Chantel McGregor -
The John Peel Centre, Stowmarket, February 6th, 2026
Set Lists:
Part 1 - I Will Breathe/Broken Heartless Liar/Burn Your Anger/Lose Control/Stand On My Own/Walk On Land/Killing Time/Your Fever.
Part 2 - Home /Freefalling/Take The Power/Tears/Echoes/Undercover/April/Truth Will Out/The Healing.
The award-winning John Peel Centre welcomes the return of another award-winner, guitarist/vocalist the wonderful Chantel McGregor. On a wet and miserable evening the venue and our Yorkshire lass attract a sizable crowd, some have come from as far as France others from shorter distances like Stowlangtoft.
Tonight, Chantel continues to promote last year’s magnificent, 'The Healing' album. She does this without a support act and by splitting a lengthy set into two parts. It is immediately apparent there will be no keyboards, nor an appearance from regular bass man, Colin Sutton. The replacement man on bass, Joe Thorpe, looks the part but there seems to be little connection between the trio of players.
As mentioned, the songs are all there, though I still miss having 'Inconsolable' and 'I Can’t Make You Love Me' in the set. Chantel’s between song banter is always a show highlight, but for some reason it is largely met with silence tonight.
 Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 19 |  Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 20 |
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 Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 21 |  Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 22 |
 Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 23 |  Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 24 |
 Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 25 |  Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 26 |
 Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 27 |  Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 28 |
Chantel asks, “Do you like my socks?”. She would normally be bare foot on stage. She tells us how warm, fluffy and cosy they are, then informs us that her auntie was going to a trade fair in Birmingham to sell socks and she went with her not realising everything needed to be purchased in bulk! Luckily, she was able to hint at sock designs she liked as these will be the expected Christmas gifts for everyone, and she could buy a single coffee as she wandered around the fair for nearly seven hours!
Throughout the show our enigmatic performer does not move about as much as normal, only occasionally does she get fully centre stage. Her audience seem a bit tranquil and subdued, maybe it is this quietness that affects her performance, to be fair it is noticeable that she is a bit under the weather as she is suffering from a cold. Without audience participation Chantel speaks with sound man, Curtis, praising him for the excellent sound she is getting.
I think if you are going to have two sets there has to be something distinctly different about them, old and new songs, a change of dress or outfit, just having a 15-minute interval can make you lose momentum, meaning you almost have to start again.
 Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 18 |  Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 11 |
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 Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 12 |  Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 13 |
 Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 14 |  Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 15 |
 Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 16 |  Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 17 |
To highlight this point, as I said the between song silence was becoming palpable, early in the second set Chantel asked her band mates, “Shall we play ‘Tears’?” Audience nor band mates reacted till one man shouted, “Yes please, let’s have ‘Tears’!” It broke the silence and got a good response from both band and audience; it created an impact that continued throughout the set.
Chantel provides us with another of her many stories, becoming bored with word searches, crosswords and so on, she decided to teach herself piano, well why not? She wanted to be able to play a Taylor Swift song, but even with help from Joe, a piano teacher, she soon realised this was not for her!
A sublime ‘Echoes’ follows before the penultimate and angry ‘Truth Will Out’ which leads us into ‘The Healing’, a song with lyrics that resonate deeply with many people. Even if this evening Chantel was not at her effervescent best, she still remains a must-see artist, one that needs help to breakthrough to a wider and bigger audience.
 Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 1 |  Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 3 |
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 Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 2 |  Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 4 |
 Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 5 |  Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 6 |
 Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 7 |  Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 8 |
 Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 9 |  Chantel McGregor - Stowmarket 06 02 26 - Photograph 10 |
Best song of the night is the instrumental and Proggy ‘April’ which gives our performer the chance to break free and dazzle as she truly becomes one with her instrument.
By Paul Mace