Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls, Rock City, Nottingham

Supported by Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun & Tim Barry

Not for the first time Rock City opens its doors at 7:30 for a sold out gig with the first support on at 7:45. No chance. The queue is down the street, around the corner and disappearing inside the neighbouring multi story. Then of course Jim Lockey & the Solemn Sun finish five minutes early. So I don’t catch a lot of their lively full throttle folky-country-punky-rocky mixed baggy sound all the way from Cheltenham but it was good while it lasted Jim. Sort of like Mumford and Sons on acid.

So Tim Barry, a Yank, who doesn’t like coming on to Iron Maiden (they’re playing ‘Run to the Hills’ on the PA) and who might just talk his way through his entire thirty minute slot if he’s not careful. He takes time to tell us the back story of how he met Frank Turner on the US Revival Tour in 2008 and had to take the stage after him. Tonight he's somewhat relieved to be on before him.

He also tells us that that anyone can do what he does; all they have to do is learn the same three chords. This is perhaps why he seems to play the same song all set. It’s a good job it's a good one. He’s also so nice and thankful for his upgrade from his normal bar gigs that the crowd take him to their hearts. His is an entertaining set from a chap who’s clearly as passionate about what he does as the man who’s coming up next. Right you can turn Iron Maiden back on now.

Now it’s Turner Time for, rumour has it, the 1286th time. To his huge credit, no matter how big the man gets, and he’s very big now, he still stays grounded in his venues. He’s as likely to pop up in the 450 capacity Nottingham’s Rescue Rooms, like he did last year, as the 12,000 capacity Wembley Arena as he did in April this year or anything in between for that matter such as Rock City tonight. It’s the first night of his latest UK tour, a sell out of 25 UK venues plus 3 in Ireland and one in Germany all before Christmas. Now that’s a tour. The guy could have just done half a dozen arena shows and be done with it but that’s not his style.

This is his style. We start ‘a capella’, well the crowd does, I can’t actually hear whether Frank is joining in to the opening of ‘If Ever I Stray’ because the crowd are already drowning him out before he's even opened his mouth.

Does the guy ever get sick of everybody singing almost every word back at him, often before he can even get started? Not one bit, well not that he lets on. Audience participation is the big thing here, if you’re not singing you’re not doing it right.

It's nice though when he drops in a few less frequently played numbers such as the excellent ‘Isabel’ which allows Frank to rest back control a bit, with just a few hundred backing singers on that one.

There is also a bit of understandable quiet on the new numbers he plays tonight, ‘Time Machine’, ‘Four Simple Words’ and ‘Wherefore Art Thou, Gene Simmons?’ The latter of which is an interesting ode to the man from Kiss who once claimed of having slept with 4600 women and has the photographs to prove it. It’s a piss-take not a tribute, I think.

Other highlights? Well where do you start? Pick any from the nice mix of solo acoustic and full band numbers backed by the excellent Sleeping Souls.

My own personal favourite, as ever, is ‘Substitute’ which he dedicates to his moustache. He’s not totally happy about his Movember participation but he’s doing it anyway, as it’s all in a good cause.

Then there’s the popular mostly crowd sung ‘Reasons Not To Be An Idiot’, the brilliant blasphemy of 'Glory Hallelujah', the home town tribute from the ‘Wessex Boy’ himself, ‘The Real Damage’ - the best song about a hangover ever or the hugely sad ‘Long Live The Queen’ which now seems to have metamorphosed into one of his rockiest numbers. Kind of the point I suppose, keep it upbeat.

They’re all good and we’re all having a good time. Which is why I suppose he chooses to end tonight’s session of togetherness with ‘I Still Believe’ with its message that everyone can find a song for them, ‘for every time they've lost and every time they've won’. Yep, ‘who'd have thought, that after all, something simple as rock 'n' roll would save us all’.

For the encore, there’s the stunning and heavily requested ‘Redemption’ before the usual elongated sing-along to ‘Photosynthesis’ which means then in order to cram in one more he hurtles through ‘Dan's Song’ in about one minute flat, whilst spending most of this riotous finale on his back in the mosh pit.

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Reverend And The Makers, Rescue Rooms, Nottingham

Supported by Bitter Strings & Twisted Wheel & Danny Mahon

Blimey, four bands. It's a festival.

