Keane - Sheffield Winter Gardens - 19/11/13

After 4 consecutive number one albums. sales topping the 10 million mark and a string of awards it must be a novelty and quite humbling to be playing to a couple of hundred people in Sheffield’s Winter Gardens. 16 years together mean the band are a well oiled machine, but even on the odd occasion when something went slightly wrong they used it as a way to indulge in banter with the audience who ranged from hyper active teenagers girls to pensioners. Keane are currently promoting their greatest hits album, and packed many of them into this 45 minute set. It’s easy to forget just how many hit singles they have achieved over the last 10 years. This very intimate gig demonstrated just how strong their debut album Hopes & Fears was which was seven years in the making, a lot of the set, and the biggest sing-a-longs of the evening were from this debut. Given their impressive back catalogue it would have been easy for them just to play the radio friendly stuff, but instead they decided to throw in a cover of David Bowie’s Life on Mars which worked really well with Tom’s vocal range. There were times when I felt sorry for the drummer Richard Hughes given the intimacy of the gig there wasn’t room for a full size drum kit, not without uprooting some of the plants anyway! So he was a little redundant, left to play percussion throughout. I was tempted not to mention Lily Allen in this interview, who is currently at No2 with their song Somewhere Only We Know the band joked that they had received payment for the songs usage in this years John Lewis ad, with a £20 gift voucher. With false rumours this month about the band splitting it was quite evident this evening that they are still enjoying performing together, either that or they are very good actors…the night concluded an encore of bedshapped and Crystal Ball. Tom Chaplin stated recently that the band are intending to take a break so this tiny gig in a very cold Sheffield was the band winding down and thankfully not calling it a day. The band get a lot of criticism for being bland and dull, but as all the accolades and album sales must count for something. Here’s to the next decade of the band making music!

Swim Deep, Queens Social Club, Monday 16th September

New season. New blog. festival seasons over for another year but thankfully there's lots of gigs on the horizon to help forget about the shortening days and the countdown to the fat fella in red coming. So without further ado, here's my first review of Birmingham's finest, Swim Deep

The first observation that people usually make about Sheffield’s Queens Social Club is that it has the feel of Phoenix Nights about it which is why it’s becoming one o Sheffield’s finest live music venues. Two songs in and there’s already a half hearted mosh pit erupting down front. Going back in time roughly twelve months to when the band were in Sheffield supporting Spector the scene couldn’t have been more different when hardly anyone knew the songs and barley sang along let alone push each other around like demented fools. Now, with a top 20 album until their belts and a summer spent playing in muddy fields it’s great to see the band getting the recognition they deserve. I was surprised that it wasn’t a sell out, but I put that down to the time of year as Freshers week in Sheffield doesn’t get underway for a couple of weeks, and many music fans are still on a come down from the festival season. Don’t get me wrong though the atmosphere in this working men’s club esque bar was still electric even for a miserable Monday evening during songs like "Makes My Sun Shine" and "She Changes The Weather" you could have been mistake for thinking that summer was just beginning. I don’t think I want Swim Deep to get any bigger than they currently are, I realise that sounds a little selfish but I saw them on the main stage at Y Not Festival at the start of August and although their stage presence and confidence has grown significantly over the last couple of years, they’re much more suited to venues like this or The Plug where they can interact with the audience, and interact they did; at one point joined on stage by a couple of fans/drunks (it was hard to distinguish the two) They seemed to relish this rather than fear it and as a venue with only limited security, it just added to the atmosphere. I’d forgotten how many singles the band have released over the past year and how they have now got a loyal fan based, some even bring face masks of the band with them! There was potential for Austin Williams, the lead singer to create a Robbie Williams moment and let the audience sing songs like “The Sea” but thankfully as a band they haven’t let their success lead to an ego trip. Aside from playing the majority of songs from their debut album Where The Heavens Are they also threw in a cover of Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun which was a crowd pleaser. I could copy and paste the same section from a previous review about the average age of the audience being quite young, but that just comes as standard these days (maybe this reviewer is starting to feel his age) No sooner had the band took to stage it felt like the band were walking off - always a good sign of a good gig when time goes so quickly! the band came back on stage to finish with what is arguably the crown in their setlist “King City” The sing-along to which continued as people made their way out of the building. After seeing Swim Deep three times in the past year, it’s great to see a band develop. Personally I think they’re up there with this years biggest indie bands Bastille and 1975, they certainly deserve the album sales of those two. For those who have yet to see the band I highly recommend you check them out on their current tour if you have chance, they play Leeds Cockpit on Thursday