The Sheffield Scenester

Tramlines has arrived at last and once more the adventure begins, which venues to attend, which bands to see...and where on Earth is the nearest Subway..?! As I’m sure I’ll have to eat at some point! It’s the Friday night opener...I thought I’d start off fairly sedately with a short trip down to The Cremorne on London Road to see Jack And The Beanstalks, I’d been too busy earlier to catch Wet Nuns at The Washington and no way could I even hope to see Dark Horse who were one of the first bands playing at Penelopes.

Arriving at The Cremorne, Jack And the Beanstalks were in the middle of their soundcheck, so I grabbed a quick drink while I watched them for five minutes. They’ve gone through various line ups since I last saw them nearly a year ago...but I did happily recognise the chorus to ‘I Am A Slug’, one of my favourites...so I knew I was in for a good night! Having finished with their checks they proceeded to put their instruments away while another band began to set up, at this point alarm bells started ringing since I was due down at The Grapes to see The Crookes and knew I had to get there early to stand any chance of seeing them. I collared the sound engineer to ask about the running order and found that Jack & Co were about an hour behind schedule....now as much as I love The Cremorne (you can never say it’s devoid of character) I really did have a job to do, so that was another band that I’m afraid to say I missed out so far...the ‘bodycount’ just keeps getting worse by the hour!

It wasn’t my intention to actually get down to The Grapes to see Dead Like Harry since I’d only seen them last weekend at The Abbeydale Picture House, but on arrival I found the downstairs bar packed and a queue up the stairs to get in the gig room...so figured I’d better get up there as soon as possible. By the time I managed to squeeze in at the back of the room Dead Like Harry were in full swing...I’d caught them mid set. The room itself was crammed with onlookers and fans alike and the stifling heat was almost unbearable; it was at this point I regretted not bringing at least one bottle of water, but I wouldn’t of swapped it for anything as the atmosphere created was incredible!
Dead Like Harry have always been one of Sheffield’s finest live bands with quality music to match their infectious live shows they really are the act to see, but tonight even they raised the bar. They just seemed to let their hair down tonight, even Alice Faraday on vocals seemed to be in hysterics half the time! But as Sam (vocals and guitar) informed us, the present line up had been together for three years and this was their 100th gig, so they had something to celebrate! With this totally relaxed attitude the crowd sang along to every song...this only goes to prove their ongoing popularity, especially with favourites like ‘When We Were 17’ and the ultimate set finale piece ‘Satellite’. Somehow on such a cramped stage they brought their big stage energy to the fore and the cramped audience just lapped it up! Even though I was at the back of the room for this set, I couldn’t help but feel the high generated by such a phenomenal performance, if this is just a taster of what Tramlines is going to bring to Sheffield then long may it reign!

In a way I was glad of a break as this gave me the opportunity to sneak up to the front in time to see Cats:For:Peru, a band with quite a following and a style definitely of their own. With a sound that verges on experimental folk, at times they happily took to their set and through the first couple of songs everything was going fine. During the track ‘Manifesto’, a song which was described as “about the government”, they showed their ability to diversify by lead singer, AF bringing out a ukulele, while bassist Kinny used a maraca to play his instrument. This was followed in the next song by another change of instrumentation, with the introduction of a keyboard and Keith getting rid of the bass in favour of rhythm guitar! Unfortunately when the song reached its climax, AF managed to unscrew his microphone stand, so he joked to the audience that he was Freddie Mercury. This seems to be a regular occurrence as the last time we saw them he broke his ukulele. When it came to the final song of their set he managed to pull the chord out of his guitar which had the rest of the band in hysterics!

Tonight it seems that nobody wants to miss a note as they were still crammed in like sardines, but despite the unbearable heat and in my case, severe dehydration, this was still one hell of a show and the headline act, The Crookes were yet to play. As they dragged their instruments through the crowd...how I’ll never know for everyone was shoulder to shoulder by now...but they managed it! While they were setting up I found myself chatting to the guitarist who even though he hadn’t started playing yet was already sweating away. However as soon as the first few bars of the opening song ‘Bloodshot Days’ was heard, a huge cheer went up from the crowd.

I’ve never seen them before, one of many bands on a list of ‘must see’s’, but am I glad I did tonight...as the heat, the sweat, the near claustrophobic conditions, even the stench of BO were all forgotten as the music really took over tonight! The crowd did their best to dance along, some even managed a sway, but on the whole it was just jumping, even so you could feel the floor move beneath you...I had an image of the scene in The Aristocats where they kept crashing through the floors as they thumped away to the song ‘Everybody Wants To Be A Cat!’ As the set progressed the band consumed more and more water between each song...until they finally came to the last song of the night ‘Chorus Of Tools’, when it was announced, one fan shouted out “Play more” to which the singer replied “You’re supposed to say that after we’ve finished!” which got a huge laugh from everyone else. This wasn’t as funny as when he asked “Hope you’re looking forward to Craig David!” as this was the second joke of the night at his expense. Dead Like Harry asked earlier if we were looking forward to Craig David, it’s almost as if there’s a huge conspiracy against him but the crowd did find it hilarious…..speaks volumes for me!

Having done their encore of ‘Magicians’ which was an obvious favourite as the entire room sang along, the band then just lay out on the stage floor for a few minutes, to get their breath back, I assume, before getting up to pack their gear away. As the crowd headed for the bar, I was at last given a chance to breath real air and grab a cold, cold, very cold drink which went down in seconds. So in the true spirit of a music festival, even though I was crammed into a sauna surrounded by clammy bodies, and the air was awash with sweat and body odour, it was still a memorable night that I wouldn’t of missed for anything, I only hope the rest of the weekend is this good!

Words and photos by Geoff and Gail Buckthorpe