The Sheffield Scenester

The last Friday of every month down at Cremorne has become bit of a regular thing with us lately….not only can you get quite a decent drink, but mainly because this was a Blood Apple night, we also had the pleasure of DJ Stevlor and the Spinning Orphans, whose passion for freakbeat and rare British/US underground music was always an experience in itself. Though we might recognize the odd track here and there, generally speaking most of it was new to us…but this was just the icing on the cake as two of our favourite bands were playing tonight, The Blackbirds and Repomen.

Opening the night was Repomen who were in the process of warming up when we arrived….so we grabbed a good vantage point and waited for the show to begin. Stevlor put on the final track before show time which happened to be ‘She’s My Baby’ by Mojo Men and lead singer Denzil, ever the showman, took it upon himself to join in with tambourine……he was definitely up for a good night tonight!

We couldn’t have asked for a better start to their set…the first track ‘Parallel Schizophrenic’ was the track which really stood out when we first saw them. This was then followed by ‘Dietrich’, it may have a dark story of intrigue to tell…but it also pumps one hell of a dance tune, so much so that Denzil lost all self control and ran up the steps (for those of you who’ve never been to Cremorne, the stage is in a pit at the end of the bar so the entire crowd generally has a view looking down on the band!) But back to Denzil, he ran up the steps and jumped on a table and carried on singing, luckily nothing was broken….but it did make for good entertainment and it is a fab song!

As is typical with a Repomen gig…they seemed to ad-lib the whole thing, but amazingly they did actually have a set list and put together a good collection of material, both old and new, one song which we eager to hear was ‘Immense Blue’ which was receiving its live debut tonight. Having only heard a rough demo on their Facebook page it was good to hear the full band version, they may need a bit more practice to tighten it up, as drummer James shouted out “Shut up, we got away with it!” when Denzil was told he’d sung in the wrong key, but with the drums, a good guitar and moody lyrics it was still enjoyable!

Obviously they played a few off their most recent EP, namely the song ‘Carnival Queen’ which became notable for the fact that Denzil forgot to bring his kuzo and so mimicked one on the fade out, as well as the final song of the set ‘Vanity Press’. This was notable for the fact that guitarist Ric, who so far had spent the entire set switching between a six string and a twelve string, took over on lead vocals while Denzil retired to ‘atmospheric keyboards’.

After a thoroughly enjoyable set full of harmless banter and all manners of music, some moody, some a bit pop orientated and even a quick burst of punk….Denzil did at one point announce “Now for some jazz” but that seemed more tongue in cheek then outright honesty, it was time to settle back to Stevlor’s tunes while we waited for The Blackbirds to start.

Amusingly enough the first obvious thing about The Blackbirds was the fact that they had left their gear outside, so due to the extreme contrast in temperatures when he brought them inside, all of Mark’s cymbals were coated in condensation so he sat there squiggling away on them.

Not to worry it wasn’t going to stop him playing as he and frontman Tom Matthews began with ‘Love Rat’, a song which straight away cut through the entire length of the bar that night. This is what they do….a heavy pounding drum mingled with delicate cymbals, all that, just to lay the foundation for Tom’s rasping, grinding blues guitar and that ladies and gentlemen is their interpretation of electric grunge blues! This layering technique…starting with a light cymbal and slowly building it up with guitar, more drums and finally vocals worked perfectly for them tonight.
As a duo they have improved dramatically, though that is primarily down to Tom who has simply taken it upon himself to move about with his guitar. In fact to the best of our knowledge this was the first time we’d seen him without a stool and frankly he looked a lot happier for the experience and it gave their whole show a bit of visual depth which at times it has lacked in the past. Another aspect of this style is that you can actually see how much of an accomplished musician Tom really is….the music becomes more evenly balanced between drum and guitar rather than Marks drums (which can be ferocious at times) being left to hog the spotlight.

But on with the music and with nine songs tonight…including two of our favourites, namely ‘Keep The Lights Turned On’ and the cover of Robert Johnson’s ‘Travelling Riverside Blues’ they kept the crowd hooked, even Tom losing his slider at one point didn’t phase them, though maybe using a glass one in a darkened room isn’t the best idea he had that night…luckily it was found before someone trod on it! At the end of the day The Cremorne is not the most refined venue in Sheffield…but for this style of music…it is perfect, we’ve seen The Blackbirds play at The Plug and they tend to loose that all important raw edge to their sound and so tonight, for us, it was there best show to date!

And there you have it, another great night courtesy of Blood Apple; all we have left to say is “See you next month!”

Words and photos by Gail & Geoff Buckthorpe