Sam Fender has kicked off his 2025 European tour and performed songs from ‘People Watching’ live for the first time. Check out the footage and setlist below.
The show took place as part of the European leg of his tour, and began last night (March 4) with an opening night at the Olympia venue in Paris. It marked Fender’s first show since he took home the Best Rock/Alt Act at the BRITs over the weekend, and his first time playing a headline date since dropping third album ‘People Watching’.
He kicked off the show with back-to-back renditions of ‘Getting Started’, ‘Arm’s Length’ and ‘People Watching’, before breaking out the live debut of ‘Crumbling Empire’. From there, Fender played ‘Will We Talk?’, before introducing another song to the set for the first time, ‘Tyrants’.
Other live debuts made across the 14-song-setlist included ‘TV Dinner’ – which was performed between ‘Howdon Aldi Death Queue’ and ‘Spit Of You’ – and ‘Chin Up’, which was the first song of the encore, followed by ‘Hypersonic Missiles’.
As well as four new songs being played for the first time in Paris, another highlight from the gig also came when Fender leaned into the crowd to take a Greggs sausage roll from a fan who brought it from the UK for him. Check out that moment below, as well as more footage from the show and the complete setlist.
A fan travelled a Greggs Sausage Roll over 300 miles, for Sam to enjoy in Paris pic.twitter.com/HJYgrjCzRJ
— George
(@YouGhostTrack) March 4, 2025
I delivered a Greggs sausage roll from Newcastle to Paris to Sam Fender to kick off his tour nice and proper @GreggsOfficial pic.twitter.com/0nW0566Iky
— Dan | DRAW MEDIA (@_DanielWalsh_) March 4, 2025
Sam Fender’s Paris setlist was:
1. ‘Getting Started’
2. ‘Arm’s Length’
3. ‘People Watching’
4. ‘Crumbling Empire’ (Live Debut)
5. ‘Will We Talk?’
6. ‘Tyrants’ (Live Debut)
7. ‘Howdon Aldi Death Queue’
8. ‘TV Dinner’ (Live Debut)
9. ‘Spit Of You’
10. ‘The Boarders’
11. ‘Little Bit Closer’
12. ‘Seventeen Going Under’
13. ‘Chin Up’ (Live Debut)
14. ‘Hypersonic Missiles’
The tour is set to continue tonight (March 5) with a show at the 013 Poppodium venue in Tilburg, followed by shows in Zurich, Cologne, Munich, Berlin, Amsterdam and more throughout the month. Visit here for remaining tickets.
As for ‘People Watching’, the album arrived last month and landed the biggest UK opening week for a British act since Harry Styles‘ ‘Harry’s House‘. It also marked Fender’s biggest ever opening week, selling more units than 2019’s debut ‘Hypersonic Missiles‘ and 2021’s ‘Seventeen Going Under‘ combined.
In a four-star review of ‘People Watching’, NME wrote: “Reflective, analytical and vulnerable, ‘People Watching’ does exactly what the title may suggest: takes stock of the characters, friends and loved ones who have made Fender the person he is today. He approaches each track with sensitivity as he looks back on his life so far – perhaps even with an inkling of guilt – and contemplates who he may be next.”
In other Sam Fender news, the musician recently teased another new album, saying that he is “desperate” to lean into more of a punk-inspired sound going forward, and used his BRITs speech to celebrate the people of Newcastle.
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