Having
first encountered the unique Sleaford Mods live experience last
summer at the (tragically no more) Beacons Festival, their wildly
original and truly memorable set clearly resonated with an audience
keen to sample one of the cutting edge acts of the 2014 UK music
scene. What was even more pleasantly surprising after the show was
having (very) briefly congratulated them on a cracking performance,
the pair responded with genuine gratitude and humility, in stark
contrast to the bristling menace of their stage persona…gentlemen
as well as scholars.
Fast
forward 9 months and frontman Jason Williamson, ably backed up by his
partner in crime, backing track manager and beer swigger-in-chief
Andrew Fearn, have emerged from a sea of cult bands to become one of
our nation’s premier underground live draws, aided in no small way
by a collaboration with the Prodigy on their comeback single “Ibiza”
with SM album number three ‘Key Markets’ also due to hit the
shelves in July. Not surprisingly, everyone’s favourite Leeds venue
is crammed to the rafters, in fact, I’ve never seen the place so
full and considering how this little Hyde Park venue continues to
punch well above its weight in terms of attracting stellar live music
acts, that’s really saying something.
So,
why all the fuss? Perhaps it’s partly down to the uncompromising
stripped back delivery, the ‘fuck-you’ attitude combined with a
liberal sprinkling of obscenities. However if you dig below the
surface of the Tourette’s-infused vocal, the DIY tattoos and the
estate pub backing tracks, you discover an erudite yet withering
snapshot of 21st
century downtrodden Britain, painting similar pictures of (not so)
quiet desperation, continuing where illustrious home-grown
predecessors starting with The
Kinks, and
most recently The
Streets
left off. What’s also remarkable is the fact that these guys are
not kids, both are in their forties, the name-checking of Tiswas
proving that fact.
Taking
to the stage to a warm applause, the duo start things off with ‘Bunch
of Cunts’ a track that would go down a storm on an X-Factor
audition. Each subsequent number follows in conveyor belt fashion,
every one roughly two-and–a-bit minutes of Jason screaming into the
microphone with the intensity of Henry
Rollins, as
Andrew stands, bottle of lager in hand, grinning inanely, perhaps
thinking to himself ‘This is a Piece of Piss’ having once more
pressed the play button on the laptop, his work done for the next
three minutes. We
get all the favourites including ‘Middle Men’, ‘Jolly Fucker’,
‘McFlurry’ and the terrific, ‘Jobseeker’ where our hero
hilariously confesses to the unfortunate pen pusher at the dole
office to spending all his free time between signings-on
wanking….brilliant! ‘Tied up in Nottz’ and the aforementioned
‘Tiswas’ follow soon after, as well as new album track ‘No
One’s Bothered’ before the main set ends with the diatribe aimed
at zero-hours Britain ‘The Wage Don’t Fit’.
The
lads are back to do three more for the encore and then they vamoose
after barely an hour although it seems like longer when you look at
the state of Jason at the end, clearly putting every last bit of
energy into his vitriolic delivery throughout.
Music
for the jilted generation.