Dom Martin & Thomas Heppel

Carole Nash Hall at The Stoller Hall, Manchester - Sometimes life is good. We live in what can be a difficult world at times - but not tonight. The sun has shone heavily for the past three days, and on occasions hit the early 20’s. Pretty unreal stuff for this country at the best of times, but in the early days of May and on a Bank Holiday weekend, it is truly unreal.

The added bonus is that I get to head North to Manchester and The Stoller Hall, a 400 seat venue that was built around the acoustics, to cater for the contemporary artists and broadcasts that normally take place there… or rather to be more accurate, to its little sister, the 140 seat room underneath, just as acoustically refined as its big brother up top, and a more than delightful venue for an acoustic evening with Dom Martin.

There are pockets of dark cloud overhead in places, but that sun isn’t going anywhere for the moment, and that makes me happy. It’s a fair-sized venue is The Stoller Hall, but it’s dwarfed by its neighbours, Manchester Victoria Railway Station to one side and the Manchester AO Arena, to the other. As I get closer, I begin to wonder why the area is so busy and why finding a parking space is more of a challenge than it should be, then as I turn the corner, it hits me, Torville and Dean are on the second night of three at said AO Arena, and that’s a big old gaff that holds 21,000 at the best of times, and by all accounts is sold out !

So much for my 140-seater across the road then ! !

Anyway…

Thomas Heppel - Tonight we have a Support in the form of Thomas Heppel, who I’ve had one eye on for a while, but gig dates have always clashed with others. Tonight, he’s solo, but that’s part expected for the kind of night we’re in for and still as good a way as any to experience someone for the first time.

He’s quite a tall Fella as he enters stage left, elegantly dressed for the surroundings in a jacket which has a blue and Purple satin look about it, with huge red roses dotted all over it - fashion is not my strong point so you’ll have to make do with this much information - oh, and a hat that immediately grabs the attention of some members in the audience.

He parades around the stage trying to work out the best way to get on, as it’s not the biggest of stages even for an acoustic evening and is still heavily laden with gear. He finally opts for the front, shimmies around the various mike stands and takes his seat, and so we begin… or rather we don’t as Heppel then takes a while to tune up and politely invites us to talk amongst ourselves whilst he does so.

“Nice hat” comes the cry from the audience - told you it had been noticed - “You can’t have it, it’s mine”, Heppel replies. Apparently Mr. Martin has already asked him how much he wants for his jacket, but again he declined. The man has obviously made an effort and is hanging on to every item of clothing he's brought with him. With the guitar duly tuned, we finally do begin.

No set list was available as it’s entirely possible to ‘wing it’ for forty minutes and be convincing about it. Heppel was brave in trying to whip a polite crowd up in the excitement stakes and duly succeeded as “John the Revelator” had everyone joining in with the title line whilst Heppell played and sung around them with a most effective stomp pad to keep us all in time. It’s a very effective tune that brings Manchester together and they appreciate it.

He’s a very chatty and amendable guy, is Thomas, and he tells us that he used to be a police officer, for three years, which he doesn’t regret it as it taught him a lot. His experiences called him to write one amazing tune though in “What Causes a Man to Break” which captivated Manchester and had everyone’s attention, such was the performance, and I swear, you could hear a pin drop whilst he did so.

It’s fair to say that Manchester loved Thomas a lot, with his storytelling and his all-round friendly demeanour. Many may not have heard of him before but that’s the whole point of touring with a big hitter like Martin as you introduce yourself to a whole new audience and hopefully create a whole new fan base for yourself. On this showing and the decent amount of trade he seemed to be doing at the Merch stand after, the man succeeded. I had one eye on him before, but that’s now been upgraded to two as indeed to see him with a full band as I’m convinced it’ll be worth the effort.

Don Martin - Now, where do I start with our man Martin ?

I’ve been fortunate to see him a few times now, the last two with the full band, if you can call it that seeing as there’s only three of them in total, but it’s enough, as there’s nothing missing or ever the feeling that it could be improved on.

Tonight, as it’s the acoustic tour, the drummer has been dispensed with - poor Fella, I thought McLaughlin did a fine job in Chester a few months back now - so it’s just our man Dom, accompanied by bass player, Ben Graham, who’ll also delight us with his piano skills this evening.

Martin saunters in, no big fanfare, not even an announcement, picks up his guitar and politely asks how everyone is. I should know this by now though, as that’s how he normally starts a gig. Less is more, as they say.

