Designer Magazine's In The City Preview Show -
Night & Day Manchester - 26.9.06
In terms of hit rate In The City pretty much has it sewn up with the
likes Oasis, Muse, Coldplay, The Darkness and countless others being showcased
over the past 15 years. Unlike The Edinburgh Festival who in the lead up
to the official events spurns countless Edinburgh Preview shows the country
over building the buzz in the months leading up to the event, In The City
has never shouted its success stories from the rooftops. Now courtesy of
Designer Magazine the event starts a month early with a preview show of
the main event featuring Shepherds Pi, Spoons, Eskiimo and The Tigerpicks,
some of which will be playing the Break In the City events a month later
and other's who simply have a buzz about them and deserve showcasing.
Without even playing a gig The Tigerpicks have buzz about them like
no other with promoters lining up to book them and their debut EP being
played across every club in Manchester. The three piece including musical
maestro Martyn Walsh, a synth henchman figure somewhere between the mock-seriousness
of Ladytron, the camp air of Scissor Sisters and Adam Ants sense of drama,
is flanked by Frankie and Emma, two girls who make Daphne & Celeste
look and sound like Radiohead (as well as live guitarist from Dirty Soul
Club for the live shows). The Tigerpicks are anarchic pop at its best and
instead of trying to perfect vocal harmonies they concentrate on having
a good time and looking around at a full venue it's clear the rest of the
audience think the same. Although some lesser publications will try to
fit them alongside the Klaxons as Nu-Rave there's much more going on with
everything from Peaches, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Le Tigre with touches of Salt
& Pepper. "Burn Me Out"
and "Disco Punk Electro Funk" may be firm favourites at the moment
due to constant plays on Myspace, but "Pow Pow Pow" may just become the
Tigerpicks anthem. The Picks came, got wasted and walked away victorious.
Like the Tigerpicks, Eskiimo are a band that prove just how far
Manchester has come since the days of Oasis tributes and they also recognize
that far from pop being a dirrty word, it's a far vibrant world than getting
caught up in the one-upmanship in indie venues such as 42s and 5th Ave.
Since we last saw the band they've shortened their name to Eskiimo (dropping
the dear like a dear john letter) and have an albums worth of new tunes
of which two are being debuted exclusively for this In The City Preview
show. "Freakin" sounds like everything from Sandie Shaw to Willy Wonka's
umpa lumpas and is probably the best song Eskiimo have ever written. Despite
the early Scissor Sisters comparisons there really is no band out there
like Eskiimo in terms of image or the sheer collage of sounds that they
bring together and if Disney set up base in Salford you get the feeling
they'd end up in a world like this. "Fruit Machine" is a more contemporary
song mixing together modern electro-infuenced R&B not dissimilar to
MIA and probably the sort of track that Nelly Furtado would approach Timbaland
for. With classics such as "Jack And Jill", "Jo" and "Patience" thrown
into the live mix if Eskiimo don't take over the charts next year than
Britain clearly doesn't deserve them.
With Nicolai Prowse pulling out with just a weeks notice Spoons
stepped into the breach. By the end of the evening they've played to half
the cast of Coronation street and covered Joy Division's "Love Will Tear
Us Apart" with Andy Rourke looking on at the guitarist in the Smiths T-shirt.
With many Manchester bands trying to get away from what made Manchester
a great musical city Spoons, with an average age of 18, look back to the
likes of The Smith, Joy Division, The Roses and of course Oasis for their
inspiration but then filter it through the eyes of the youth. From the
moment they take to the stage the opinion is divided with a sizeable crowd
pogo-ing along to "The Taxidermist" and "The Tree That Could Not Grow"
while a few dissenters bemoan the vocal prowess of lead singer Chris Wood.
However its nothing that hasn't been said about Ian Brown or Shaun Ryder
before and 12 months ago none of the members of the band have even picked
up an instrument so if this is a work in progress then when they finally
have it nailed Spoons look set to be one of Manchester's best bands. With
bands such as Orphan Boy and The Young Offenders Institute putting the
Manc back into Manchester Spoons time is definitely now!!!
Headliners Shepherds Pi were the only real contenders for an In
The City Preview show in Manchester and it's clear to see why in the first
full set that Designer Magazine has managed to catch. Although much of
the media buzz surrounds the fact that their lead singer Rupert Hill happens
to play Jamie Baldwin in Coronation Street there's no doubt that take that
away and Shepherds Pi would be receiving just as much adulation for their
music alone. Based around the core talent of Rupert Hill and Sam Stockman
they've clearly been listening to The Libertines, but the harmonies are
based on the classics such as The Beatles. The name says it all and the
band clearly don't take themselves too seriously, this is music to get
trashed to rather than think about although the lyrical touches are genius
and take a sideways glance at those quirky things in life.
The self-produced demos only hint at what an exciting live prospect
Shepherds Pi are and bolstered by a sax player on the live shows they manage
to out-Zutons the Zutons. with headline shows coming up at Academy 3 and
Night & Day later in the year the band are set to end 2006 on a high
and with shows like this it wont be long before Shepherds Pi become known
simply for being one of the best bands Manchester has seen in years. Certain
nameless fashionista bands have nothing on Shepherds Pi.
Like In The City itself only time will tell who will be the success
stories of this preview show and who will be forgotten as fast as you can
say Paul Gallagher and Performance, but its unlikely any playing tonight
will follow the latter route. Four great bands and the first of what will
become a regular fixture on Manchester's calendar
Alex McCann
Photos: Karen McBride www.karenmcbride.com
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SHEPHERDS PI
SPOONS
ESKIIMO
THE TIGERPICKS
FACES IN THE CROWD
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