Frank Turner’s 2,729th live show wasn’t your standard gig. Instead of playing to a drunken crowd in the back room of a pub on Britain’s “toilet circuit”, where his career began, or to the thousands of fans who now spend £50 a ticket to see him at some of the UK’s best-known venues, the punk rock musician spent 26 January at the Houses of Parliament. In the House of Commons Terrace Pavilion, overlooking the Thames, Turner played some of his best-known songs, led MPs in a singalong, and accidentally said “fuck” – all in support of the Music Venue Trust (MVT), which had just published its annual report on the state of the UK’s grassroots music scene.
It was, Turner said, “one of the weirdest gigs in my career”. This from a man who performed as part of the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony.
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