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Dec 17, 2023 By Dom Gourlay Web Exclusive

With a history that spans over forty years across fifteen albums and almost twice as many singles and EPs, New Model Army have outlasted pretty much every genre and trend that’s emerged since their conception back in 1980. Formed in Bradford at the back end of the first wave of punk by singer, guitarist and songwriter-in-chief Justin Sullivan, the band’s sole remaining founder member. New Model Army have never courted fame or success, despite appearing on Top Of The Pops back in 1985 and regularly selling out venues of 2000 capacity and upwards around the UK and Europe ever since. While many other bands have been inspired by New Model Army or tried to emulate them, it’s this steadfast refusal to align themselves with any scene coupled with Sullivan’s lyrics and ability to infuse their music with a host of styles ranging from folk and metal to classical and pop that’s seen continually tour while attracting a legion of new fans alongside hardcore devotees who’ve been there since the early days.

Next month will see New Model Army release their sixteenth studio album in the shape of Unbroken, the band’s first collection of new material since 2019’s From Here and also one of their longest gaps in between records since forming. Alongside mainstay Sullivan, the current line-up is also the band’s longest serving group of players, with second guitarist and occasional keyboard player Dean White coming up to thirty years service and drummer Mike Dean having hit twenty-five years earlier this year. Bass player Ceri Monger only being a novice in comparison having served just over a decade with the band.

Tonight’s annual Christmas pilgrimage to Nottingham’s Rock City - New Model Army have regularly played this venue in December for decades - sees fans from all over the UK converge on the city for one night. Whilst queuing beforehand, Under the Radar speaks with fans who’ve travelled from places as far and wide as Bristol, Huddersfield and Leicester; some with tales to tell from having seen them dozens of times, others seeing the band for the very first time this evening. But what that also makes for is a very different and diverse range of fans that got into the band’s music at various stages of their career. It also makes the usual pre-gig challenge of “setlist bingo” even more daunting when there are so many songs to choose from, spanning such a long and eclectic back catalogue.

As has been customary the past few times New Model Army have played Rock City, tonight’s show is split between two sets. One that veers between semi-acoustic solo performances from Sullivan who’s then joined by the full band around the mid-point, then the full on New Model Army experience afterwards. As a result, the band are on stage for approximately two-and-a-half hours in total, and even though tonight’s sets feature over thirty songs from their monumental discography it still doesn’t really tip the iceberg, so vast is the band’s songbook.

No one era from the band’s catalogue specifically features. Instead, Sullivan and his bandmates treat us to a real mix and match affair that’s as unpredictable as it is heartwarming. “Pull The Sun” from 2013’s Between Dog and Wolf stands shoulder to shoulder with “Notice Me” from their 1984 debut Vengeance during the first set, while debut single “Bittersweet” and the closing couplet of “Ballad of Bodmin Pill” and “225” from their fourth and most commercially successful album to date Thunder and Consolation also find themselves well received by all and sundry in Rock City’s jam-packed confines.

With the aforementioned new album on the horizon, tonight’s show provided Sullivan and co. with an opportunity to play a couple of new songs live for the first time. The first of which, recent single “First Summer After” most people are familiar with. The second however, “Coming Or Going” giving a deeper insight into what to expect from Unbroken. However, the rest of the set sees them traverse their entire history, whether it be to focus on Between Dog and Wolf’s tenth anniversary - celebrated intently with rousing renditions of its title track and “Stormclouds” - or “Get Me Out” off 1990’s Impurity to “Frightened” off 1985’s No Rest For The Wicked.

“Wonderful Way To Go” off 1998’s seventh long player Strange Brotherhood closes the main set, and while Between Dog and Wolf is revisited once again during the encore - “Guessing” and “Angry Planet” bookending a rousing “Green And Grey” off 1989’s Thunder and Consolation - its clear New Model Army are as vital and relevant today as they ever were. With 2024 already shaping up to be one of New Model Army’s busiest to date, here’s to more celebrations of the band’s past, present and future like the one we’ve just experienced this evening.