Getting even better? It just did, last night, in the first of two 30th anniversary homecoming gigs mounted by Leeds promoters Futuresound in the first rock concerts to be staged in York Museum Gardens since Hawkwind, Pink Fairies and Roxy Music in the long-gone 1970s.
These are the very Gardens where the Sheds’ Rick Witter and Paul Banks say they used to “cause chaos” at ages 12, 13, 14, their loud ghetto blasters ‘disturbing all the OAPs’.
The music was rather louder last night, cheered on by 4,000 fans, young, Sheds-aged and quite possibly OAPS alike, with myriad Shed Seven T-shirts, from their Bile Beans yellow variation to Bully Boy’s I’ll Fight You Till The Death flipside being the dress code for the hottest weather of this sodden summer so far.
Annus miraculum? Even Zeus the weather god was smiling on the Sheds.
Paul Banks and Rick Witter on stage in Museum Gardens for the Sheds’ homecoming gig last night (Image: Dave Harrison)
After sets by Serotones (son Duke Witter’s band) and Lottery Winners, enter Peter Doherty, a very unrock’n’roll six minutes early, to play charmingly solo and acoustic solo in dapper chapeau, name-checking York in Albion, the first song he wrote at 16, inspired to pick up a guitar by the Sheds.
“I’m sweating like a Leeds fan in a spelling test,” he said in the night’s best one-liner, nevertheless keeping his suit buttoned up.
Performances in York Museum Gardens, from the York Mystery Plays to York Proms (returning next Sunday), have favoured utilising the St Mary’s Abbey backdrop, but Futuresound have broken with tradition, building a stage on the Yorkshire Museum concourse, looking down to the River Ouse, for Jack Savoretti’s Thursday opener and the Sheds’ back-to-back home fixtures.
A good decision, the abbey ruins still playing their supporting role, lit in resplendent blue as the night sky painted its picture.
Witter couldn’t resist addressing those gathered on the far riverside, watching for free (always a Yorkshireman’s favourite price, as the saying goes).
A poem, uncredited alas, floated on the night air, as evocative as the smell of chocolate wafting across the city in capturing the essence of York and its characters, cobbles and quirks, sticky streets, to herald the arrival of the Sheds, not the Britpop veterans of lazy labelling, but a vibrant, propulsive, lippy indie band at the height of their second wave.
In Witter’s words, they have been reinvigorated by the arrival of new members Rob ‘Maxi’ Mansfield on drums and Tim Wells on guitar & keys. Last night marked their York debut. No fuss, low key at the back, rock solid as a Championship centre-half, and solidly rock.
The adrenaline rush of Let’s Go, as purposeful a title as the Sheds have ever written, opened the show, just as it does A Matter Of Time, whose name is emblazoned on a stage otherwise devoid of frills (no screens, no projections, plenty of northern lights).
The accusation was always that the Sheds were a meat and potatoes band, but that is to ignore the quality of the gravy. The way their songs connect, the pride in wearing the T-shirt, the Made In York but mad for the world brio. You’d rather be in this crowd than with the in-crowd.
If you could put together the wish-list Shed Seven-in-heaven gig, this was surely it: the weather, the historic York setting; the special guests, Laura McClure, Rowetta and Doherty; the set list; Duke duetting with Rick on High Hopes; the Yorkshire brass players; the balance of A Matter Of Time songs and the orchestral overhaul of the upcoming Liquid Gold hits album; the Huntington School Choir in their stubby tie uniforms for schoolyard anthem Bully Boy.
More? How about Going For Gold segueing into a cover of Elvis’s Suspicious Minds and the perfect encore quartet of Room In My House, Throwaways, Witter arm in arm with Doherty, Disco Down with Rowetta in a Happy Mondays vibe, and everyone, choir, support acts, et al on the stage apron for Chasing Rainbows.
Why, there was even a marriage proposal, from Nicki Sullivan to Kevin, orchestrated by Witter as master of ceremonies. Kevin said yes, of course he did. Going for gold in a year when everything the Sheds do has done exactly that.
Crack open a can of Homecoming Hazy Session IPA, Brew York’s 30th anniversary Shed Seven fruity citrus beer, and reconvene tonight for more Shed heaven. Let’s Go Dancing, York, you, me and Peter Doherty.
Charles Hutchinson
