Shed Seven Scores A Perfect Ten In Halifax

Can there be anything better than seeing two Yorkshire acts on their home territory in front of an enthusiastic audience? That was the encounter that greeted The Sherlocks and Shed Seven at the Victoria Theatre in Halifax as part of the latter’s thirtieth anniversary tour.

The Sherlocks appeared to be ready to move up a gear. With the release of a new album next February, the Sheffield group have, pardon the pun, gotten their act together and come up with some thrilling new songs. As they concluded their brief support set with the song Death of Me, the track in fact invigorated the band.

Shed Seven has had a momentous twelve months, scoring two number-one albums in the same calendar year, joining the illustrious list of only twenty other artists, such as The Beatles and Elvis, to achieve this accolade.

Despite all of this, the band still has plenty to come; their current UK tour is mostly sold out, culminating at London’s O2 Brixton Academy. Before that, there was the small matter of reminding the Halifax fans of what a great live act Shed Seven are.

Opening with the boisterous, Room in my House, the track brought the warmth of the summer into a cold, wintry evening. The snow might have been settling outside, but here inside the Victoria Theatre, the ice had already been broken.

Fittingly, York City Council has named one of their gritter trucks, Rick Gritter, after frontman Rick Witter, a fact that he was quick to point out.

The York band’s anniversary tour is a momentous one; no one could have imagined back in 1994 that these BritPop underdogs would still be around, reinvigorated and refreshed thirty years later.

Tonight though was not just a nostalgia trip; new songs Talk of the Town and Let’s Go Dancing sound as good, if not better than some of their older tracks.

By the end of the evening, the band found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, with the fans in a jubilant mood as they took over the singing of Going for Gold and Chasing Rainbows.

The tour continues with further dates in the north:
29th November: Newcastle, O2 City Hall
30th November: Leeds, O2 Academy
5th December: Stockton, Globe
6th December: Manchester, O2 Victoria Warehouse