At this point, Neck Deep are empirically the biggest pop-punk band the UK has ever produced. Sure, McFly and Busted have apparently been retconned into pop-punk status in the last few years, but as far as the true, genuine article goes, no one even comes close to Neck Deep. What’s more, it’s good that they’re back at a point where it feels justified. Their self-titled album came out almost exactly a year ago to light a fire under a band who’d been flagging for an entire cycle before it. Not that you’d ever be able to tell; on the live front, they’ve always been crowd-pleasers, ever since they were born as just another knock-off of The Story So Far over a decade ago.
Now, it’s unquestionable that Neck Deep are leading the charge. The massive venues on this tour are their bread-and-butter, with Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse being as close to a hometown blowout as it comes for them. It doesn’t hurt that they’ve brought along The Wonder Years, another troupe of pop-punk royalty who’ve since outgrown their genre constraints, but continue to hold a special place inside them regardless. So, for this massive show—in both scale and sentimental magnitude—our photographer Ben Whitehurst headed over to catch the winners of pop-punk do what they do best.
The Wonder Years
Neck Deep
Photos by Ben Whitehurst (Instagram)
