Ah, the humble bar stool. Good at preventing drunkards from lying down on the floor in their own filth. Not so good for the slightly diminutive performing guitarist who wants to sit down whilst on stage. My short stumpy legs failed to touch the floor, leaving my feet hopelessly dangling, and the rest of me awkwardly perched, while we played. Luckily this was the first and only problem encountered on Sunday (May 1st), as we opened up the Helmets For Men stage at The Crescent as part of Salford’s very own Sounds From The Other City festival.
Now in its seventh year, Sounds From The Other City has been going from strength to strength, symbolic of the regeneration work that’s been ongoing round the Chapel Street/Salford Crescent area within that time. Seriously, the area now only needs a record shop and a couple of ‘trendy’ bars and it could become a major rival to the Northern Quarter as THE place for skinny dudes with beards to congregate.
It’s an honour for us to be returning to the festival for a second year. The only drawback is that it gets barely a mention in the national music media. Events like Sounds From The Other City serve to further expose In The City as the hollow sham that it really is.
What was really noticeable was the atmosphere, the buzz if you will, that was in the air on this beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon. The streets were awash with all sorts of colourful characters, eagerly dashing to the next venue to catch the next artist on their itinerary. And how refreshing it was to see that when they were watching the bands, inane chatter was kept to a minimum and no one was pricking about with their phone. This was a festival attended by people who wanted to hear music, and who were genuinely excited by the prospect of it.
There’s always a worry when you’re the act on first, that no one will be there yet. And though we’d seen a few people knocking around in the bar and outside waiting for things to start, we weren’t expecting to leave an empty room at 4.27pm for a toilet and bar trip, only to return at 4.30 to find the room absolutely jam packed. But that’s exactly what happened!
I had a last glance at my phone before putting it down on the stage floor beneath my now flailing legs, and noticed a missed call from a number I didn’t recognise, having not heard it ring. I didn’t find out till I got home that it was Andy, ringing all the way from Hong Kong to wish us luck! I felt very gutted that we missed it.
After being introduced by the wonderful, inimitable Jon Coupe, who was compere for the evening’s proceedings, we got stuck in. We played with a confidence we didn’t have at our previous outing back in February. We now know that although we miss our dear Andy, we are able to pull off a gig without him.
Our set was well received, Lennie was in fine voice – later described as ‘a pair of lungs that could knock an eagle off a cliff from the ground’ by CityLifers, Will nailed his piano playing perfectly, and despite my breaking a string during our new closer ‘Whisper On The Stairs’ (named that very afternoon, despite having been played at our two previous gigs!) there were no issues, if you don’t count the aforementioned bar stool. We all love playing the ‘cheeky’ new slow version of ‘Six’ – it’s hard for us not to be beaming while in rehearsal – and it was great to get a positive reaction from it.
Set List:
Shades Of Grey
All Of This Used To Be Fields
Piccadilly & I
The Seaside Song
(Cheeky) Six
Whisper On The Stairs
Review by CityLifers here.
Review by Bob Osborne for The Zeen, here.
Summary of beer garden chats by Jon Coupe (mentioning yours truly), here.
Alberto, the sound engineer, did a spectacular job throughout, not made easy by the size of the room and our technical requirements.
The other bands all sounded great too – Urchins, a band of young cheeky chappies from St Helens, then The Inflictors, local lads who we’ve played with previously. Then Death To The Strange, who we’ve had the pleasure of playing with three times now, were absolutely incredible. They do it every time. The Suns, from Chester, were an absolute treat too. Will and I missed a bit of their set while we were next door-but-one grabbing a sneaky burger, but what we did see was ace, all three of us were quite taken with them.
After The Blimp’s set, we headed over the road to The Old Pint Pot, where it was even more heaving than The Crescent. We were just in time to catch the last couple of songs by Young British Artists, before Those Dancing Days took to the stage. I must admit I was only vaguely familiar with their music before, but I left feeling quite smitten.
There’s something about music from Scandinavia that I find impossible to resist. The Swedes, in particular, make fascinating music. It’s one of the myriad reasons why I love the Eurovision Song Contest. Those Dancing Days were thoroughly charming, with some lovely rhythms, some great guitar and synth interplay, and some lovely honey coated vocals. It was a wonderful comfort as I began to feel my bed, and the number 67 bus, calling for me.
So, a great day was had by all. Big thanks to Tony Thornborough and Bob Osborne for having us (and Tony for giving each of us a kiss!), and to Jon Coupe, mainly for being Jon Coupe! And thanks also to Carey, from the door, who was kind enough to say that we were her favourite band of the night! And most importantly, thanks to those who came, and listened. This was our last performance for a while, as we pull our fingers out and get cracking on the album, and it was amazing to go on such a high.
We love you guys, we’ll see you when the album’s ready!
With love from myself, Lennie, Will and Andy,
Your guitarist,
Paul x
PS. If you like this sort of thing, you can find more writings, rantings, my baby’s playlists and other curiosities on my personal blog, ‘I Was Uncool Before It Was Cool To Be Uncool’, here.
Tags: AJG in HK, Manchester music, Salford, Salford music, Sandbox, sftoc, Sounds From The Other City, The Zeen
