THE CLOCKWORKS + H.A.T.S – GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 29.9.22
The Clockworks were my find and favourite band of The Great Escape 2022. I saw them twice at this year’s festival, once at a lunchtime gig at The Prince Albert where I had only been fuelled by coffee and then again at an evening gig at The Hope & Ruin where I will admit a few beers were drunk before seeing the band and proved my judgement wasn’t clouded by alcohol, as on both occasions I thought they were brilliant, and so I was really was looking forward to tonight’s gig at the Green Door Store, the first night of the bands current 26 date UK and European tour.
The four piece originally from Galway in Ireland have now relocated to London and are signed to Alan McGee’s Creation Baby Records. The outfit consists of James McGregor on vocals/guitar, Tom Freeman on bass, Damian Greaney on drums and Seán Connelly on guitar. McGee apparently said on seeing a rehearsal by the band for the first time that they were as good when he first saw Oasis, which is high praise indeed and who am I to disagree!
At 9 o’clock sharp, the band took to the stage and immediately started their fast paced indie rock set. They delivered seventeen songs in just over an hour. The joyous Green Door Store crowd barely had time to breathe, and midway through the set vocalist James McGregor complained of his voice not holding up, and it was only day one of the tour.
Highlights of the set for me were ‘Feels So Real’, which is a great track that got everyone singing along, and ‘Stanstead’ with its chorus of “Stranded in Stanstead”, something no doubt many folk have felt this summer when endeavouring to get away on a summer holiday.
The Clockworks new single ‘Advertise Me’ sounded great and has been getting a bit of airplay on BBC 6Music this week. It finished with a beautiful guitar part that reminded me of ‘The Great Skua’ by Brighton’s finest Sea Power.
The hour set passed way too quickly and before we knew it the lads were finishing with my favourite song of theirs, ‘Enough is Never Enough’ aka ‘Fingers’, which got the crowd singing along with its catchy chorus.
This evening they had performed a truly fantastic set which sounded even better than when they played the Great Escape last May.
The Clockworks are:
James McGregor – vocals/guitar
Seán Connelly – guitar
Damian Greaney – drums
Tom Freeman – bass
The Clockworks setlist:
‘Endgame’ (from 2022 ‘The Clockworks’ EP)
‘Bills And Pills’ (from 2019 ‘Bills And Pills’ single)
‘Money (I Don’t Wanna Hear It)’ (from 2022 ‘The Clockworks’ EP)
‘Throw It All Away’ (from 2021 ‘Throw It All Away’ single)
‘Life In A Day’ (unreleased)
‘Name In The Sun’ (unreleased)
‘Moses’ (unreleased)
‘Feels So Real’ (from 2022 ‘The Clockworks’ EP)
‘Mayday’ (unreleased)
‘Advertise Me’ (from 2022 ‘Advertise Me’ single)
‘Stranded In Stansted’ (from 2020 ‘Stranded In Stansted’ single)
‘All That You’ve Lost’ (unreleased)
‘Blood On The Mind’ (unreleased)
‘Can I Speak To A Manager?’ (from 2019 ‘Bills And Pills’ single)
‘The Future Is Not What It Was’ (from 2020 ‘The Future Is Not What It Was’ single)
‘Enough is Never Enough’ (from 2020 ‘Enough Is Never Enough’ single)
Support tonight came from local Brighton band h.a.t.s, a new 5 piece band that I haven’t come across before. They started their short set with a cover of ‘Come Together’ by The Beatles, which was probably the highlight of their 6 songs played tonight. A few technical issues followed. Their set was a bit disjointed, but the friends they brought along with them seemed to enjoy it and the last track ‘Phoebe’ got a few people in the audience singing along. This is perhaps a band to see in a year or so when they have played a few more gigs.
