Before the First Tap: The Five-Track Ritual That Gets the Bonnettes Show-Ready
There is a small black speaker in every Bonnettes dressing room, and it has a job title. It is not there for background noise or for someone’s cousin’s Spotify Discover Weekly. It is there to move the band from the fizzing, slightly chaotic energy of a completed soundcheck to the focused, glitter-dusted calm that precedes the three-tap door signal. In 2026, that speaker has a setlist of five songs. Not four, not six. Five. And according to Bonnie, the order matters more than the volume.
The Ritual, Briefly
The Bonnettes’ pre-show routine is not a military operation. There is tea. There is a mirror check. There is usually one person hunting for a hairclip while another person insists the room is too hot. But somewhere between the last cable being taped down and the first knock at the door, someone – often Bonnie, sometimes the tour manager, occasionally a support act who has been briefed in advance – plugs in the speaker and presses play on a playlist titled, with typical understatement, ‘Doors in Twenty’. The five tracks that follow are the band’s unofficial warm-up, a sequence designed to loosen shoulders, settle breathing and remind everyone why they are in a slightly damp room in Sheffield on a Tuesday night. It has become a tradition so ingrained that fans have started asking for the list. This is that list, and why each track earns its place.
Track One: The Room-Setter
The first song is always something with a pulse but no panic. In 2026, it is ‘Come On Eileen’ by Dexys Midnight Runners. On paper, it is a song about longing and cabbage patches; in a green room, it is a song about everyone remembering they are in a band. The opening violin is just long enough for Bonnie to finish her tea and put the cup down. The chorus is just rowdy enough for the guitarist to stop pacing. It does not ask anything of the room except a small, involuntary shoulder movement. That is precisely the point. The first track is not there to hype; it is there to say, gently, that the evening has begun.
Track Two: The Shoulder-Looser
Next comes ABBA. Specifically, ‘Dancing Queen’. There is no ironic distance here. The Bonnettes do not play ‘Dancing Queen’ in their set, and they are not trying to claim it. But that piano glissando has a way of cutting through the particular tension of a room where five people are about to perform in front of people who have paid to see them. The second track is the one where someone inevitably does a small, private dance move near the merch pile. It is the one where the drummer stops tapping out nervous paradiddles on their knees and starts tapping out the actual song. By the time the first chorus lands, the room has shifted from ‘we have a show to do’ to ‘we get to do a show’. That is a different feeling entirely.
Track Three: The Vocal Warm-Up in Disguise
You might expect a proper vocal exercise here. Instead, the Bonnettes use ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ by The Supremes. Bonnie has said in the past that she cannot do scales in front of other people without feeling like she is auditioning for a school musical, so the band found a workaround. The third track is the one where everyone sings along, badly and quietly, and Bonnie sings along properly. The tambourine shuffle does the rest. It is a warm-up that does not announce itself as a warm-up, which is exactly why it works. The room’s mood shifts again: less ‘we are about to be looked at’ and more ‘we are about to make a noise together’.
Track Four: The Shoe Check
By the fourth song, the practicalities take over. ‘You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)’ by Dead or Alive is loud enough to cover the sound of someone asking whether the setlist is taped to the floor in the right order. It is also the track that gets everyone checking their shoes. Not in a precious way – nobody is doing a full kit inspection – but there is a reason this song sits where it does. It has a beat that makes you want to move, and moving is the final test of whether a sequin has caught on a sleeve or a boot has a stone in it. The fourth track is the last opportunity to fix something small before the lights go up. It is also, unofficially, the song most likely to be heard through the wall by the early queue. Sorry about that.
Track Five: The Handover
The fifth song is the shortest, and it is not really a song in the traditional sense. It is ‘The Only Way Is Up’ by Yazz, and it plays at a volume slightly lower than the rest. The Bonnettes use it as a countdown. By the time the chorus arrives, the speaker is being switched off, the door is being checked and the three-tap signal is about to happen. The final track is not about getting louder; it is about getting quieter in the right way. It is the moment where the room stops being a green room and becomes a holding area for something about to happen. Bonnie has described it as ‘the sound of putting your game face on without having to say so’.
Recreating It at Home
The Bonnettes’ pre-show playlist is not a secret, and it is not sacred. It has evolved over several tours, and it will probably change again. But the logic behind it is easy to borrow. Start with something that makes you move without asking too much. Follow it with something that makes you sing. Use the third song to warm up without feeling self-conscious. Use the fourth to check your practical bits – shoes, laces, the thing you always forget. And use the last track to slow down, not speed up. The order matters because the nerves do not go away; they just get redirected.
If you are seeing the Bonnettes in 2026, you could try it before you leave the house. Put the five songs on, make a cup of tea, and give yourself twenty minutes. You will not have a three-tap door signal or a green-room speaker, but you will have the same shift in mood. And if you hear ‘You Spin Me Round’ drifting through the wall of a venue before doors, you will know exactly where it is coming from. The Bonnettes are in there, shoes checked, tea finished, waiting for the tap.