Bitter Strings are a local Nottingham three piece who claim to be influenced by 60's rock music. I can’t see that. Pretty standard stuff if you ask me. There’s a little bit of Alex Turner about lead singer Ben McConnachie but it’s often drowned out by the driving bass and drums. A work in progress no doubt. Their best moment is a track called ‘Wonder In Our Eyes’, which McConnachie tells us is a new one before adding the afterthought ‘well they're all new if you haven't seen us before’. There’s promise in that track, if that’s the direction they’re going.

Next, hang on its ‘From The Jam’. Oh. That's not Bruce Foxton. Twisted Wheel you say? The name seems familiar. Oh that Twisted Wheel. I've seen these before haven’t I? Weren't they supposed to be the next big thing about five years ago, got a support slot with Weller by mimicking Weller? Twisted Wheel released one album back in 2009 and their second album 'Do It Again' is just out, although guitarist/lead singer Jonny Brown, looking very Weller-like if I may say so, is the only constant between the two records.

The sound, punk-by-numbers guitar tunes, remains the same and clearly they remain popular. Lively but nothing special, it is only when they find out they have a mere five minutes left, that they step it up, with some older tunes I assume. Actually I make it less than five minutes, more like minus five. They play for ten. One more track? Why not? Curfew? Pah.

So now were behind schedule but Danny Mahon comes straight on. This is a first. I've never seen the previous band packing up their gear around the current band whilst they’re playing on stage. It’s all happening tonight. Mahon and his acoustic guitar are here at the personal invite of Jonny McClure to warm us up (some more?) after which, he says, he’ll be joining the crowd and going mental with everyone else whilst the Rev is on. His angst-y songs are pleasant enough and have catchy titles like ‘I'm a Twat’. You get the idea. Bob Dylan eat your heart out. He's a laugh at least.

I've been waiting a long time to see Jon ‘The Reverend’ McClure. Whenever he plays locally it seems I've already got tickets for something else. So here I am, finally, and surprisingly it's only the Rescue Rooms. Perhaps his star has fallen somewhat, then again, it's a packed to the rafters Rescue Rooms that is jumping, literally, from the off. The off being 'Bassline', for which the Reverend’s gone rave, a hallmark of and a departure they’ve taken, with their new album.

Oldies ‘Bandits’ and ‘Open Your Window’ remind us that the Makers are fundamentally an indie band and are at their best when they are in this mode because ‘Warts n All’, a song about people on Facebook, just doesn’t really cut it.

This is, though, typical of the sound of the new album, which is appallingly named ‘@reverend_makers’ for the hashtag generation. This begs the question, should that album stand the test of time over the next ten years or so, will Twitter? Will they have to stick a label on it explaining what Twitter was? Bad call, IMHO.

The album itself is a patchwork of good and bad, and it doesn’t help the bad when you follow it with corkers like the ‘State Of Things’, the title track of their brilliant and witty debut album. Now, as McClure states, things have properly got going. Indeed. Until ‘Noisy Neighbour’, an ode from a Wednesday fan to those across Sheffield at United, keeps the momentum in check.

The set is drawn primarily from albums one and three but ‘No Soap in a Dirty War’, probably the standout moment on ‘A French Kiss In the Chaos’ surfaces. This is more like it, lyrically stronger but it sadly doesn’t seem quite as focused tonight as it is on record.

‘Sex With The Ex’ is the moment of the night. McClure stripping the band down to just him, his guitarist and his wife on keyboards/blow thingy.

Yes, it’s always handy when you can bring the wife along, though perhaps not very rock n roll. She’s the effervescent beauty behind the keyboards by the way, in case you haven’t noticed.

The ‘hit’ ‘Heavyweight Champion of the World’ follows and weaves an unlinked path, that I’m desperately trying to link, from boxing to wrestling and ‘The Wrestler’, a new track which is more like a traditional Rev song, via ‘1+0’ and ‘Miss Brown’

The Rev loves to criticize Radio 1 but, call me cynical, the new album seems to be an attempt to get airplay. There’s hooks a plenty but little substance. The focused subject matter of their first two records seems to have gone in an effort for sales but tracks like ‘Out Of The Shadows’ are just twee, an aerobics class workout track, something he might have written for Britney.

We finish with some highs. ‘He Said He Loved Me’ is energetic and the band are animated in their delivery of it. When the vocals are dished out around the band, as they are on a few tracks, it brings added life to the show, making you not just focus on McClure himself.

Not that McClure isn’t worth focussing on. He’s a performer, I’ll give him that, and banters continually with the crowd. Not really an enigmatic one but he’s the boss nonetheless and his crowd love him.

Then finally ‘Silence Is Talking’ closes the set, from that difficult second album. A set that, at 19 tracks, may have outstayed its welcome a little but in general it’s a good fun gig. A party as McClure would say.

Do they still do an encore in the car park?

‘Outside in 2 minutes’ he tells us. That’ll be a yes then.

The encore, performed on the steps of Nottingham Trent University’s Newton Building in the rain with Danny Mahon and the chap from Bitter Strings assisting is good, if disorganised. Tracks such as ‘Hidden Persuaders’ and ‘Sundown On The Empire’, Britney again, would have been better in the main set at the expense of some of the newer stuff but when you’ve got an album to promote you’ve got an album to promote, haven’t you.

‘Sundown On The Empire’ is cut short and morphs into Bob Marley’s Jammin' but by now his heart isn’t in it. He hands his guitar to the chap from Bitter Strings who, after some debate about what to play, attempts a cover of ‘Blue Moon’ much to Danny Mahon’s disgust.

Meanwhile the Rev poses for some photos with his public before grabbing his guitar back and diving into a waiting car. Which speeds off in the wrong direction, stops, turns around and speeds off again in the other direction battling against Nottingham’s one way system in an attempt to find a way back, one would assume, to the stage door. They’re probably still driving round now.

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Editors, The Institute, Birmingham

Supported by Swim Deep & Victories at Sea

I'm in Birmingham tonight where the Editors have announced their only UK date of this year. Well that was until they announced another one, the day before. Already I feel a little bit cheated.

It’s my first time at the HMV Institute in Birmingham. I like it. It’s a nice tight little venue which looks like an ornate old theatre but was actually built as a Methodist congregational chapel. Sort of appropriate for the locals who have come to worship Tom Smith and co.

First though, a couple of support bands and it’s good to see that the Editors have kept these local.

Swim Deep apparently make ‘sun kissed noise’, so their Facebook says. Well perhaps grunge kissed and as if to emphasise the point the singer is in his Nirvana t-shirt. Meanwhile the bass player appears to have pyjama bottoms on. Must be students.

They make a nice racquet though, although perhaps too much keyboard, at one point I thought they’d got Jean Michel Jarre there on the ivories. The overall effect is not unlike early Editors at times. So on safe ground then and oh he can spit wine upwards over himself. Yeah, must be students.

What can you tell from a band’s t-shirts? Well now we have support band number two and a Sonic Youth number adorns their bass player. This is Victories at Sea, who open with some frenetic drumming and a mostly instrumental number which is actually pretty epic. Then the bass player goes on the keyboards, then the drummer goes on keyboards and in his place we get a drum machine, then the drum machine goes on keyboards... only kidding. In between the musical chairs they make almost gothic soundscapes but their songs have a bit of everything, which means they sound like everybody and yet nobody.

Sadly they did slide a bit into the ordinary after a very promising start but certainly a band to watch out for. Not only that but they were handing out 200 free CDs at the end with unique Polaroids on each. Nice lads all round. Sadly such was the scrum for these that I didn't get one.

As tonight's gig was primarily marketed to the fan base I was sort of expecting something a bit different from the Editors but that’s not really what we get. True we get four new tracks but two of those ‘The Sting’ and ‘Two Hearted Spider’, part of the encore here, have been around for a year or more. The other two ‘Sugar’ and ‘Nothing’ bookend the set.

‘Sugar’ is a dramatic and an intimate way to start with Tom Smith at the piano delivering a brooding song that shows that whatever is new about the Editors it will still include a good dose of darkness. The piano continues with the unmistakable introduction to 'Racing Rats'.

This starts a bit of a crowd pleasing run through of the hits, which as part of the point of these gigs is to warm up for a couple of foreign festival dates is understandable but I expected a bit more tonight.

New guitarist syndrome I guess. The old chestnut of musical differences has seen off former lead guitarist, keyboardist, eye candy (so I’m told) and possible driving force Chris Urbanowicz. How important he was to them will, I guess, become clearer in time. One compliment paid to him tonight is that it takes not one but two people to replace him. Tonight the Editors are a five piece.

Perhaps I’m being a bit over critical about the set. We do get the not often played ‘Fall’ which is massive. Beautiful. ‘You Are Fading’ goes down a storm and a new version of ‘The Weight Of The World’ equally so, literally sending shivers down your spine. Otherwise it’s a set a bit short on surprises for saying it was a homecoming one off. Well, two off and the main set is exactly the same both nights.

There are also new versions of some songs, perhaps out of necessity. ‘All Sparks’ for one has been given a right spanking. In fact Tom introduces it as a ‘new song with an outrageous bass solo from Russell’. Hmmm, not sure what I think to that, so moving on quickly to the always outrageous ‘Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool’.

Performance wise you can’t fault them and they are clearly loving it, we get repeated thumbs up from the band, which is better than a thumbs down obviously but I do wish they’d shift Tom’s piano to the side and some of their other mountain of kit while they’re at it. There’s a drummer in there somewhere fighting to get out.

They leave us with nothing, the previously mentioned ‘Nothing’, the most immediately impressive of the new ones. Then as they leave the stage we discover that none of them can manage to flick a guitar pick as far as the front row. Lightweights. The bouncers have to scrape them up off the floor and hand them out.

The encore starts quietly as Tom returns alone for his Twilight moment and ‘No Sound But The Wind’. Then ‘In This Light...’ builds things up further before ‘Munich’ blows everyone away, only for the newbie ‘Two Hearted Spider’ to make things feel perhaps a bit overblown.

But then as the closing and reworked ‘Papillon’ demonstrates, the Editors are still very good, still have their great energy but yet they’re now sort of different. Time will tell if this is progress.

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Peter Hook & The Light, Rescue Rooms, Nottingham

Supported by Humanizer

First up tonight are a band that Peter Hook himself signed to Hacienda Records, Salford’s Humanizer. They combine two musical forces of the Manchester music scene, dance and indie into songs that are complex, ambitious animals. Lots of bass and heavy guitars but at the heart the pulsing technology of a dance beat. It's something that's been done a lot recently but somehow after a slightly indifferent start Humanizer quickly grow on me. Clearly they have something the others don't. Well worth a listen and listen I will.

Peter Hook and the Light take the stage to the Pogues’ ‘Dirty Old Town’. Whether this is a statement of sorts on the mud being flung from both sides after his acrimonious split from New Order, I don’t know but I thought I’d start the rumour anyway.

Post split, Hook decided to revisit the work of their former incarnation, Joy Division, and with his band he’s been playing both of the JD's famous albums 'Unknown Pleasures’ and ‘Closer’ in their entirety, as well as more recently the cobbled together compilation 'Still’.

None of which went down particularly well with those remaining in New Order. In fact Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris viewed it as something akin to sacrilege. Hook’s actually gone further and been reinventing some of the songs with X Factor’s Rowetta on vocals. For which, Sumner and Morris might have a point.

There’s no Rowetta tonight however, which is fine because I’d rather hear what Hooky himself can do with the material. Tonight its 1979’s 'Unknown Pleasures’, which is fairly obvious from the fact that we have the album cover as both the backdrop behind the drum kit and on Hooky’s t-shirt. Actually it's good to get the first album first although I prefer 'Closer', which will hopefully come to Nottingham another day.

They don’t start with 'Unknown Pleasures’ though. First up is ‘Exercise One’ a track recorded during sessions for the album but not included on it. Then follows ‘No Love Lost’ and ‘Leaders Of Men’ from their debut EP ‘An Ideal for Living’ from 1978, the rest of which surfaces later. Then it’s ‘Glass’ and the splendid ‘Digital’ from their label’s ‘A Factory Sample’ also from back in ’78.

It seems we’re getting almost a chronological history lesson here as they then, five songs in, launch into the full album set.

The crowd are already impressed, have gone pretty much ape for every song so far and continue to do so all night. A factor in this is probably that the majority of the audience tonight, me included, will never have heard the bulk of this material live before. This, I guess, is why we're here and why I think Sumner and Morris are wrong. There never will be a tour by a fully reformed Joy Division because there can't be. I think Hooky understands this. It would be nice if the others were on board but they’re not and tonight it doesn’t seem to matter because what we get is simply terrific.

Hook and his band deliver a respectful and faithful reproduction of every Joy Division song they take on, not just recreating them but giving them an awesome power than you simply cannot get just from the records. The Light have a terrific guitarist in Nat Watson, an amazing drummer in Paul Kehoe and then of course there’s Hook’s bass, although he shares bass duties tonight with son Jack, who is no shirk himself. There’s also a keyboardist in Andy Poole and you can’t fault the passion that any of them put into it. Making the songs seem rather fresh and modern, not at all dated.

Vocally, things are different of course. Hook isn’t Ian Curtis and probably doesn’t want to be. Yet his vocals seem to fit the material almost as well. It helps that his singing has improved immeasurably since the days of Revenge and Monaco.

Meanwhile the whole thing is conducted amongst one of the best and most enthusiastic atmospheres I’ve seen at a gig for some time. At times, it's actually quite moving.

There are so many highlights but the trio of tracks that form the midpoint of the album - ‘New Dawn Fades’, ‘She's Lost Control’ and ‘Shadowplay’ are particularly outstanding. Not just because during ‘She’s Lost Control’ Hook appears to wave at me, even if it does turn out that I'm stood next to his Mrs.

Then after what seems like no time at all, an immensely powerful ‘Interzone’ segues in to the dark ‘I Remember Nothing’, which closes the album and the set.

The band return for an encore, some of which is drawn from ‘Closer’. ‘Isolation’ and ‘Twenty Four Hours’ are sandwiched between ‘Dead Souls’ and an amazing performance of ‘Ceremony’ before they leave the stage again.

Is that it? No. The band return a second time to treat us to the rest of ‘An Ideal for Living’ in the shape of ‘Warsaw’ and ‘Failures’ but still they’re not finished as they complete the second of two four track encores.

Which isn’t bad coming from a band, in both Joy Division and New Order forms, that have been notorious in the past for not doing them. I've never seen New Order do an encore. Although I see their current line up are doing them these days and also doing the odd Joy Division track as well. Wasn’t that supposed to be sacrilege? Lol.

As The Light get around to probably Joy Division's most famous numbers ‘Transmission’ and of course ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ you almost want to burst in to tears in gratitude. Then when it really is the end, Hooky sheds his t-shirt and throws it triumphantly into the crowd. Job done. Point made.

You could call The Light a tribute band, and maybe we should, but OMG it was some tribute.

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Feeder, The Leadmill, Sheffield

Supported by Daystar

It must be about time for another Feeder gig and they duly oblige with another four date preview of their new album 'Generation Freakshow' which is released today. The ‘main’ tour to promote the album isn't happening until November which seems a very odd marketing tactic and makes it all the more important to be here tonight in Sheffield.

Support comes from Manchester's Daystar, an unashamed indie rock five-piece for which you could name check almost any Manchester legend as an influence and not be far wrong. I mull over several, Stone Roses, The Smiths, Oasis before settling on The Charlatans, who aren’t actually from Manchester...

Lead singer, Simon Monaghan, certainly has a bit of Oasis or more precisely Liam Gallagher about him and a distinctive voice, relayed via a 1950’s microphone. I’m never completely convinced about his vocals during their thirty minute set, when it’s good it’s good but it seems to suit some tracks better than others. I am convinced by their lead guitarist, who is excellent and overall the whole band put in an assured performance.

They say and do all the right things, as support bands are supposed to. I think it must be compulsory to complement the main band's soundcheck, so I’m not sure we can read much in to their prediction that we’re in for treat when Feeder hit the stage. We knew that anyway.

Grant Nicholas, Taka Hirose and co open with ‘Tiny Minds’ which before the gig I’d got in my head as being dropped to make way for the superior newbie ‘Headstrong’ but ‘Tiny Minds’ was actually excellent tonight as the set opener. Still no ‘Headstrong’ though.

While the new album is clearly ‘lighter’ than their last, it doesn’t sound it live as ‘Oh My’ tumbles across the stage towards us.

Next up, it is a pleasure to welcome back ‘White Lines’, as this is my favourite Renegades era track and it is the first of three from that album tonight. ‘Sunrise’ meanwhile is definitely lighter and a throwback to more poppier days.

I hadn’t really noticed but the guitar intros to ‘Borders’ and ‘Buck Rogers’ are actually quite similar. Grant seems to play on this tonight, whether this is totally deliberate I’m not sure. It is ‘Borders’ that follows though. It has become quite a gig favourite and would certainly had been a big hit had it been released by the band during their prime.

‘Hey Johnny’ is the most blatant tribute to Jon Lee yet and Grant seems to put extra feeling into delivering this one. It is followed rather appropriately by the more subtle ‘Just The Way I'm Feeling’ during which, bizarrely, a fight breaks out on the floor.

Once order is restored we get a bit of a surprise. It’s always nice to get surprises in a band’s setlist but Feeder aren’t normally big on this in theirs. ‘Down To The River’ wasn’t really what I had in mind but I certainly didn’t see its inclusion coming.

This slower moment gives me chance to look around. The demographic at a Feeder gig has changed over the last few years. The couples who saw some of their power rock ballads as ‘their song’ have been replaced by more of the ‘old guard’, grizzled Feeder veterans like me, but also a considerable dose of younger blood who seem more animated by the newer rockier stuff than the old classics. All thanks to the rock-focused exuberance of ‘Renegades' I assume.

Feeder actually seem to be on 'repeat'. If 'Renegades' was them rediscovering their 'Polythene' roots now they've pretty much recorded a similar album to its follow up 'Yesterday Went Too Soon'. No bad thing.

At this point the Nirvana-esque ‘Idaho’ riffs into view, signifying on its own a timely throwback to the early days. It opens a repeat of that impressively heavy closing threesome from February, followed as it is by ‘Insomnia’ and the terrific title track to ‘Generation Freakshow’

That’s only thirteen songs in the set, so that surely leaves four ‘must plays’ in the encore. The crowd await their return, now bored with incessantly chanting ‘Feeder Feeder’ they revert to locality with ‘Yorkshire Yorkshire’.

‘Children of the Sun’ is ‘must play’ because it’s to be the next single and is released next week. It opened the set back in February but tonight it opens the encore with Grant again on the acoustic. It’s a pleasant track let down by what I think is a cringeworthy title. It tries perhaps over hard to be the next Feeder anthem. Personally I don't think we need another Feeder anthem but many will disagree.

Grant then asks for requests, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him do that before. I think he was expecting a deluge of shouts for ‘Buck Rogers’ but I didn’t actually hear anyone call for it, although surely someone somewhere did. There was an impressive selection of requests offered but the loudest shouts were predictably for ‘Just A Day’ but close second was ‘Sweet 16’ but he played Buck anyway. Which naturally went down a storm but somehow I don’t think the world would have ended if he’d played something else. ‘High’, also on the ‘must play’ list, wasn’t played and the world is still spinning. Then to finish, it’s time to break a few ribs with the closing ‘Just A Day’.

Overall I really like the balance of the sets at the moment. Three tonight from Renegades, eight from Generation Freakshow and again much less reliance on the ‘old favourites’. I’m thinking Grant is getting the confidence to play simply what he wants to play rather than what he thinks he should play.

Later I blow up a photo I took of the set list but couldn’t make out clearly enough on my camera at the time. ‘Shade’ was down as an option to finish the set and an additional song was scheduled in the encore, one of the options was ‘Yesterday Went Too Soon’. If I’d got those two I’d be taking the day off work today to recover.

Unfortunately the band came on late and came up against a 10.30 curfew, so they probably ran out of time. Anybody at the other gigs this week could be in for a real nice bonus.

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The Twilight Sad, Stealth, Nottingham

Supported by Childhood

It was supposed to be a three band performance tonight but Let’s Wrestle cancelled last night’s London show due to illness and they don't make tonight's either. Their loss is Childhood’s gain who are promoted to main support and a later slot.

They are, I believe, Nottingham based Londoners. It doesn’t start too well for them, the sound is muddy, but it’s soon sorted. At first, I think, typical indie. Could have been anyone. Probably were. Then they get a bit of a jangle going. Hmmm, quite nice. Catchy. Pleasant. Very clever at times. They steadily win me and everyone else over. In the end we're all sad to see them finish.

Play.com are refusing to send me The Twilight Sad’s new album 'No One Can Ever Know'. It only came out last Monday, yet they are saying it is out of stock. How can that be? Amazon already hate me and it seems perhaps now that Play do too. A few months ago, they refused to give me three downloads that I’d ordered. They never did say why, although they did refund me, presumably downloads can’t be ‘out of stock’?

So I’m ‘unrehearsed’ for tonight’s gig at Stealth, which as Nottingham’s ‘musical Mecca for dance fans’ is again an unlikely place to see them. It’s almost as if someone is trying to keep them under the radar.

Learning from past experience I opt to stand well back, in what, I hope, is a more acoustically advantageous position. Beeston. That’s a suburb about three miles outside Nottingham for those that don’t know. The Saddos (may I call them that?) are well known for making an ear reshaping but poetic racket and I may need the use of my eardrums in the next fortnight.

The band take to the smoke encased stage fashionably late and set the tone with the thumping bass and heavy synths of ‘Kill It In The Morning’. Rumour is they’ve gone all Cabaret Voltaire and yes I can see that, with a side dish of industrial phase Depeche Mode perhaps.

The formula is repeated on ‘Don’t Move’, which is almost a pop song. Almost. They’re still loud of course but I think they’ve turned it down a notch or two, or is it just my new position?

With the musicians in the band frequently disappearing into the fog of smoke it’s difficult not to centre your attention on the fascinating individual that is singer James Graham. He stands there, at the centre of it all, delivering his vocals as passionately as ever, eyes closed, seemingly lost in it all. In fact I don’t think it’s until three songs in that he actually opens his eyes and realises we're there. Hello! At which point he explains they’re from up in Scotland, there’s nothing like keeping it general, and thanks us for coming before he submerges himself back into his own little world.

So far the ears are fine but the big test is going to be when they play one of their oldies. Enter ‘That Summer, at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy’. Which is again glorious but have they toned it down? A little. Enough. Tonight, amidst perhaps a more considered approach, Graham’s voice soars above absolutely everything that the rest of the band can throw at him and you can hear practically every word of the song. The band’s trademark guitar feedback is still there but it seems to occur increasingly at the end of songs and less in the middle.

Then it’s back to the new album, from which they play all but two. Among which there’s the faster pace of ‘Dead City’ and the almost soulful ‘Alphabet’. Sandwiched in between is ‘Reflection of the Television’, which is just so massive tonight. All the old ones, maybe just because they are more familiar, are absolutely epic. The cheery ‘I Became a Prostitute’ is intense. Graham makes it so emotional but then he could probably make having a cup of tea seem emotional.

There’s recent single ‘Sick’ which I haven’t quite got to grips with yet but then there’s also ‘Cold Days From The Birdhouse’, which eases its way in gently and then explodes, taking Stealth with it.

As we head towards the end of a mesmerising hour long set, Graham once more opens his eyes and thanks us again for coming before the band wind the guitars up again for ‘And She Would Darken the Memory’ and finally ‘At The Burnside’. An oldie that I’ve not heard them play before.

With a final fading squall of guitar noise it’s all over. Absolutely brilliant and as a bonus, the ears are fine, still attached. The band may continue to fall under the radar but they don’t seem too bothered, me neither, let’s keep it to ourselves shall we.

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Feeder, Kasbah, Coventry

Supported by fiN

As we walk in to a very crowded Kasbah tonight and squeeze ourselves up against the bar, the support band are already playing. They’re called fiN, yes that’s ‘fiN’ with some eccentric reverse capitalisation, a lowercase ‘f’ and a capital ‘N’, presumably to distinguish themselves from early 90's band Fin, not that it makes a jot of difference to google.

As they play away we barter with the girl on the bar to find exactly what’s actually available tonight, beer - nope, San Miguel - ran out, wine - nope, shall we just have Tuborg then.

You sort of get the impression that fiN don’t get to play to such big crowds very often but tonight’s 1000 capacity sold out Kasbah doesn’t faze them and the four piece from deepest Surrey throw themselves wholeheartedly into the experience.

On first listen, perhaps just another generic indie band with arena sized ambitions but they succeed by mostly keeping it simple and not adding in keyboards and the like. Coming over as a cross between a roughed up White Lies and a smoothed out Nirvana exhibiting some nice heavy moments blended with some decent choruses, not unlike Feeder in fact.

Tonight is the third date on Feeder's four night stint previewing their new album 'Generation Freakshow' which is due in April and there's quite a buzz around the place tonight. We’re still buzzing away when Grant Nicholas wanders almost unnoticed on to the stage and strikes up acoustic style, assisted only by a little keyboard accompaniment from Dean Deavall, hidden stage left behind a speaker stack. Which is where he stays all night, the guy really should be given a proper stage presence one day, maybe.

I'm not too sure of the merits of opening with a solo acoustic number, it’s a very low key way to start and a lot of people simply continued with their conversations, the philistines, but 'Children of the Sun' is certainly a simple, yet enthralling number.

Then the rest of the band join the party and we're into 'Oh My'. Damon has a shirt on! Blimey. I didn’t recognise him dressed. He’s also looking particularly hairy behind his drums. Grant has had his locks shorn but seems to have donated them to Damon. Then there’s Taka, just being Taka, almost expressionless, powering away on that bass with, just for the record, plenty of hair.

Tonight, it’s all about their new album, album number eight, from which they preview no less than eight tracks. Grant always seem to enjoy himself the most when he's got new music to push, as he’s nearly always evangelical about it, and it’s always good when a band has to work that bit harder for an audiences approval with material the crowd are not familiar with.

The word was that this album would be more commercial, lighter than the previous ‘Renegades’ album but there’s little evidence of that with ‘Tiny Minds’. It’s as heavy as anything on that record.

The best news tonight is that the 'Renegades' album hasn't been forgotten unlike, err what's it called... 'Silent Cry' although the track 'Renegades', undoubtedly the best thing they've done for years, is probably undroppable from the set. However it’s ‘This Town’ that is the first track to get the place really rocking tonight accompanied, as it is, by Damon attempting to punch holes in his drum kit with his sticks.

'Hey Johnny' would also have sat well on the 'Renegades' album but work on that ending boys, it just peters out catching everyone by surprise and quelling the applause. We did like it, honest. We just didn’t know it had finished. Another new number 'Sunrise', a song about the trials and tribulations of city life, is more mellow and jangling, more ‘Comfort-able and Sound’.

All the new stuff is good, very good but what else did we expect. There's no sign of any dissent to the absence of a few set regulars tonight or to the number of new tracks played. The reception is good for each and every one.

The new single 'Borders', which was previewed some time ago now during the ‘Renegades’ tour, has been everywhere recently and on mid week sales this week was sitting inside the Top 40. This is perhaps why so many people seem to know the words tonight about the border running, asylum seeking or just running away from something Jessie. I hope she made it to the Lakes.

Grant wonders if anyone wants to hear the ‘Lucozade' song? On go on then. The beer (well as there was no beer, it must have been lager and cider) explodes in the air for ‘Buck Rogers’, as covered by the 'The James Cleaver Quintet' whilst rolling down a hill.

The best is saved to last though and the finale is impressive. 'Idaho' was apparently written about touring ‘Polythene’ in the States or something. It certainly has the right sound for the era, it sounded like it was off ‘Polythene’ itself. It’s a particular highlight. It would have been cool to have followed it with something actually off that record but a no holds barred ‘Insomnia’ was a good substitute, although it sounded a bit like Grant was playing it with the wrong guitar? Or was it just my imagination that it sound like it was in a different key.

Better still though, was the fantastically heavy title track of the new album 'Generation Freakshow', a song about the student riots and itself bristling with attitude despite being written in Banbury... Promising stuff indeed but when Grant shouts 'Let’s go'... is he trying to start a riot? You can end up in court for even thinking that these days but what a fantastic track and that’s where they close the set, at around the hour mark, which is a little on the short side guys.

Then they return to play two more songs and to end the evening on a 'High', literally. Well not end exactly, that’s 'Just A Day's job obviously and it brings yet another brilliant Feeder gig to a close. With as usual the band leaving you feeling sated but still just craving that little bit more.

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