I’ve wanted to do a review of this gig forever. This gig completely changed my life.
I wasn’t particularly digging University and was more interested in the extra curricular activities it offered. Most nights I’d stay up all night, go to get breakfast, read a magazine and then go back to my student house to sleep until the cycle repeated.
I’d recently acquired a copy of Arctic Monkeys’ Beneath The Boardwalk demo album. An album that was half the Sheffield quartet and half Daniel Powter’s debut album, a CD I still have in my car to this day.
I was suitably blown away by the album, I remember telling someone about them, “they’re insane like one of the lyrics was, “he told Roxanne to put on her red light” that it referenced “Frank Spencer“, drinking, ringtones and he sang in a northern accent.
I bought NME that week and with it you got discounted entry to the club night down at the same venue I saw The Subways. Three bands were playing, I remember checking a couple of them out to this day.
Seeing The Rumble Strips’ video for Motorcycle, reading about the colleagial history of The Young Knives it was a world of learning that I was actually excited about and couldn’t wait to go to the lecture that night taught by these bands.
Humanzi
I was in the venue, the speakers spewing out Indie classic after indie classic, you know when you just suddenly feel at home? Well that was how I felt that night, it was like the bands were playing for me. I drank with each artist after their set, discussing nothing that I can remember in particular but just having a great time.
The opening act were fairly standard and I don’t remember any of their songs to this day but drinking strongbow and blackcurrant surrounded by people all into the same kind of music was pretty special to me.
Someone pointed out a guy behind me who was wearing slippers. I just thought fucking hell yeah as long as he’s comfortable. Twenty minutes later that same guy walked onto the stage…
The Rumble Strips
The guy in the slippers and his band brought all their instruments onto the stage, now I’d never seen that before. I thought all guys in bands were rockstars and didn’t have time for any of that but these guys were real.
I went backstage and chatted to Charlie about his slippers, his thoughts on Charlie Simpson’s new non-Busted band, had them and the other bands sign my NME and well, then the disco started. All the bands and audience out front dancing and singing along to Babyshambles, The Smiths
After
