Joe Bartley, 15, has previously played for barely 150 people, but found himself on stage at Newcastle’s St James’ Park in front of 50,000 on Thursday night with Sam Fender 
At his St James’ Park show, a teenage busker from Denton Burn, Newcastle, said he “still can’t believe it” that he performed with Sam Fender. On Thursday night, Joe Bartley, 15, took the stage in front of 50,000 people at Newcastle United’s famous stadium. Previously, he had only performed for 150 people. Sam noticed the teen playing his song “The Borders” on social media. During the pandemic, the teen learned to play the guitar by watching YouTube videos. Fender got in touch with their mutual guitar teacher to set something up.
I didn’t think it was real until the rehearsals the day before, when I first met Sam,” Joe said. “I found it incredibly difficult to keep this a secret, but we decided to keep it as quiet as possible.”
“I was speaking to him as though I had known him for years, and he is just a really typical person from North Shields who is really grounded. I didn’t feel anxious at all on Thursday until I was backstage and realized how packed it was only five minutes earlier. “There was a young lad outside of the stadium and he was busking the whole time and he wasn’t even asking for money,” Sam Fender remarked as he brought Joe to the stage.
“I just do it because I love it,” he said when somebody offered him money, adding, “No, no, it’s fine.” I want to put that guy on stage right now. His name is Joe Bartley. “After we had practiced, he came in for sound check and asked, ‘Hey, could I just play you a song?'” I said, “Aye.” Keep an eye out for this kid; he’s going to be classy. It was f****** mint.
Even though The Borders is one of Sam’s longer songs, at five and a half minutes, it seemed to go by so quickly, like a blur. Joe went on: “It felt surreal when I was brought on stage, the view was incredible, and going from 150 people to 50,000 was nerve-wracking, but I was able to get through it because I had met Sam the day before.”
“I was trembling and crying uncontrollably from the emotions and adrenaline of everything when I exited the stage and we proceeded to find seats. It was odd that some of my classmates and professors asked me how I was doing today at school.
“This has made me even more driven to succeed myself, but I don’t believe I’ll ever get over it. It still doesn’t feel real, and I’m not sure if it ever will. I never imagined that my ambition of playing at St. James’ Park would come true so quickly, so I must now seize every moment I get. I would want to thank Sam for providing me with the opportunity to realize my dream.”
READ MORE: sportchannel.co.uk
Leave a Reply