The Sheffield Scenester

This was going to be a first for me tonight, actually seeing a Soundclash where I didn’t know any of the bands. Two from Sheffield and the other two from London another rarity in the Soundclash but maybe a north / south competition could prove healthy.

The first band of the night was Knights Of Ton a local four piece with a female lead who doubled as rhythm guitar, she had a few of her friends or family scattered about the audience and shyly waved at them. Now in the rock / indie scene its rare to find a female singer – especially one so young – that can pull off this type of music without sounding squeaky but as soon as the opening bars came through and she belted out the first line it was obvious she had a voice and a powerful one at that. With a decent backbeat on drums and bass, and a fairly charismatic lead guitar this was shaping up to be quite a decent group. Musically they seemed to be heavily influenced by the American rock scene which enhanced lead singer Lauroton’s voice even more. One song in particular, a haunting rendition of ‘Jazz Magic’ had echos of Alannah Myles ‘Black Velvet’. They finished the set off with a cover of ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’ which had everyone in the room lip-syncing along or if they were to miserable to do that at least foot-tapping, I’ll definitely look for them again.

Next up was an ecstatic blend of 80’s retro synth and modern day stadium rock ie; Flock of Seagulls vs Muse, this was all in the shape of Minus IQ. What I didn’t know, but found out later, was that their normal singer Charlie Allen was ill so – I’ll probably get this wrong but - a replacement in the form of Barnaby (never did catch his last name) was brought in. Apparently he had five days to learn the songs as well as keyboards and a funny looking cowbell percussion thing he kept banging , all that as well as being able to make it look comfortable on stage – not an easy thing to do by any standards. With a host of catchy songs from their recently released album opening with the single ‘Ultravioilet’ and finishing with ‘Welcome To My mind’, you felt yourself wanting more from such a refreshing sound – even the cover of Human Leagues ‘Don’t You Want Me Baby’ felt fresh and original. With a highly animated bass player to watch – he did stop for a moment whilst playing the tom toms – and Barnaby’s enthusiastic , and for my money , faultless performance as frontman for the night I’d heartily recommend these guys if you can catch them.
Following this was another London act Betty And The Werewolves, a bit confusing when you first looked at them since they consisted of three women and one hairy drummer ie; three Betty’s and one werewolf !!!!!! With all three women dressed in 60’s showroom housewife outfits and looking slightly shy and retiring I have to say I wasn’t expecting a lot soundwise. Straight away I was proved wrong on that point, as the drums and guitars came out full pelt, unfortunately I couldn’t really hear lead singer Laura’s voice through that onslaught. With a sound reminiscent of early Damned – ‘Machine Gun Etiquette’ springs to mind – you might get the picture, and managing to fit about 11 songs into a half hour set with subjects as diverse as ‘David Cassidy’ and ‘Euston Station’ all played at the same relentless speed they did slightly blur into one another. Still I have to say I enjoyed the final track ‘Plastic’ partly as it was a change of pace but it also got to show off guitarist Emily’s solo skills which weren’t bad.

Finally to finish off the night was The Yell, an odd concoction of players two of which really stood out for me, singer Idle Hans – looking rather like a used car salesman but sounding like the B52’s Fred Schnieder – and bass player Jack of local band Jack And The Beanstalks fame. Straight off they began with the track ‘Confusion By Madness’, a fast and heavy sound it was still structured enough that you could enjoy it and tap along to the at times subtle rhythms. Singer Idle Hans gave each song a commentary rather than a lyrical approach which seemed to blend well with his stage persona. He also enjoyed a good deal of banter with the crowd, even at one point asking me how he looked on camera – my initial thought was to ask if he’d seen the film Eraserhead but I kept that to myself!!! Jack seemed to be enjoying himself on bass in direct contrast to his Beanstalk days where he would snarl at the crowd before finally hitting the self destruct button on stage. What I liked about these guys was the sense of fun they injected into the proceedings, each song being catchy with clear memorable lyrics. The most catchy for me was a song about the circus – at this point Idle made a few jokes about Britney Spears which went down well – incorporating that classic circus big top sound into the music. A definite must see again!!

A great night out for Soundclash and a refreshing change to bring some foreign blood into the arena because as much as I love the local scene the rest of the country has a lot to offer in terms of styles and influences. Here’s hoping this is going to be a regular thing!

Words by Geoff Buckthorpe
Photos by Geoff & Gail Buckthorpe