10 October 2026 (gig)
8 h
Strawberry Guy (great name!) is playing his first gig in Italy, and the venue is ARCI Bellezza in Milan. With a new album, Give Me A Dream, the follow-up to his magical debut LP Sun Outside My Window, due later this month, life is getting bigger for Alexander Morgan Stephens, born in Wales but brought up in Liverpool. Having studied at the esteemed Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), where he received his honours from Sir Paul McCartney himself, things are certainly looking up — and hopefully getting better, too.
The pre-release singles “I’ll Never Feel That Young Again”, “Only Gets Better” and “Love Me Like You Used To” are all intriguing, cool, dreamlike songs that have you reaching for the repeat button. Stephens has that melancholic, auteur-like streak in his songwriting, connecting the introspective solo John Lennon era with the wonderful Mac DeMarco. The new songs may feature lusher arrangements, with strings taking centre stage, but the overall soundscape remains mellow, unhurried and inviting, rhythmically gentle, like mild waves lapping against the shore.
Alex has enjoyed considerable success thanks to TikTok doing its algorithmic thing with “Mrs Magic”, which found a much wider audience some two years after its original release in 2019. That unexpected breakthrough gave him the space and time to create his new album.
ARCI clubs are non-profit social and cultural centres forming a nationwide network of more than 4,000 community hubs across Italy. ARCI Bellezza, in the heart of Milan, is one of them: an intimate venue with a basement cellar that holds around a 50/100 people, although tonight we’re upstairs, a neat room with nice stage.
Well, the place is packed with young folk eager to get to grips with Strawberry Guy. It was actually his friend and mentor Audun Laading, bassist in the band Her’s, who came up with the name. Alex explained: “We were walking back from a festival all quite drunk and we were talking about drinks for some reason. Audun asked me, ‘If you could have any drink right now that wasn’t alcohol, what would you have?’ and I replied with ‘strawberry milkshake’. He then went ‘Ah, you’re a strawberry guy!’, and I thought it was a good artist name. He then went ‘Yeah, you’re Strawberry Guy now.’ I knew then when I released music it would be under that name. I thought it was sweet, soft and smooth like my music hopefully.”
Tragically, Laading and his Her’s bandmate Stephen Fitzpatrick both died in a road accident in the United States in 2019 while touring the first album. Their loss lends an added poignancy to the story behind the name.
On stage, three musicians handle drums, bass and guitar, while Suzy provides organ, synth and backing vocals. They’re an earnest, serious bunch, and when you add the lyrical weight of Alex’s songs to their downbeat aura, the whole thing could easily become claustrophobic and drab. But that’s absolutely not the vibe tonight. Strawberry Guy has a reassuring presence, with a resonant, solid voice that sits prominently in the mix — a welcome choice — alongside his easygoing demeanour and witty between-song banter, the vibe is chilled and calming.
There are some genuinely beautiful tracks on the new album, too. Alex knows how to construct melodies and intertwining vocal lines, accompanying himself on a piano with a distinctly Seventies feel (think Plastic Ono Band), while lush, sweeping arrangements rise above a minimalist bass-and-drums foundation. It’s all incredibly endearing. There’s something of the Pet Shop Boys about the contrast, too: Neil Tennant’s calm, never overtly aggressive delivery made a wonderful foil for the darker lyrics and melodramatic music. Strawberry Guy works a similar kind of magic, allowing the emotional undercurrents to surface without ever tipping into melodrama.
He chats amiably to the Italian crowd, which includes plenty of young women swaying to the music and admiring his beautiful hair. Someone asks how he maintains its sheen and lustre; (Two types of conditioner and olive oil by the way!) It’s a happy place, despite songs such as “Love Me Like You Used To”, “I’ll Never Feel That Young Again” and “Without You” suggesting otherwise.
It comes to me towards the end of the gig: listening to Strawberry Guy’s records, and indeed experiencing them live, is a little like when I heard The Korgis’ “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime”, for the first time, that truly magnificent pop song with its own special, indefinable magic. Well, Alex has got it, too.
Standout songs for me are “Only Gets Better”, “You Saved My Life That Day”, “Love Me Like You Used To” and “Better Man”( performed solo)all from the forthcoming album, alongside “Mrs Magic”, of course. During the latter, virtually everyone has their phone out, which is slightly disturbing, to be honest.
Closing with the sublime “What Would I Do”, Alex leaves little doubt that, judging by this reception, he’ll be back in Italy for more shows. But I honestly think Give Me A Dream could be album of the year, and that Strawberry Guy is destined to become a big name — everywhere.
This is where pop should be.
