The Sheffield Scenester

For me one of the best venues in Sheffield for live music is without doubt The Frog And Parrot on Division Street, true it doesn’t exactly boast the greatest of sound systems, the lighting is non-existent and there’s only a small amount of floor space in front of the main bay window for the acts to perform- half of this is taken up by the drum kit alone! But despite all this many bands have successfully performed here to great acclaim, you only have to cast your mind back to the Tramlines Festival of last year when all weekend long band after band performed to a packed house. All that said and done what really does it for me is the pub like atmosphere from its wooden stools to its different styles of worn upholstery throughout, you won’t find any neon or chrome here. At the bar you’ll find an extensive range of beers on offer – my personnel favourite being Peroni, but it being the middle of winter I opted for the Guinness instead.

I’d come along to see The Dead Delta and hadn’t really thought about them having a support band but sure enough warming up were what looked like a couple of hillbillies – no offense but their attire ranged somewhere between The Dukes Of Hazard and Deliverance! They were in fact the self proclaimed Deep South Yorkshire power death blues duo of Doc Skrot and Sheriff leki called Wet Nuns – have you got all that? You’ll have to forgive me at this point but getting any song titles was next to impossible due to the Sheffield/Alabama drawl employed by these esteemed artists. The set started with your classic guitar sliding blues riff and a steady drum beat (for tempo purposes only) before guitarist Doc Skrot began screaming in earnest, maybe screaming is too harsh a description, growling might be more appropriate! The guitar work itself was distinctly reminiscent of Ry Cooders work especially on the classic movie Southern Comfort – a style I’ve always admired. Meanwhile drummer Sheriff Leki sounding a lot like Lemmy doped up on moonshine took his turn at belting out a tune, after all as he announced they were from Sheffield Alabama. One tune I did recognise was called ‘Ram It Home’ as it was sung to the chorus of Mustang Sally which if nothing else gave the audience a reference point to work with, but they all sang along regardless. This was followed by a song about beards, a real mash up of metal and blues giving it a certain redneck attitude to the proceedings, throughout this it was obvious the Leki was having a riot of a time as he could barely control his laughter while Skrot, looking like he’d washed up on the shores of some Bijou swampland, just kept sliding away.

After that onslaught it was time for The Dead Delta with new drummer Bobby Stevo, to be honest he’s been the official replacement since October but this is the first time I’ve seen him in action and from the outset it was obvious he was easily up to the challenge. They launched straight into their classic set opener ‘Light The Flame In Me’ – a great Doors influenced tune, albeit a lot edgier and heavier. This pretty much raises the bar every time they play it as from this point its full blown energy all the way with singer Joe Hudson practically falling over his amps with rampant enthusiasm. As ever their take on the blues inspired indie scene is totally contagious with spiralling riffs interwoven around a driving backbeat of incessant pounding and thumping on drums and bass. Up next was the all time crowd pleaser ‘Walk On Water’ inspiring memories of classic Stones, but with such polished exponents of delta blues you’d expect nothing else. During the song ‘I’ll Be Leaving Here’ guitarist Billy tried swapping to a classical guitar but gave up due to sound problems – basically it didn’t work – so switched back to his standard electric which in all honesty sounded fine. In complete contrast to Wet Nuns this brand of blues rock was exquisitely refined despite its skuzzy sliding guitar work from Danny. They finished with my favourite track ‘Gaslight’ starting as it does with a riff sounding like the Stooges ‘Wanna Be Your Dog’ before reverting back to a darker blues style.

An entertaining but interesting evening with two interpretations of blues rock, a bit chalk and cheese but somehow it worked quite well. This was interspersed with the Parrots DJ playing some classic blues tracks all evening while the place filled up as per usual, amongst the crowd you could see plenty of Sheffield’s unsigned musical royalty from bands like Alvarez Kings, Elephant Keys and the old Beanstalks line-up happily mingling around. In a nutshell this is what I love about The Frog And Parrot, ambience, good music and good company.

Words & Photos by Geoff & Gail Buckthorpe