The Sheffield Scenester

Quite by chance we managed to have a chat with Tom, lead singer and guitarist for Steel Trees, he happened to be in the studio when we went round to interview Steve Ellis and thought why not? Admittedly he couldn’t stick around for an in depth interview but he did outline the history and philosophy of the band, this is what he had to say for himself:

"Well I met Von (bass) at school when we were about thirteen and started getting into the local music scene, and always had an interest in the bands that were out at the time, our big influences then were Deftones and Nirvana and stuff like that. For a few years we lost touch and then when we got to about sixteen or seventeen we then hooked up again, started playing again and had this idea to start a band called Airburst, we met Dog (drums) through a local sort of pub/club band I was playing in at the time and it didn’t take long after our first gig, as Airburst, to realise that we wanted more than these clubs and grubby floors, we wanted grubby floors in better venues where people actually wanted to listen to us. So we extensively demo’d, rehearsed five days a week, then landed a couple of big support slots like Dinosaur Jr at Leadmill and did a couple of BBC Raw Talent sessions. We then came to a point where we had an idea to focus on one sort of genre, but Airburst were mainly an alternative rock funk band while the songs we were writing were bigger, a lot angrier and more straight to the point and so Steel Trees came about. Literally from the start we did lots of gigs and big tour supports like Sick Puppies and Philadelphia Grand Jury, we had a good spot at Doncaster Live Festival supporting Goldblade. Along with this we also caught the attention of post-punk legend’s Magazine’s manager who sort of took us under his wing so to speak and helped shape our vision. With that came a couple of good videos which was a good promo tool to get out there, and now we have our debut EP ‘Gunk’, even though with Airburst we wrote two thirty track albums......basically no-ones ever heard them and hopefully no-one ever will! The EP is completely self released with artwork by a local celebrity called Thom Smith, it’s a limited edition of 100 copies of the first pressing so get them while its hot, its also available on iTunes etc…‘Gunk’ is pure loud, heavy, grungy, alternative 90’s rock, a complete contrast to all these indie bands, I mean people are force fed this indie cr*p, while this is real, raw and honest music and that’s the main thing really! If you saw us live you’d definitely come away covered in sweat, spit and gunk, so instead of watching some pretty boys in tight jeans playing some Smiths rip-offs, you’ve got some real honest, dirty, gritty music that’s heavily influenced from the likes of Sabbath, Hendrix, Zeppelin and Nirvana. Our lyrics are like a nightmare, you see all the bad stuff in life that happens to people, it gets shoved away and ‘Gunk’ is that stuff coming out and that’s what we are as a three piece, it’s all about our demons and inner traumas coming out through music..."

With that in mind when the opportunity came about to see them support tribute band Limehouse Lizzy...a band dedicated to the spirit of Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy.....how could we say no? So there I was travelling into the centre of Sheffield, all the streets were deserted since Arctic Monkeys were playing Don Valley and so for the first time in ages I actually got a decent parking slot near the O2. Quite a crowd had gathered in the venue, the majority of which were round the stage to see Steel Trees, whether they were saving places for Limehouse Lizzy’s performance or not was irrelevant, first they had to face the wrath of Tom, Von and Dog as they spewed out their grunge punked metal.

Opening with the song ‘Follow The Crowd’, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind what was happening here, this was in your face from the very first chord, it was loud, fast, pummeling, in fact you could describe it as just short of torture but I loved it. If you took the Ramones, pumped a sh*tload of bass through and topped it off with a fistful of self-loathing vocals then you might just be in the zone for these guys! Despite the odd on-stage mishap, Von’s bass needed a lot of tweaking to get right, whilst Tom’s guitar strap snapped......he gave it to some guy at the front who later went on to collapse, but that’s another story....but aside from that everything went hunky dory. With very little vocal screaming but a lot of noise, all justified of course, they worked through their set with dogged determination. Dog on drums did what any psychotic sh*t kicking drummer would do and knocked the cr*p out of his kit, which only helped to compound their attitude. With the majority of their set lifted from their EP, it really was a good collection of tracks executed with raw and at times vicious energy, face it any band that goes on stage with an instrument labeled ‘This guitar kills c*nts!’ can’t be half bad. At times all out grunge, at times hard thrashing metal but always with a explosive punk edge to it, I’m not sure if it was what the Lizzy fans wanted or were expecting but they stuck around the front of the stage anyway and hopefully learnt something about 21st century rock!

By now quite a formidable crowd had gathered, spanning numerous generations, to re-live the early 70’s in the guise of a Lizzy tribute band. Opening with ‘Jailbreak’, my memories of Top Of The Pops came flooding back, for these guys did quite an impression both musically and vocally, With all the classics thrown in such as ‘Waiting For An Alibi’, ‘Do Anything You Want To Do’, ‘Rosalie’ and of course ‘Boys Are Back In Town’....the latter of which really started the crowd moshing away. To be honest they were preaching to the converted, but in no way does that distract from their technical ability here. The show itself was a masterclass in ‘tribute acts’ without being in anyway detrimental to the memory of the late, great Phil Lynott, it was more than apparent that these guys really cherished their memory. Dedicating the song ‘Still In love With You’ to the ex-Lizzy hero Gary Moore RIP brought a huge cheer from the crowd as they played in that familiar style he made his own....I would of loved ‘Parisienne Walkways’ but it’s a mute point. The set itself contained enough songs that were new to me to raise it above just another compilation set, especially ‘The Cowboy Song’ with its use of harmonica and the opening sing-back with the crowd, ‘Out in The Fields’ was another good rollicking track which I’m surprised I’d never heard before! The ensuing encore finished with their most famous track of all, ‘Whisky In the Jar’, frankly there really is nothing to be said about this track, the entire room sang along, me included, and is in my top ten list anytime, anywhere, so how can you knock it!

A good gig with two definitely contrasting styles, neither of which I could fault and in terms of tribute acts Limehouse Lizzy do rate very highly for me. Steel Trees however are the way forward and I look forward to seeing them again in the future.

Gig Review/Photos by Geoff Buckthorpe
Interview by Gail & Geoff Bucthorpe