The Sheffield Scenester

Walking into The Plug that night what surprised us the most was the fact that the room was virtually packed, which when you consider that the first band of the night, Little Secrets, hadn’t even mounted the stage was quite a rarity. Today we figured was definitely an exception! Looking at the stage we were also pleased to see that promoter Joolz had managed to rig some LED’s around the back of the stage. As much as we like The Plug as a venue, the one gripe we do have is the lighting, everything gets drenched in red light which makes photography extremely hard work.

Little Secrets eventually took to the stage, somewhat nervously at first...but as soon as the opening bars to their track ‘Coffee Girls’ began, all nerves they may have had suddenly vanished. With two front men, Brett and Sam, on vocals as well as happily bouncing around the stage, the show began in earnest! Whilst they don’t exactly have the harmonious styling’s of The Century Kids (now called Without Our Crowns), they do work together well and have a good stage chemistry, musically their sound seems to be quite a hard edged indie thumping rhythm which suited the vocals admirably, especially when it came to a quick cover of Dizzee Rascal’s ‘Bonkers’ as an intro to the second track ‘Meanie’. As the set progressed happily along, their sound had slowly edged towards a crossbreed version of green day and The Buzzcocks. With a fairly decent sized fan base behind them, well at the very least a large horde of screaming girls, offering support. A perfect start to the evening, if they can keep that level of energy going on stage and have that amount of support on a regular basis when they play....it shouldn’t be long before they are regular headliners themselves, in all honesty good luck to them!

Claylane, a group from Lincoln were next and surprisingly they had an extensive following as well, but unlike little Secrets, their sound came across as a lot moodier with a deeper and heavier bass influx. The gathered fans, which it has to be said were primarily male seemed ‘well up’ for the night and sure enough from the second track, ‘Living On A Shoestring’, they began wildly moshing along to a pounding thrasher of a song! Following this with ‘Joe Brown’, a song rather reminiscent of an Oasis slow-mover, the crowd even got out lighters....though most used mobiles as is customary in this day and age....and began to sway along to the rhythm. Having got the crowd eating out of their hand at such an early point in the set, the enthusiasm and energy seemed to falter a bit and this was reflected in the crowd’s response. The applause was still forthcoming but the crowd participation did somewhat dwindle, so, to snap them out of it the band started a chant of “Lincolnshire”. Somehow it doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as “Yorkshire”, in fact it was almost laughed out of the venue....but top marks for trying it has to be said! Not to worry, by opening the track ‘Out Of Luck’ with a battle cry of “Let’s Kick Off” the crowd were back in the fray, and as they followed this with a Specials cover, ‘Little Bitch’, it was moshing in earnest! The bass player, Darryl, stepped up to announce that this was his last ever gig, and chatting afterwards it turns out he’s going to study at Manchester University, but the rest are going to carry on as a three piece! A stage invasion prior to the final track seemed to finish of the set aptly, whilst it was fairly good natured, security still arrived to bring a halt to proceedings. Still the singer thanked everyone by crowdsurfing out into the audience, aside from the occasional vagueness in musical direction this was a genuinely entertaining set from a band that has a pretty good idea on how to play the crowd!

As with most Soundclash’s these days Joolz Vernon and Russ Frisby DJ throughout the evening, which generally means a friendly competition of who can get the biggest crowd, up and dancing? One of the best songs they’ve put on to date has to be tonight’s House Of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’ which had an even bigger crowd than the brilliant ‘Sit Down’ by James! Tonight was no different in terms of good music as we were bombarded with The Clash, The Beatles, Pulp and Oasis; it’s almost good enough to forego the trip to the bar!

Search Party were the third band of the night, a group who seem to be slowly evolving from the unrelenting thrash of their earlier gigs, to the more restrained but accomplished set of what they produced on this night. Whilst they didn’t have the support that the previous two bands wielded, the crowd that remained were more than happy to applaud their efforts. At times it did sound quite serious, almost devoid of fun, and funnily enough the drumming, which has been one of their strong points, sounded at times a bit hit and miss but in a coherent psychotic fashion. Their ace in the hole however is guitarist and lead singer Adam, as his technical ability on the fret is coming along leaps and bounds especially on my favourite tracks of their set ‘Mindset’ as well as the final track ‘Cracked Black Photographs’. This final track harks back to their earlier days and has yet to lose its raw ultra paced energy....as Adam points out when introducing it “A bit in your face!” This one really gets the crowd moving as pounding drums, a thumping bass and a screaming guitar are thrown together in the melting pot before being ceremoniously spat out the other side.....how could anyone not dance to that!

Once more the floor was packed as the eagerly anticipated Ratells were due on stage, so it was no surprise when the lights went down the crowd then let out a defiant roar, as the stage was hit with strobe lighting and even greater applause the Ratells walked on. Opening with ‘Legacy’, a refreshingly heavy and complex track, a far cry from their adolescent indie pop of a few years ago, before giving way to one of their classics, ‘Murder From A Broken heart’. Whether it was the sound system being used tonight or a slight change of direction, but the overall effect was of a deeper more rounded sound befitting a band just ripe for the next step on that ladder to success. Lead singer Ash has taken to the roll of front man as if he was born for one thing and one thing alone, and this is it, while drummer Ben beats the living sh*t out of his kit, like he’s going through a ‘Keith Moon’ phase. Meanwhile all three guitarists seem to be enjoying this level of adulation to the point whereby they look like they’ve been playing for decades! With a capacity crowd totally behind them, who were more than happy to mosh and crowdsurf to anything that was thrown at them, the set flew by. Prior to the penultimate track of the night, ‘Take Aim’, Ash said something which we never expected, “This is for all the people out in Iraq and Afghanistan”, a surprisingly sombre and mature moment from a group whom not so long ago were mere kids. Then finishing the set with their greatest song to date, ‘Something More’, was as ever an outstanding emotional outpouring and will forever remain in our top playlist of the year.

Safe to say this was a phenomenal evening’s entertainment, and with two more Soundclash’s over the following Saturday and Sunday nights, our first thought was how could that energy level carry on through for three solid days. In the meantime we savoured the moment and reflected on a welcome return to The Plug as the crowd slowly drifted out of the building and on into the night.

Words by Geoff and Gail Buckthorpe
Photographs by Liam Farrelly