Hup Hup Hup Hup! The Wonder Stuff @ O2 Academy Leeds, 23rd April 2010

On Friday night Doozr and I headed to Leeds O2 Academy for The Wonder Stuff's Hup! Tour.  I have been a fan of The Wonder Stuff for as long as I can remember.  When I told my mum who I was going to see her reply was "Wow, I know them.  How do I know them?".  Simple mum, I used to force you to listen to their Hup Album over and over in the car when I was about 15.

The Wonder Stuff decided to head out on a 20th Anniversary tour of their first album 'Eight Legged Grove Machine' last year.  It was an amazing gig and their new line up was impressive.  Erica Nockalls being a complete surprise, not only fantastic violinist but also adding a touch of glamour to The Wonder Stuff line-up.

When they announced that they would be touring again in 2010 to tour Hup I had to get tickets.  Hup is without a doubt their best album to date and, having seen the show they put on last year, I knew I couldn't miss it.

We dashed across to Leeds after work and found ourselves entering 'The Light', an entertainment and shopping centre around the corner from Academy.  We parked up and with a good hour to spare we popped into Subway for a bite to eat and a sit down.  We headed for the venue at doors opening and found ourselves a little corner midway back, out of the way of, what we knew from last time, would be a sea of 30 somethings moshing about like loons.

The first support act came on at about 7.30.  An interesting fellow called John McKeown.  He is sold as a solo artist but he appears to be more of 7 piece, a number of guitarists, keyboard, drums and violinist.  The songs were catchy and I even found myself bobbing my head a little.  Unfortunately, he appeared to think he was very 'rock and roll' and even strode off the stage at the end of the performance without even a simple thank you.  This left his 'band' to accept the slightly sparse clapping from the yet to fill up audience.

The second support act seemed to have a large following in the audience and I had spotted a number of gig-goers with their t-shirts on.  They were called Amsterdam and hail from Liverpool.  Immediately I noticed the common theme for the night; another beautiful girl with a violin in hand.

Amsterdam did not disappoint though.  They were excellent - I particularly liked the title track from their album, Arm in Arm.  Their entire set was really catchy.  Solid folk pop tracks with a distinct Irish feel thanks to honorary performer Elmear McGeown on the flute and penny whistle and Anna Jenkins on violin.  We enjoyed it so much that we acquired the aforementioned album.  Another new band to add to the collection.

A nice addition to the stage performance was a roadie who clearly appreciated Amsterdam's music.  He suddenly appeared from nowhere on the stage and started performing Bez-like dance moves whilst singing his lungs out.  Very amusing indeed.

Finally at about 9.15, The Wonder Stuff took to the stage.  They opened with 30 Years in the Bathroom, changing the year to 1979 instead of 1959. Time really has flown since they released this album.  It soon became clear, however, that the were not playing the tracks in the album order.  A disgruntled audience member enquired as to why this was so.  Lead singer Miles Hunt was happy to answer, admitting that he felt they'd made a mistake with the original track order and that this was the order the tracks should have been.  Since listening to the Anniversary edition of Hup I can see that they have changed the order on the re-recording too, and I concur; the album does indeed make a lot more sense this way around.

All too quickly they had finished the album tracks and had vanished off stage.  There were a few minutes when I wondered if that was it.  Slightly disappointed that it could be over so quickly.  But then they were back and on form to sing some excellent covers, B-sides and classic songs from the era.  Circlesquare, Size of a Cow and Caught in my Shadow being 3 of my favourite tracks and the amazing Ten Trenches Deep to finish the set.

They were on stage for over 2 hours.  2 amazing, non-stop hours.  I danced.  I never dance at gigs.  I was completely drawn into what was happening on the stage and could have kept going for another 2 hours.  At some point during the evening, without me even noticing, Doozr snuck off to the Merc stand to grab me a copy of the re-recorded Hup album.  A welcome addition to my Wonder Stuff CD collection. Due to the complete overhaul it has received, it's like a new album rather than a re-recording of an old classic.

Hup has and always will be my favourite offering from The Wonder Stuff.  After that performance I really hope they come back next year and tour Never Loved Elvis.  I will certainly be there, cheap seats or not!

The Joy Formidable @ O2 Academy, 30th March 2010

Way back in January, I got tickets for The Joy Formidable for 23inertia's birthday. She'd discovered them via Indie Music Filter and loved everything about them, so it was an easy choice to make! After two long months of waiting, gig night was finally here. After the obligatory noodles at Tokyou we headed inside, on time for once!

Not many had showed up early, despite there being three bands playing that night. The first support, Bleech, started playing to the somewhat sparse crowd. They didn't do a lot for me, I'm afraid. Still, there seemed to be some support for them up front. I was content to watch from my seat at the back.

Second support, then, were the previously unknown (to me) Baddies. There are a few ways to describe their sound. Franz Ferdinand on speed. Electric Six meets Madness. Completely bonkers. However you choose to describe them, they were brilliant. Catchy tunes, immediately memorable choruses and somewhat quirky mannerisms. I immediately bought the album and the lead singer was manning the merch stand, so he toddled off with it to get the whole band to sign it for me. Lovely bloke.


Finally The Joy Formidable took to the stage. It was quite an odd stage layout. Normally for this sort of thing there are speakers, instruments and monitors all over the place. Not this time. Even the drummer was tucked off to one side leaving only the two guitar/vocalists on centre stage. Ritzy, the lead guitar and singer, was wearing what I can only describe as Victorian pyjamas, whereas Rhydian, bassist and backing vocal, was much more conservatively attired.

There were some in the crowd who were really (really) into it, pogoing and punching the air, but I've always found their music best to chill out to. Even during the heavier riffs, I closed my eyes and just drifted off with the music.

All too soon, it seemed, the main set ended and off they went leaving a somewhat bare stage behind them. Of course, an encore was a must and so back they came to satisfy our need for even more awesomeness, before finally disappearing into the night.


I picked up their album too. 23inertia was a bit disappointed because she loves the artwork on the jewel case edition, but this version just had the band name and title in a rather uninteresting layout. Little did we know that on removal from the packet, the true picture would unfold. It is actually a poster with aforementioned artwork on it, albeit rendered in monochrome, with a 12cm circular gap. The CD itself fills that gap and the printing on it completes the picture. I've never seen anything like it, and I love it.

Being a fan of the art myself, I grabbed a t-shirt with it on, as well as a Baddies t-shirt too. Got to love merchandise! It's probably the best way to directly support smaller bands; buy their stuff! So I do. A lot.

A fantastic gig indeed. I not only have a new appreciation for The Joy Formidable, but we have discovered Baddies too. That's just the way we like it.