THE SLOW READERS CLUB + BRIDGES + GREENNESS – THE HAUNT, BRIGHTON 09.04.19
The Brighton & Hove News music team were back at The Haunt in Brighton this evening to check out The Slow Readers Club at the end of their 32 date UK tour. Brighton was initially to be the final gig, but an extra intimate date to close-out their tour in their home of Manchester’s has been added.
At this special homecoming show, the band will also exclusively launch their own signature dry-hopped lager: “Slow Brew”. Assured to be as crisp, palpable and endlessly enjoyable as the band’s own dulcet sounds, ‘Slow Brew’ is an exciting new collaboration with Signature Brew, the East London brewery who have also brewed limited edition beers for rock royalty including Mastodon, alt-J, Mogwai and Frank Turner. Watch the mouth watering trailer for ‘Slow Brew’ HERE.
This is a slight coincidence as when we reported on UB40’s concert yesterday, where they were plugging their brand new Bordeaux Supérieur ‘Red (Red) Wine’ – details HERE.
The Slow Readers Club are a quartet that rose out of the ashes of an earlier Mancunian outfit called Omerta, and are now made up of Kurtis Starkie (vocals/guitar), Aaron Starkie (vocals/keyboards), James Ryan (bass) and David Whitworth (drums).
The guys took to the stage to their customary ‘I Feel Love’ (by Donna Summer) intro tape, which was rammed up quite a few notches from what had gone before. The crowd were primed and so the fellas walked on stage wearing their customary black trademark garb. We were off to the sound of the first of 16 tracks with ‘Lunatic’, which is the opening number on their 2018 ‘Build A Tower’ album and a very good starting point indeed.
This evening they informed the packed crowd that since their journey began in 2009, tonight is actually the very first time that they have performed live in Brighton.
However, the truth was slightly adjusted, as the lads had actually played an acoustic set to 60 lucky fans in the bright pink coloured Vinyl Revolution record shop in Duke Street, Brighton a couple of hours earlier. According to the chap next to me in The Haunt, who had attended this special event, they had performed a handful of tunes that were ‘On The TV’, ‘Supernatural’, ‘I Saw A Ghost’, ‘Frozen’ and ‘Lunatic’. Watch that performance HERE.
Back at The Haunt and the band thanked their fans as it has now allowed them to become a full time band over the past few months because of their rising success. And listening to them this evening, you can see exactly why this is the case. They can easily throw out a bouncy beat and the loyal following will jump to it. In fact I would hazard a guess and suggest that a large majority of those present at The Haunt tonight, would be here for the very first time, as they had obviously been following The Slow Readers Club around the country, judging by the various local dialects on offer accompanied with the many current tour t-shirts on display.
This was my first encounter with the lads and I trust that it won’t be the last, however, I strongly suspect that next time, it will be in a larger venue, as clearly this is a band on the up!
During this evening’s performance, I heard nods to several other established artists, including U2, The Editors and even Gary Numan at times, however, having said that, TSRC are their own band, as can be gleaned on their albums ‘Build A Tower’ (2018), ‘Cavalcade’ (2015) and self titled debut platter (2011).
I can honestly say that this didn’t play a dud all night and thankfully my fave track is a newie in the form of ‘The Wait’, which is a great sign of things to come. You can get a feeling for the performance by watching THIS.
The Slow Readers Club setlist reads:
‘Lunatic’, ‘Lives Never Known’, ‘Sirens’, ‘Fool For Your Philosophy’, ‘Supernatural’, ‘Never Said I Was The Only One’, ‘Start Again’, ‘You Opened Up My Heart’, ‘Plant The Seed’, ‘The Wait’, ‘Block Out The Sun’, ‘Lost Boys’, ‘Forever In Your Debt’, ‘Feet On Fire’, ‘I Saw A Ghost’, ‘On The TV’.
More info on the band HERE.
There were two support bands tonight – Bridges and Greenness.
The main support artists being Bridges who’s fresh new lineup features Ethan, Josh, Henry, Farkas and Chess. I suspect that the band were rather pleased to find that on entering The Haunt stage, that the place was virtually full by now.
They informed us that this was their last date supporting The Slow Readers Club and I would image that on every night, they went down rather well with the punters as they have that polished air about them as they offer up indie rock tunes with powerful vocals that would suit fans of Kings Of Leon, Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Embrace and the like. I would imagine that Radio 2 listeners would be more than happy to listen to Bridges.
Bridges are now a band with real potential, having had a new remix since their inception around a decade ago. Admittedly ten years to come to the fore sounds a long time, but IDLES are breaking through right now after crafting their sound for the past 8 years, so I can assure you all is not lost.
Tonight, they performed a brand new track entitled ‘Wishbone’, which I have to flag up to the band as the way forward, with the use of that echoey guitar sound achieved by the likes of Richard Hawley.
At the back end of 2018 they released a 4 track EP entitled ‘On And On Like This’ and this evening they performed all of the tunes from this which was a treat, but their final number ‘BFF’ was the perfect way to round off a solid performance. I particularly enjoyed the early U2 style drumming on this.
The Bridges setlist reads:
‘Maths, Science And English’, ‘Ghouls’, ‘More Than Before’, ‘Wishbone’, ‘Amor’, ‘Sunday’, ‘Return To The Drakes Nest’, ‘BFF’.
More info on Bridges HERE.
First up this evening was a duo going by the name of Greenness. Their statement is “Somewhere in Chorlton, along Albany Road, inside a dilapidated Victorian punk house, French singer-songwriter Cess Frangi meets British musician and producer Graham Pratt for the first time. Together, they immediately take three luminous and monumental decisions: to fall in love, to start a band, and to save the world, under the guise of Greenness”. Sounds like a fine plan to me.
With Brighton and Hove being such a magnet musical-wise to outsiders, the duo have relocated to be with us and Cess said that it was their first appearance at The Haunt, although many punters would have missed this as they had to take to the stage a mere ten minutes after the venue had opened and were only allotted a mere four song twenty minute set, suffice to say that the place was very sparse indeed, which was a shame for them and those people that missed them.
Cess was in charge of vocals and keyboards and Graham was on guitar, however Graham took over keys on one of the numbers. They do in fact also appear as a full five piece outfit and you can witness that line-up up at the Hope & Ruin in Brighton on 27th April, when they will be appearing with Tangerine Cat and R. Dyer – details HERE.
Greenness gave us melodic quirky pop, which is not a million miles away from the likes of Austra. Cess also told us that Graham used to be in a band called Belief System with Kurt from The Slow Readers Club back in the day too.
The Greenness setlist reads:
‘Swimming’, ‘Sphinx’, ‘Dance With The Light’, ‘Unfold’.
More info on Greenness HERE.
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