I took a sneak peek at the setlist beforehand, to try and get the inside track, but ‘winging it’ seems to be the order of the day, as it states ‘90 minutes from’… and then lists fifteen songs, so I guess it’s all down to the mood that Martin is in and the vibe that he gets from those that preferred a night in his company, instead of a night of ice skating.

For those in the know, a Dom Martin gig is as much about the storytelling as it is the music. He’s a raconteur (don’t get to use that word too often these days) as much as he’s a musician. Some of the stories give you an insight to the life he lived before the one he does now, and you get the feeling that he tells you far more than he should at times, but I suspect he knows that - or his management do, anyway…

One of his more innocent anecdotes tells the story of how he lived in the loft of a friend’s house for a month after he saw him go out one day without locking the door, "and if you’re homeless and you see this happen, you go in" he says. “It wasn’t bad or malicious” he says but he “made himself a cup of tea and a couple of rounds of toast and sat in the mans chair wondering what it would be like to own a house”. Then he saw the man coming back down the road, so he headed to the loft and stayed for a whole month.

Fact or fiction? It doesn’t matter, it’s a fun story and you want it to be true, not least because one of the songs he supposedly wrote whilst he was hiding up there was ‘Mercy’, which tonight is mashed together with ‘Hell For You’.

With ‘Daylight I Will Find’, he throws himself a curved ball as he openly admits “If you know the lyrics then sing along as I keep bloody forgetting them”. This is a more than acceptable request and Manchester duly obliges.

In the same way that Rory Gallagher is often shown respect at a Martin gig, Ralph McTell is also shown due reverence, although Martin admits that “he appreciates his dad’s versions of his songs more than McTell’s because he heard his dad play them all the time, and they meant more because they were his dads versions”, so we are treated to Martins version, of his dads version, of Ralph McTell’s ‘Last Train and Ride’. He further adds that he “saw McTell at the age of ten and as he was an impressionable lad who wanted to be a policeman or a spaceman (as did we all) but all that went through the window after that gig, I had no friends, I didn’t want to go to school but that gig gave me an identity and from that moment on all’s I wanted to do was play the guitar". Living proof that the ‘Streets of London’ are indeed paved with gold then.

As I said at the beginning, I’ve been fortunate to have seen Martin a few times now, but this was the first time acoustically from start to finish and it was an absolute pleasure. The songs were given a whole new meaning because of their rawness at being performed in such a simple format. Don’t get me wrong, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the raucous blues that Martin can pump out when he’s surrounded with drums and bass and I will be first in line later this year when he heads out on a more recognisable tour (with the wonderful Blue Nation as Support once again) see below for dates and details, but this was different whilst still having all the home comforts of a Dom Martin gig. Sometimes you need to crank it down a bit, mellow out for a while and this is as fine a way as any of doing it.

The performance was exceptional, the guitar playing sublime and the whole ambience of the evening was something to be savoured not just on the way home, but for the whole, long, sunshiny bank holiday weekend.

The raucous side of Martin can wait until later this year, in November when he hits the road again with the fabulous Blue Nation on a twelve-date co-headline tour, starting in Cork on the 1st, before heading to Dublin the day after, and finishing up in Belfast on the 28th after heading across the Irish Sea for dates across Scotland and England.

Those that witnessed the tour back in November 2024 will know that it’s an electric night out. Totally different than this evening, but that’s what makes it new and exciting and well worth the admission.

I’ll be there and I suggest you make the effort too.

Until then...

Dom Martin Acoustic Setlist 2025

90 Minutes From:

1. Discover the Lover

2. Haunted

3. Echoes

4. Breathe

5. 12 Gauge

6. Jolene

7. Easy Way Out

8. Hell For You / Mercy

9. Daylight I Will Find

10. Last Train and Ride

11. Luca

12. Belfast Blues

13. Bankers Blues

14. Dealer

15. Should've Learned My Lesson

Dom Martin & Blue Nation Co-Headline Tour

November 2025

1st - CORK, Crane Lane Theatre

2nd - DUBLIN, Whelans

14th - GLASGOW, St Lukes

15th - NEWCASTLE, The Cluny

16th - YORK, Crescents Arts

17th - MANCHESTER, Carole Nash Hall

18th - CHESTER, Live Rooms

20th - BRISTOL, The Fleece

21st - TEIGNMOUTH, The Pavilions *

22nd - FLEET, The Harlington

25th - LONDON, 100 Club, Tuesday Blues

26th - LIVERPOOL, The Cavern

28th - BELFAST, The Black Box

Dom Martin only at Teignmouth *

You can find out more about Dom Martin by clicking here…

You can find tickets info for the November gigs by clicking here…

You can find out more on Blue Nation by clicking here…

Written in association with Central Press PR