter and decorator, and people in Woodley wave and shout hello when he’s not away with the band.

Every band needs a story to succeed these days, something to help them stand out as the attention economy competes to win every last second of your day. His story is Reading. He and the band ground themselves here, celebrate it at every possible opportunity, and play free gigs here – like this one, or at the Select Car Leasing Stadium before kick-off at some Reading home games. Longhurst is a big Reading fan, triumphantly announcing on stage that the team beat Northampton last Saturday.

The Purple Turtle was packed full of adoring fans for Only The Poets’ first gig of the day – and their battle of the bands. Picture: The Reading Reporter.

Authenticity is what sells in this age of social media superficiality, and Longhurst has it in spades. It is also, however, the age of the individual. Solo artists like Harry Styles, Stormzy and Taylor Swift have dominated the charts. No band has had a UK number one single since November 2023 – and that was The Beatles. The 1975 – whose sound is not dissimilar to Only The Poets (but don’t hold that against them) have headlined both Glastonbury and Reading Festival without ever having had a UK top 10 single.

In that context, it’s hard not to wonder whether the band, despite the sharp and recognisable name, would have greater success if they simply rebranded as Tommy Longhurst – even if that sounds a bit like someone who might have played in goal for Arsenal in the 1950s.

Longhurst has the looks and charm to carry it off, but this is a band of friends – and many talents. That much was clear at Only The Poets’ headline show at 3Sixty later that evening. (Yes, it really was a long day – hence that impending hangover.) With the beefier sound system, their headline set was propelled by the funk and rhythm of Burge’s bass and Yates’s drums. Only The Poets name The Police and The Cure among their main influences, but also Prince. Their music is melodic and catchy, more pop than indie – but most of all it is music to dance to. No wonder so many of their teenage fan club were sat down on the grubby concert room floor before the set – they needed to save their energy.

Only The Poets held nothing back, despite this being their second gig of the day, and the biggest gig of their lives looming two days later: a sell-out show at Brixton Academy.

“It’s our dream venue,” said Longhurst recently. “The idea of standing up on that stage makes me want to cry.” It has made national headlines on the BBC and beyond because the band only charged £1 per ticket – the same price as at their very first gig... at the Purple Turtle.

The band have spoken with passion about restricting the soaring price of attending live events. Behind them on stage at Brixton, a banner read: “Live music is not a luxury. Let’s keep it accessible”. Average UK concert ticket prices have risen more than 400% since the mid-1990s, roughly four times faster than inflation. Oasis tickets for their recent UK reunion tour cost around £145 at face value, but dynamic pricing and resale inflation meant many fans often paid more than £1,000 per ticket. Longhurst has called the pricing out of true fans who can’t afford a ticket to attend live events “gross”.

That generosity and sincerity has added to Only The Poets’ story. But behind that sits a big risk. I’m told it might even be a risk worth around £100,000. On stage in front of 5,000 fans, it probably felt worth it – but the reality is that it is harder than ever to make money from music as a profession, especially as a band.

Jump is Only The Poets’ most popular song on Spotify, the globally dominant music platform, with over 6.5million streams. Given Spotify pays artists on average £0.004 per stream, Only The Poets might have made around £26,000 revenue from their biggest hit so far on Spotify. Split four ways – and with plenty of costs to factor in – that’s not even going to pay for too many nights down the Turtle.

But there is something you can do to help. You know about Buy Local – and that applies to music too. By streaming the songs from their new album, you can help them earn that place in the top 10 of the album chart. Far better, of course, you could spend money to buy And I’d Do It Again – on digital download, CD or vinyl. Just below the band in the midweek chart are the Weeknd, Ed Sheeran and Sabrina Carpenter. So that’s the competition.

The UK midweek album charts has Only The Poets entering at No 10 – but they need further sales to confirm the place on Sunday.

Only The Poets deserve Reading’s support. They champion the town all over Europe – and they even turned the Purple Turtle into a tourist destination last Saturday afternoon. If Reading embraces Only The Poets like so many German, Belgian and Dutch fans do, that could help propel them to real success: higher chart positions, more Brixton gigs, main stage slots at big festivals – from where they will sing Reading’s praises. That’d be nice to hear while watching Glastonbury, right?

Just don’t blame me if you can’t stop singing Emotionally Hungover.