Shed Seven

Liverpool Academy 1, 5 December 2011

The band has been around for a while and still manages to attract large crowds wherever they play. I’ve not been a fan and have never witnessed a live performance until this event. Hell, I don’t even possess one of their recordings, but I am curious…

Shed Seven are a band from York, England who formed in 1990 and are famed for their no nonsense good-time tunes and live shows. Their popularity peaked in the mid-1990’s during the britpop boom with their most popular songs, including Chasing Rainbows, Going for Gold, Getting Better and Disco Down, all reaching the Top 20 of the UK Singles Chart.

The band split in December 2003, but not before a farewell tour which culminated in a final hometown show. The split was amicable and came about due to disagreements with their record company about their musical direction. In 2005, they released a posthumous collection of demos for what would have been their fifth studio album. whilst the band members themselves began their own separate projects, including frontman Rick Witter, who went on to form Rick Witter and The Dukes .

However, in 2007 the band reunited for what was to become a sell out tour of the UK, and their most successful to date. The re-formed line up included all of the original members, including both of their former guitarists, Joe Johnson and Paul Banks. Although the 2007 tour was intended as a one-off reunion, the band remained together and were seen performing at several UK festivals during the summer of 2008. It was announced in mid-2009, shortly before a one-off headlining performance at the Tartan Heart Festival, that the band would again undergo a tour during December 2009 - they also revealed that they had been working on new songs, though none of these were played during the 2009 tour. The band classed their 18 date 2009 tour as ‘their most successful and enjoyable so far’.

First up was the singer/songwriter, ex-band frontman Chris Helme who went down well with the audience through  his his banter, excellent voice and, for me, surprisingly good songs. Helme’s short performance seemed effortless, natural, sincere and deceptively skilled. Even when he forgot his lyrics it didn’t seem to matter - he told the audience and then just started again to loud cheers.

Then it was Shed Seven’s tuurn to impress and I was not disapponted with the band’s performance in front of a near sell-out audience of twenty, thirty and forty-somethings. The guys made it look deceptively easy during their tight-as-a-drum, all-the-hits performance. Witter was in his element chatting comfortably with a crowd whose reponse to songs just made him happier and more talkative. Was it my cup of tea? Song-wise not really but the crowd loved it (with singalong after singalong) and the guys provided a faultless performance deserving of high praise.

SETLIST

Parallel Lines, Where Have You Been Tonight, Bully Boy, Magic Streets, Devil In Your Shoes, Speakeasy, She Left Me On Friday, Ocean Pie, Ladyman, Falling From The Sky, Dolphin, Going For Gold, Out By Your Side, On Standby, Disco Down, High Hopes, Getting Better, Panic, Chasing Rainbows.