Doncaster Live (pt 3)

!_ARCHIVE POST

First published August 2007 in
Doncaster Live Magazine.
By: Adam Irwin, Ruth Offord and Richard Cook

Wedding Present

Next up at Vintage Rock Bar are The Pilgrim Fathers, but we head off to the main stage to check out The Wedding Present. A couple of people walk off not impressed, but we’re enjoying ourselves and stick around. With good reason too, for although lead singer David Gedge seems more subdued than usual the band are sounding huge, tight, professional and surprisingly hit friendly. An energetic romp through top 40 single ‘Kennedy’ gets the front rows bouncing, and the boy Gedge even gets into it for long enough to throw a few rock shapes over his guitar.

Despite it being undoubtedly Gedge’s show, the rest of the band sound fantastic, the bass is a constant kick in the chest, the drums are frantic and everything walks the fine line between collapse and triumph that makes the Wedding Present such an exciting live band. A brief exposition on the spiritual importance of the number five precedes a menacing romp through the sinisterly epic single ‘Interstate 5’ from latest album ‘Take Fountain’.

Despite the calls for an encore from the crowd, we only get nine songs before the band leave the stage (and no ‘Brassneck’ either!) but noise curfews no doubt played their part in that. A solid and unusually accessible set, from one of the more enduring NME darlings of the 90s.

Three Torches

By now the rumour has spread that Three Torches will be playing their second gig of the night at 1am, taking over a hairdressers shop in Silver Street for a guerrilla performance. We insist we will be there (after we were shown the way), but in the meantime, we have to drink Jagermeister with an old drinking buddy. Needless to say, we don’t make it for the gig. We do see Three Torches frontman Danny at about 1.30am, but any attempts at an interview fails, mainly because we now can’t read anything we wrote down other than ‘best gig ever’, which is either his opinion, or a blatant lie.

The next day we manage to scrape ourselves out of bed, but ashamedly only get to see a few acts. Something to encourage us however is the soothing voice of John Fontanelle. Now that’s what you want to hear on a Sunday afternoon. Tea and Biscuits on the other hand, you do not. Sure they look cute, their average age being about ten but their cover of Katrina and the Waves is painful. The Alyscamps, minus a member are still pounding out the hits however and manage to grab the attention of many a passing shopper before we are whisked home in the promise of a Sunday roast.

So that was our Doncaster Live 2007, next year should be even bigger and better, and if we can stay off the beer we might be able to tell you lot about it properly!