By MELLY LING
alltherage@thestar.com.my

Lawson heats up the stage!

WITH their undeniably good looks, you’d be forgiven for assuming the guys from Lawson were part of a boyband. The reaction from their hysterical fans when they hit the stage last Saturday at Stage Club, Kuala Lumpur didn’t really help their case either.

But, as they showed during the ensuing concert, Lawson is a proper playing band, and they put on quite a spectacular show too, justifying the hype from their fans.

Hailing all the way from London, Britain, the band was formed five years ago when drummer Adam Pitts stumbled upon vocalist Andy Brown’s MySpace page and messaged him to see if he was interested in starting a band. Things just took off from there, and the two would later on add bassist Ryan Fletcher and guitarist Joel Peat to the line-up.

Drummer Adam Pitts going all out on his drums.

“For about three years, we were going around doing gigs in a battered-up old van to two or three people, if that,” said Pitts during an interview before the concert. “Then we uploaded a couple of videos on YouTube and that’s how our current manager discovered us. We were very lucky.”

When asked how he felt about Lawson being constantly compared to British boybands like One Direction and The Wanted, Pitts said: “I think they’re great bands, but they’re more of your typical boybands, where you have five singers on stage, and that’s what they do.

“But we’re a proper playing band, more on the same lines as The Script, Maroon 5 and One Republic where it’s still pop music, but more towards pop-rock, where we’re all playing instruments.”

Most bands have an interesting story behind their band names, but Lawson’s is really something else.

The name is actually a tribute to the surgeon who operated on Brown, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour when he was 19. The surgeon’s last name was “Lawson”.

“It was a very traumatic time in my life, and I was terrified,” said Brown. “The doctor who operated on me was not only my saviour, but an inspirational guy, so we named the band after him.”

Since then, the band has been going from strength to strength. They’ve performed with the likes of Coldplay, Jessie J and The Wanted, and they’re now living every band’s dream by touring the world.

At their concert in Malaysia, fans were already lining up outside the venue hours before the show, many braving the scorching heat just to make sure they would get a good spot.

Most of them were girls, naturally. But hey, we can’t blame Lawson for being good-looking, right?

It must have been well worth the wait for those fans when the band finally came on stage looking deliciously good in their skinny jeans. The decibel levels just went through the roof.

They performed mostly tracks from their debut album Chapman Square, like Taking Over Me, When She Was Mine and Learn To Love Again.

Bassist Ryan Fletcher in full energy on his bass strings and sings out loud.

The album, written mostly by Brown, is based a lot on his personal life and past relationships.

Pitts said: “The main thing for us is we write all our stuff ourselves. Andy’s the lead songwriter on every song, and we wouldn’t have it any other way because that’s a great way to get real emotion into your music.”

Aside from their original material, the band also showed their versatility by doing a couple of cool covers during the concert – Maroon 5’s Moves Like Jagger and Swedish House Mafia’s Don’t You Worry Child.

They ended the night with a rousing performance of Standing In The Dark, arguably their most popular hit right now. The crowd sang along gleefully while waving their handphones in the air. It was the perfect end to a very good concert.