Entangle me in verses of poetry, Avert my gaze from the darkest of darkest days

Friday 16 October – If there’s one thing that you can expect at a Hope&Social gig, it’s the unexpected! And so here we are at Fibbers, slightly wetting ourselves with anticipation of a great night out.

The first support band are Rosie from Pateley Bridge, consisting of; Doug Wallace (vocals and rhythm guitar), Tommy Leatherbarrow (drums and backing vocals), and Louis Leatherbarrow (keyboards). It’s hard to describe their style of music so I can do no better than quote someone else who said “bouncy electro-powered party punk”. It’s not as bad as it sounds. Despite the fact that I don’t really go for electronica as a musical genre they certainly had me tapping my toes, and dare I say it, swaying slightly to the music. They also seem to have a small entourage of crazy dancers, one dressed as a banana, who fling themselves about a bit in the audience. It was all very good fun and quite entertaining.

The second support band was people: inairports who we had seen before in November 2010, and not been much impressed with on that occasion. Formed by ex-Shed Seven bassist Tom Gladwin, they also comprise singer/songwriter and guitarist Paul Downes along with Jimmy Greenall (guitar & backing vocals), and Ken Sayers (drums). Sadly they sounded pretty much as they did nearly a year ago, a tired string of Jam-esque indie pub-rock songs. To be honest, I would much rather have an extended H&S set.

With three albums under their collective belts, Leeds-based Hope&Social have a wide range of material to call upon. Please don’t expect me to reel off a complete track listing of all the songs that they delighted us with, because their act is so much more than just the songs. There was the running on the spot, the bearded Gary Stewart a-likes, the banter with the audience, the maniacal pounding of keyboards and super-heavy guitar riffs, barber-shop style harmonies, brass section, sing-alongs… you name it, it probably happened. If you’ve never seen this band before, do it. If you want to listen to them, you can do it online, for free. And , if you want to buy their music, you can, and you only have to pay what you want. Crazy? Only if you never get around to seeing/hearing them. But, I do not like green eggs and ham. Try it, try it, you will see...