#5 WU LYF//Sheperd's Bush Empire//London//Wednesday 26th October

Its been a strange couple of weeks for the Manchester music scene. Everyone is going crazy for The Stone Roses reunion news and Noel Gallagher has hit the top of the pop charts, but my response to both these points is WHY? Come on people what is this Roses reunion going to achieve? (apart from some much needed dollar for Ian Brown after his divorce) They were amazing back then, unreal infact, so how can four blokes who look older than my dad possibly better what they did before, i think they should leave it alone. There is so much good music out there at the moment i really am not interested in living in the past and i'm really shocked by all the hysteria! As for Noel G, my goodness, the man has churned out the same dad rock for years now! He harks on about the state of new music but he is just some old bloke that watches x factor with his kids. At least Liam is still full of charisma and bravado, when Noel speaks it just reminds me of every time i see my dad and he digs me out for my 'stupid hair' or my 'weird clothes'. Thank heavens for WU LYF and something, fresh, new and exciting coming out of Manchester at last!

Shey Bu was heaving tonight in anticipation for this gig, the media have given this band an aura of mystery and WU LYF seem quite happy to go along with it, early press shots saw them hiding their faces behind masks and smoke bombs, at first it wasn't clear how many people were even in the band (it's 4), they would refuse to do interviews. All this coupled with their throbbing crucifix like emblem, their growing disciples, The Lucifer Youth Foundation and a huge word of mouth buzz whipping up around them has given them the air of a cult instead of just a band.

I was in my preferred position of upstairs at Shey Bu, this gave me a perfect view to witness what was happening below, people being crushed in a sea of bouncing bodies and chants of WU LYF WU LYF WU LYF before the band had even arrived on stage, the huge crucifix bathed in light on the pitch black stage just adding to the drama. This felt like something special was about to happen.

SET LIST

1) LYF
2) Cave song
3) Summas bliss
4) Such a sad puppy song
5) Spitting blood
6) Dirt
7) Interlude (cover)
8) Concrete gold
9) 14 crowns for me and your friends
10) Heavy pop
Encore
11) Wicked games (Chris Isaack cover)
12) We bros

Check these out:
Heavy pop: http://youtu.be/9yW73ENT3w0
We bros: http://youtu.be/5HGgni1nGGY
My fave, LYF: http://youtu.be/3QWxviSD79c

The lads ran through an amazing set, (including a blinding version of 'wicked game' which smashed the original!) every song off the album (their only release) was played, unless i'm mistaken they pretty much played the album in order which is great because it is best heard in order, it really ebbs and flows and feels much better than if u stick it on shuffle on your ipod. The gig peaked in three parts for me, it started with a bang with the powerful 'LYF',' Heavy pop' was amazing and the final song in their encore, 'We bros' was simply phenominal, lead singer Ellery dived into the crowd and just disappeared under the mosh yet still sang the whole song perfectly and didn't miss a beat. Every tune was played with maximum vigour and intensity, the songs are rip your heart out and die powerful, you cant even make out half of what they are singing about because of Ellery's distinctive rasp, when he chatted between songs he sounded like the exorcist because he had strained his voice so much, God knows how they do a gig every night. The band and crowd were at one for the whole show. This wasn't a gig it was a movement. I truly believe i witnessed something special here tonight. WU LYF are the future of music in Manchester. Forget the past and join us. WORLD UNITE LUCIFER YOUTH FOUNDATION.

NITTY GRITTY

Venue: I love Shey Bu, but ONLY on the upper levels, dont bother with a floor level ticket, it is rammed and you cant get a beer, its a complete nightmare, if u go on the upper levels u can sit if u want (as if i ever sit) you get a brilliant view of the stage and the bars are so much easier to get to, you never have to wait and you don't get squashed, oh and the loos are easier to get to aswell.

Drinks: good selection, pub prices, fair, pint and a glass of wine left me with a few quid change out of a tenner.

Crowd: Really good mix, young and old, male and female, everyone totally immersed in the gig

But i wanna know did the band look cool?: Yeah they're cool lads, i love that they wear their band logo on their clothes with Ellery having it stitched to the back of his denim jacket, like a proper gang.

ACE FACE:

Shelley Kay, Best practice consultant, Battersea

Shelley Shelley Shelley!!!! How good was that?!?!
It was pretty spesh Dan, this isn't usually my sort of thing but i was very impressed.


What was your fave tune?
Defo 'Heavy Pop', it was the first tune of theirs that i heard a while back but hearing it live tonight was amazing, it was like a call to arms! The crowd went nuts.


How did you get into WU LYF?
Err, you forced me to, pahahahaha!
Annoying aint i?
YES!


Finally, venue, good?
It's lovely, like a smaller Brixton academy, and now with the overground us south londoners can get here in ten mins. Boom.


So that's it, if you have ears and a soul, go immerse yourselves in WU LYF.
I was at the Tribes gig this weekend aswell, stay tuned for the review, it'll be up soon, i'm just snowed under at the moment, i was gonna do it today but its kinda Halloween so i have to go get drunk and watch The Omen in a scary church in Hackney, soooooorrrrry. Then i've got The Maccabees next week and then Berlin! POW.
Contact me: dannywoodlands@yahoo.co.uk

#4 Horrors//Roundhouse//London//Wednesday 12th October

Wednesday i left God's own country (my beautiful south London) and headed north, i was off to visit my old Camden haunts and eventually end up in the Roundhouse for the much anticipated Horrors gig. My first stop was my fave Camden dive bar The Good mixer, it has an amazing juke box, pool tables, football on the tele, weird and wonderful Camden clientel, the odd lead singer propping up the bar and best of all that dive bar smell. perfect. Next stop was The Hawley arms, very touristy on a weekend now but still great on a wednesday night. Nice few Kronenbergs on the roof terrace then it was off to the gig, as i walked to The Roundhouse i remember thinking i need to get out of East London a bit and reconnect with camden, its just chuffing great and it always will be.

As we walked into the main area of the roundhouse my gig partner for the night was taken aback at how jaw dropping the place is, seeing it again for the first time through her eyes just left me in awe, we are so lucky in London to have some of the best venues in the world and i would go as far as to say this is one of them. Its all exposed rafters, lights, pillars, as you might have guessed its round, which is just so weird when your inside, its just great, i love the place. I wish every gig was here.


SET LIST

1, Changing in the rain
2, Who can say
3, I can see through you
4, Scarlet fields
5, Dive in
6, Three decades
7, Endless blue
8, You said
9, Sea within a sea
10, Still life
Encore
11, Mirrors image
12, Monica gems
13, Moving further away

Guys, you should defo check out these videos to experience some Horrors music for yourselves:
Still life: http://youtu.be/sJQk0jDZx8o
Sea within a sea: http://youtu.be/v7WAHnZPIX0
A whole new way (a fave of mine): http://youtu.be/FFnj-Tto-J4

I arrived just in time as the boys took to the stage, the place was rammed, it seems everyone is a Horrors fan now! There is no doubt their second and third albums have made a lot more people take notice but where were you all when they burst onto the scene with Strange House? In my opinion a classic album full of scuzzy garage punk rock, go on admit it, you had them down as style over substance weird goths didn't you? How wrong a lot of people have been proved as with the release of Primary Colours followed by recent effort Skying they have cemented their place as the most exciting band in Britain right now. I cant think of anyone else out there at the moment that can touch these boys, lets face it they are cool as fuck, threads, hair, its all there but much more than that they have the talent, they are the tightest band i've seen in ages, they produce their own stuff now, they make their own pedals and instruments in their own studio, when you hear them in interviews you know they live and breath what the music. Don't just take my word for it, when you see various members of Klaxons, Artic monkeys and Big pink regularly at Horrors gigs you know that they have the respect of their peers aswell.

 The set was mainly made up of songs from the latter two albums and while i understand this i must admit my only gripe, and its small, is i wish they would play songs like count in fives and gloves a bit more these days as a little reward for us guys that were there at the start. Recent single 'i can see through you' was epic, 'endless blue' was great and is fast becoming a fave of mine, the way it lulls you in all mellow then switches into a throbbing roaring banger in one swift chord change comes across even better live than it does on record. 'Still life' and 'sea within a sea' were also real highlights. It was a good value 13 song set with no weak points. In my opinion, at a Horrors gig your best bet is to totally immerse yourself and lose yourself in it, 'Skying' is defo best listened to as an album as a whole rather than picking singles and the live set is also like this, we were gone at this gig, just floating, a Horrors gig is a real experience, an experience you all need, if you are even a little bit interested from the singles you have heard lately then go to a gig, you will come out a Horrors disciple.

NITTY GRITTY

Venue: Brilliant, great views everywhere, top sound, easy to get a beer

Drinks: £3.70 a pint, pub prices, fair enough

Crowd: I must admit a few chin strokers and obviously some people here cos they felt they should be, always gonna get that with whoever the buzz band is at the moment but defo enough real fans, bumped into quite a few faces i always see at Horrors gigs, nice to know they have a loyal fan base.

Band's look: Always have been the best looking band around, cheek bones, hair, shoes and threads all black, standard. Effortless cool and charisma in abundance.

ACE FACE

Laura Taylor, Brand Manager at Aqua, Doncaster.

Well aint you lucky Loz?! Managing to get your hands on my much sort after Horrors plus one!

Yeah, yeah, do one Dan!

So, The Roundhouse, pretty special wouldn't you say?

It's awesome! So beautiful inside and really worked well with this band, all dark and dramatic, the light show back drop was amazing. I'd say The Roundhouse is the best venue you could possibly see The Horrors in.

Big Horrors fan then?

Well you used to talk at me for ages about them going on and on so i checked them out live for the first time at this years Field day and i was blown away instantly. Faris is an ace front man, they're all great, you cant take your eyes off them.

Who else are you into at the moment?

Love love love Wild beasts, Warpaint, Two door cinema club and Bombay bicycle club, BBC's latest album is amazing, 'lights out, words gone' is beautiful.

So pretty much any band that begins with 'W' or involves some sort of club?

Again, do one!

I'm kidding, i'm kidding, nah that's good taste, i've taught you well young apprentice, haha

Interview over Dan, bye! x

So there it is as you already knew, The Horrors are soooooo good and even better live than on record, go see them.

My next gigs are Tribes and The Maccabees not forgetting my little jaunt to Berlin, before all this i am going to try and squeeze in a trip to see WU LYF. I dipped into these early but now i'm fully committed and they are coming to London real soon.

Ok guys thats it, if you want to get involved in what i do or contact me about anything, drop me and email: dannywoodlands@yahoo.co.uk     Laterz.

#3 Pete and the pirates//Scala//London//Tuesday 4th october

For nigh on two months no one has seen me on a tuesday night because i have been completely obsessed with Seven Dwarves on channel 4. Seeing those little guys get wasted and dance and prance about has filled my world with joy but the show is over now so i thought i'd show my face outside my flat. So it was on with the parka (yes guys it is chilly enough for a coat now! Get in!) and out the door. I was off to the Scala to see those glorious geeks from Reading, Pete and the pirates.

Now when i arrived, security gleefully took my camera off me and informed me i wasn't allowed to take any pics of tonight's proceedings because the BBC where filming, err.....fuming, it looked like you guys were going to get pics off my good old blackberry. But no i managed to track down some of the band's management team and after a bit of the good old 'Dan charm' (the luckier among you may have seen this in action) and a lot of help from a thoroughly top lad named Steve (thanks Steve), i ended up with a press pass and a seat in the photo pit. This is whats known as a right rocking ree-sult.

SET LIST:

1, Come on feet

2, Mr understanding

3, Knots

4, Winter 1

5, Cant fish

6, Motor bike

7, Cold black kitty

8, She doesn't belong to me

9, Half moon street

10, Come to the bar

11, Blood gets thin

Why not have a little look at the sort of thing the band do for yourself: http://youtu.be/A2w6RyZ3NmA

So it was a pretty rammed out Scala for tonight's gig, as i mentioned before the BBC were filming and i think there was an industry vibe going on because there were a lot of 'olds' and 'suits' in attendance. Not that this took anything away from the gig, everyone was bouncing around and i didn't see many chin strokers. The Scala is great, very small and intimate so no matter where you are you are close to the stage. Its also very dark which is great for the light show that accompanied the band (but rubbish for my pics). The lads bounded on stage and you could tell they were really up for it straight away, they ripped into 'come on feet' and 'Mr understanding' with a real intensity that set the standard for the rest of the show. They dropped a few classics like 'knots' and crowd fave 'she doesn't belong to me' (which i adore) but a lot of tonight was about second album 'one thousand pictures' with 'half moon street' and 'come to the bar' real highlights.

There was lots of good band interplay and banter with the crowd, chief  lovable geek Pete, on guitar, even did a little dance routine for one track, you know i'm a sucker for a dance routine, we all are aren't we? surely? The guys were defo more lively than previous times i've seen them, they are coming to the end of this current tour and you could see they were glad to re-connect with their London fan base. At the end the crowd demanded an encore and the boys didn't disappoint with a rabble rousing version of 'blood gets thin' which built up to a seemingly never ending outro that had the fans eating out of the palms of their hands.

Need to know:

Drinks: a SHOCKING SHOCKING SHOCKING £4 for a can of red stripe. Actually getting sick of most venues mugging us off  for drinks. Not cool.

Crowd: complete mixed bag, young and old, men and women, very diverse, no scenesters here.

Haircuts and threads: The band are glorious geeks all specy 'n' that. Love it. One of the only bands where i actually don't care what they look like because they are so endearing and their tunes are joyous melodic singalong gems.

Venue: great, intimate, atmospheric, good views everywhere and easy to get to the bar. It's in a different room to where the band play so never much of a crush to get a beer.

ACE FACE (wowzers, 2 of them this week!)

Siobhan Rae, MTV

Stewart Rae, site manager

Brother and sister combo from Surbiton

Ahhhh 2 of my old pals! Lovely to bump into you!

Hey Dan! Great to see you!

So have you seen these guys before?

Yeah a couple of times, once at Islington academy and we saw them smash it at Reading.

What is your fave Pirates tune?

Siobahn: 'she doesn't belong to me', loved it since the first time i heard it.

Stewart: its got to be 'knots'

What did you reckon of tonight?

Stewart: It was great wasn't it? They were really tight, actually the best i've seen them. Sometimes when a frontman plays an instrument it takes away from his performance a little because he can't just let go but i thought he was brilliant tonight.

So there we have it, another great performance from the Pirates, go see them, buy their albums!

Wednesday i'm at The Horrors, then its Tribes and The Maccabees in the coming weeks. Also Berlin has been confirmed! Yessssssssssss! that will be one for the techno fans, Fly Bermuda festival featuring Sven Vath, Loco Dice and Villalobos. Keep your eyes on the blog for all the news.

In a band? Run a night? Want me to check you out or get involved in what i do? Email me at dannywoodlands@yahoo.co.uk

If you like what i do you might want to check http://never-neverblog.blogspot.com

#2 Man Like Me//The Hippodrome//Kingston//Thursday 29th September 2011

So on thursday night i jumped in the van and headed down to K town. Banquet records had their weekly new slang indie night on, this week featuring a dj set from Scroobius pip and a live show from london party starters Man like me. At £4.50 a ticket it would have been rude not to!

The Hippodrome wasn't very busy when i walked in but Scroobius pip was playing a banging mash-up set mixing tracks effortlessly from the likes of crystal castles, odd future, the maccabees, daft punk, destiny's child and la roux. I felt a bit bad for him that the room was pretty empty but it didn't stop him dropping banger after banger! For all you fans of a spooky coincedence i actually randomly met his girlfriend on saturday night in (the best place on earth) the birdcage on colombia road and she scored bonus points with me when she saw the funny side of me asking if she has to pick food out of his epic beard!

Next for the main event: now i admit i first heard of Man like me when i saw that great ikea advert where they cover 'in the kitchen at parties', shameless plug alert... you know the really hot chicks in that advert? Well those bang tidy dresses they are wearing are made by some really close friends of mine at fashion brand AQUA. Get yourself down to 12 fouberts place just off carnaby street and have a look at the amazing outfits they do, (sorry, the money is in my account now so i can get on with the review!) i had it on really good advice that these boys were a serious party band and well worth a look and i must say they won me over straight away.

SETLIST

Oh my gosh
Peculiar
Carny
Donut
Lovestruck
Single dad
London town
Man like me

The set was quite short but the band came on really late, it was gone 11pm so i think they may have been restricted, as soon as they walked on stage out of nowhere the place was rammed, maybe they were all in another room that i didn't know about before, who knows? The band's style of music is very interesting, it's got a UK garage vibe running through it with a live brass section giving it a real calypso tinge, you can tell these boys started out DJing and MCing. From start to finish it was impossible for me to stand still, i was having it right off with the best of them! Apologies for the quality of the pictures, i was dancing too hard to keep my hands steady! The crowd reaction to every tune was brilliant and there can't have been many Man like me virgins like myself in attendance because there was defo a band/fans love-in going on. New single 'Peculiar' was brilliant as was 'Oh my gosh' but it was 'London town' that did it for me, the band do a bit of a dance routine where they go up and down and spin round (imagine how you danced at garage raves up Ally Pally when you were 18...just like that) and every single person in the Hippodrome did the dance in time with the band, even the bar staff, it was unreal, defo go and see this band, defo buy their music. i cannot recommend them enough!!

Now for the nitty gritty, the real things that you guys want to know about the gig...

Venue: The Hippodrome is a proper suburban chain nightclub, the sort of place that any child of indie would not be seen dead in but every thursday it is transformed by the legends from banquet records into a brilliant indie disco with DJs spinning all your fave anthems. You would not believe the bands that they get to come down here, over the years i've seen Jamie T, Mystsery jets, Vampire weekend, Foals, Futureheads, The Rifles, Good shoes, to name but a few. The ticket is never more than a fiver. Yes A FIVER! and sometimes if a band has an album out that week you will get a ticket plus the album for a tenner! Remember guys we live in rip off Britain, well done Banquet records and well done The Hippodrome for looking after the fans.

Drinks: it's kind of a student night so it's pretty decent, bottled beers for £2.10 and vodka mixers for £2.90. That's WELL CHEAP. Just how we like it. Boom!

Crowd: can be quite young at times but don't let it put you off, all the little rascals look amazing, gorgeous goth looking, red lipped indie cindy girls to my right, so cool it hurts, skinny jeans, supreme being cap and african tinged badboy shirt that he bought down the roman road lads to my left, that sort of thing. Jeez when i was their age i looked a right wally, they put me to shame. (nah! i was always cool, well mum said i was).

What about the band's clothes and hair???: mop tops and french crops, very 90's its all gucci loafers, burberry shirts, moschino jeans and reebok workouts, they look hilarious, they look brilliant, you know this is true to them though, it's not cos its look of the week in Dalston. Any of my old friends reading this, it's basically how we used to dress 'down the van'.

ACE FACE

Penelope Tacker, fashion student from Shropshire

So Penelope, what did you think of the show tonight?
Loved it! Its the 1st time i've ever seen Man like me, my friends dragged me along but i'm glad they did, so much fun!


What was the tune of the night for you?
It's got to be London Town, did you see all the people doing the dance routine?


Yeah course i was doing it!
Me too!


So what do you think of the new slang nights that banquet put on here?
Really good, my friends and i come most weeks, i saw Wheatus here last week, can you believe that, Wheatus down in K town!

So that was it, i loved Man like me and i think you should all go check them out.
Ok, so in the next month i'm reviewing live shows by Pete and the pirates, The Horrors, Tribes and The Maccabees. Also as a little treat for all the tech heads out there its very possible that i'm off for a little jaunt to the Fly Bermuda festival in Berlin in november, this should be confirmed by tomorrow so watch this space.
If you would like to come along to any shows with me or you would like to be involved in my blog then please leave a comment or drop me an email at dannywoodlands@yahoo.co.uk
Are you in a band? Do you run a club night? Want me to check you out? Email me .