GIG - The Lockwood, Huddersfield 11th Dec 04

A real toilet venue!!!

A fact immediately brought home on eventually gaining entry (no staff turned up until 7:30) to be greeted by a large pre-enjoyed dog's dinner spiraled neatly in the middle of the lounge bar.

There is a Seinfeld episode called 'The Cafe' which ruminates on the fact that for some reason certain business premises seem to constantly be opening and closing with new ventures while those around seem to sustain a single business. The Lockwood is kind of like this - is must have changed management more times in the last couple of years than most any other establishment in town.
In fact, seeing as the place had been shut for most of the usual trading hours for the past few weeks we weren't even sure it was still open - a confusion which had eroded the usually capacity crowd for our gigs to a bunch of die hards. That and the fact that Mary-Jane were taking part in a Battle of the bands down the road at the Uni and any one else with any taste was in Sheffield watching the Wildhearts!

Any hoo.

We'd offered a support slot to a new local band via the Huddersfield Music Scene web site and we ended up with 'The Retrose'. A young group of energetic things with a keen ear on 70s and 80s rock. It usually pains me to see young kids playing endless Thin Lizzie covers - it smacks far too much parental interference or the school of guitar tuition that attempts to churn out endless Gary Moore clones - "If they play bloody Parisian Walkways I'm gonna kill someone!" - But fortunately The Retrose are not one of these - they write their own songs and have a slight contemporary spin on the classic rock staple. Very tight, talented drums, bass and guitar and a decent lead vocal - great fun.

We took the stage at 9:45 ish and bashed through an hour or so. We took advantage of the thinish crowd of mostly friends and family by trying out 4 new songs which are destined for the third album; Swan song, China Doll, American Hero and Persistence. They seem to work pretty well, though people found the Pop punk of Swan Song more immediately accessible than the more rock and alt rock of the other three.

By the end of the set the PA kept over heating and cutting out.

Anyway - we were great!