The Sheffield Scenester

Eager to get a decent view I arrived promptly at 7.00 only to see a poster on the wall advertising that the doors opened at 7.30, luckily for me somewhere along the way they got it wrong and I was let in. However this did explain the near empty interior as I was about the only person there except obvious band members, so had a quick chat with one of Search Party’s members and bided my time. When it did finally come to 7.30 the floor was half full with people of all ages mingling as they do until 8.00 before the first band, Barnsley’s very own The North, were due on stage.

When they did arrive it was to a chorus of cheers, with ample support from the crowd they dived head first into their first number of the night 'This Pleasure'. Straight away it was obvious of their love for the Manchurian sound, incorporating that classic heavy spiralling guitar on lead whilst backing it up with some seriously undulating cadence on drums and bass, leaving rhythm guitar to fill in the gaps. Fronting this on vocals was a stellar performance from Gilroy who happily obliged in giving us that Gallagher swagger whilst polishing off a charismatic wailing lyric. As one track slowly bled into another it created an almost trance like effect encouraging the immediate crowd to gently sway about in time with the music. At this point one girl managed to trip over her own high heels landing flat on her back with legs in the air distracting the band and crowd – it wasn’t helped by the fact that she had a short skirt on! As the set drew to a close the crowd had swelled considerably in time to hear what for was me their best track ‘Red Horizon’ overflowing with escalating guitar riffs and the best thump - driven beat I’ve heard in a while. This was topped off by the final song ‘Common Cause’, opening with a screeching guitar before the classic lament on vocals and steady beat joined in. The set had virtually flown by, always a good sign and despite the odd problem with feedback – maybe it was an intentional effect I’ll never know but it did enhance the show.

The crowd were by now ready for the second band of the night, Search Party who’d, brought quite a following with them. The first track ‘Green’ (at least that’s its working title) was a statement of what we were to expect in the set, hard, ultra fast thrashing on guitar while bass a drums just kept up. This was to be a collection of indie/punk played as damn fast as they could, but at no point did the crowd seemed perturbed by this as they had a host of friends and family in cheering them on. Having finished this track singer/guitarist Adam called a halt to proceedings by rather sheepishly asking for a spare guitar as his was broken; I’m not surprised by the way he attacked it with his style of play. Eventually one was found – not sure what would of happened if they couldn’t – and so we moved onto the second song after which the drummer started fixing one of his cymbals, this was shaping up to be a bit of a disaster, luckily though the next song ‘Thinking Out Loud’ was a slow one so he did it while this began. He was just in time for the climatic hard edge finish and knocked out a brilliantly timed military tattoo which brings us to the final track, at least I’m sure they only did five tracks, but one thing I’m sure of is that their set only lasted 20 minutes. Shame really because the penultimate song ‘Cracked Black Photographs’ was easily their best one with some more hard core thrashing on guitar and a top notch solo thrown in. This song makes constant references to soldiers so to compliment this the guitar itself made a machine gun spitting noises; even the lighting threw in effects to give you the illusion of a warzone. A great finish to an all too short set was given to us in the shape of ‘Mindset’, another of their trademark hard and fast styled anthems all about escaping death at least that was the general chant throughout.

Finally we came to Flying Squad, obviously the pull of the night as the crowd surged forward and from the opening bars quite a few started dancing. This was anything but indie music, whilst they set up their gear I managed a quick glance at the set list and to be honest with titles like ‘Plague’, ‘Hell To Pay’ and ‘Fearless Leaders’ I half expected some kind of battle metal band. What I got instead was an incredibly well written and immaculately crafted series of songs by an obviously talented bunch of musicians. The drummer, Mark White, in particular showed more than a passing respect for his craft as not only could he thrash the hell out of his kit but he’d do backing vocals and even handle a mini keyboard thing on the side – and women say men can’t multitask!! Though he did crack a smile when someone shouted out “Mark White has a huge kn*b”. Each song, though fairly short it has to be said, was catchy and easily danceable; this was more than evident from the people in front of the stage. Mind you they weren’t moshing, oh no, this was more like slapstick ballroom dancing which at times was really quite entertaining. Ben Stanton on vocals mesmerized the audience with his haunting voice while Aaron Butcher on lead guitar was more than up to the task of a good solo. At the mid-point of the set they opted for a musical number, ‘Dillinger’ I think it was called, which surprised me in so far as this only served to boost their rating for me, if you can imagine ‘Tom Hark’ without the lyrics you’ll get the picture on this track. This also served as a cue for a rockier climax to the set including a cover of Edwyn Collins ‘Never Met A Girl Like You Before’ which only prompted more people to dance.

Once their set was finished free CD’s were handed out unfortunately for me they were all gone by the time they reached my side of the stage. I was then accosted by a woman, Emma her name was who in a slightly slurred voice said “I luv ‘em to bits!”, I have to admit they were great entertainment, maybe I should of just written that instead.

Words/Photos by Geoff Buckthorpe