January 6, 2025

Billie Marten – Tuning Fork: January 5, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)

British singer/songwriter Billie Marten made her New Zealand concert debut last night at Auckland’s Tuning Fork in front of an audience of very enthusiastic fans.

Billie may only be in her mid-twenties, but with over a decade of music making under her belt she proved that she’s a veteran at pleasing a crowd. But first, the 300+ plus young ladies (with a smattering of older men and women) were presented with opening act Roy Irwin.

Roy Irwin

Roy Irwin hails all the way from the Auckland suburb of Mt. Eden and is a favourite of Ms. Marten. This is my first exposure to Roy, who has been recording and performing his homemade songs since about 2016.

Even though it’s a warm summer night, Irwin is wearing a jacket, his long black hair obscuring his face as he stares down at the stage while strumming his guitar…he seems to take the shoegaze thing quite literally.

After a couple of minutes of strumming he sings and the crowd quiets down, straining to hear what he has to say. His lyrics are difficult to discern as he seem to be barely breathing, let alone singing, and so his fragile voice trails out over the crowd.

Roy strums simply throughout the 8 songs he performs although he does eventually raise his head and make eye contact. He even speaks from time to time.

“”My name is Roy Irwin, thanks for watching…this song is called Awful” is about the extent of his banter.

To the audience’s credit, they are quiet, attentive and respectful, although one can feel the folks getting a bit restless as his time draw to a close.

“I’m not a stand-up comedian” Irwin sings during The Comedian, a 2021 single. That would be an understatement. But I get the feeling there is something going on here and perhaps Bob Irwin deserves to be heard again, maybe a little louder and with a hint of diversity among his songs and his presentation.

Billie Marten

Now Billie Marten is a different kettle of fish altogether. There are screams and shouts as she settles on stool, clutching her acoustic guitar and “adjusting” herself.

Her set opens with This Is How We Move, from latest album Drop Cherries and immediately the crowd is hooked.

Billie discards the stool…”It didn’t feel right”, and is handed an electric guitar by her “roadie” who, I’m pretty sure is her partner Will Taylor of the band Flyte. Will makes several appearances, adjusting mics, swapping guitars, finding capos and at one dramatic point, retrieving a guitar strap.

This was not a night of drama, but rather well-written songs beautifully played and sung by a very talented young lady. Billie mentioned in my interview a day earlier that her next album will find her exploring new sounds, but for tonight she is very much in that classic singer/songwriter mode evoking memories of Carole, Carly, James and Neil.

We got a taste of the new album with latest single Crown, but otherwise the setlist was drawn from her past catalogue with Toulouse, from 2019’s Feeding Seahorses By Hand a personal fave.

“I love it here, very much”, Billie gushed, “I’ve wanted to come here my whole life!”

Kiwi audiences have heard it all before, but never seem to tire of hearing how international artists love their country.

When Marten told the crowd she would be staying in NZ for two weeks, she was bombarded with sightseeing suggestions. The glow worms were a favourite and when one voice yelled out, “go to Wellington” another quickly replied, Don’t bother!”

Welcome to Auckland.

It’s clear that Billie Marten writes the kind of songs and sings them in such a way that her fans can identify with. I could almost feel the lyrics of songs like She Dances and La Lune physically connecting with the crowd.

Kudos to two very enthusiastic fans near the front who screamed and/or sighed as their favourites were played. When Billie lost her way during set closer I Can’t Get My Head Around You, they were right there with the lyric, helping their hero through a brief rough patch, resulting in a spontaneous sing along that everyone in the Tuning Fork took part in.

With nowhere to hide, Billie remained on stage and gave up to more songs as “encores”…a lovely, delicate Devil Swim and a cover of Nelly Furtado’s I’m Like A Bird.

Why that song? Billie says…It’s good for me, it’s good for you and it’s good for Nelly.

Good on Billie for making her first trip down under…let’s hope it’s not her last. Now, go on, enjoy those glow worms!

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Azrie:

Billie Marten: