Tim Burgess, Hatcham Social and Gramotones played Brudenell Social Club in Leeds on Monday, September 30th.
Up on stage first was Oldham’s Gramotones, fusing together elements of ‘60s West Coast psychedelia and more British ‘80s-era bands like Squeeze and Orange Juice. The band was chatty, but one thing that stood out was there incredibly tight three-part vocal harmonies. The group got a good reception and wasted no time in blazing through cleverly crafted songs with decent riffs and interesting rhythms. They obviously took great care in their image, and have some sharp suits that The Who would of been proud of.
Twitter – @thegramotones
Hatcham Social are an English indie pop band who first met and formed in New Cross, London, and who have released a string of singles on indie labels since 2006. After surviving a few line-up changes, the group seems to have settled in with their new bass player, who has brought more of a groove in to the fold.
They kicked off with a slow-burning, drone-y song that built into a noisy reverb-drenched peak, not too dissimilar to Spacemen 3 early tunes. The band was quiet static on stage, reminiscent to the shoegazing era – there wasn’t much dialogue in-between songs, not at all interested with being showy. Visually looking like a hybrid of House of Love and The Cure.
Hatcham Social stomped through a version of their new single, “More Power To Live”, which they announced rather tongue-in-cheek as there “new hit.” It had the conciseness of a pop track with Velvet’s White Light White Heat era erratic guitar breaks.
The band was well received by the Brudenell audience.
http://hatchamsocialofficial.co.uk/
As the night moved on, the crowd waited patiently for Tim Burgess. He took to the stage clutching on a large notepad and proceeded in performing a spoken word version of a case for vinyl. Burgess’ band was made up from Hatcham Social and Mark Collings from Burgess main band, The Charlatans.
The opening song was “The Doors of Then”, and it brought cheers from the crowd. The jingly country-pop seemed to sit and carry well in a venue the size of the Brudenell Social Club.
The sound was great and well balanced. Burgess calmly weaved around the stage, seemingly appearing to enjoy himself. The majority of the songs were all worked around the sturdy backbone of Mark Collings’ acoustic guitar, on which he remained throughout. The pieces’ stripped back revealed Burgess’ love for Gram Parsons and Dylan.
There were a lot of loyal Charlatans fans in the crowd that night and when Burgess and the band launched into a slower, more reflective version of “The Only One I Know”, the audience gave out a big cheer. Noticing the audience to be animated, he encouraged a sing-along. Other Charlatans songs to appear in the set were a growling version of “Impossible” and a more roots-ier version of “North Country Boy”.