The Beat Surrender

About a week leading up to this sold out gig, I got the good news that I had two review tickets coming out to me. I was excited for two reasons really, firstly it was the chance to catch ‘the voice of this year’ in a really small venue before she starts selling out Manchester Apollo and Brixton Academy and secondly it was a venue in Leeds that I’ve not been to yet!

After walking from the town centre and stopping in a couple of drinking establishments around the University, we decided to ask how far it was to the venue, before deciding to walk or get the more probable taxi. It turned out that from The Library pub we were only a ten minute walk across Hyde Park away from the venue.

It’s not the easiest to find as it’s tucked off a back street in the middle of the warren of houses in the area, from the outside it looks like a working mens club, as you get inside though it is transformed into a…working mens club!

That comment doesn’t do this venue justice though, it has a raised area on the same level as the bar where the majority of people stand, with a dance-floor area only a handful of steps down which is right in front of the stage. It’s a perfect venue for a gig as the whole room is centred towards the small stage and being able to see it, giving the overall shape of the room a kind of open fan look if you mapped it out.

Inside (and with a couple of cheap drinks inside us), the anticipation starts to creep up on us, it isn’t often that you get to see someone who is at number 1 in the singles chart, in a venue like this. It’ll be a long time again before this venue sees a band or artist who have a number one to their name playing here full stop.

No support act, which was a little disappointing, but at the end of the day people haven’t packed this venue out to see a support, they’ve come purely and simply for the Welsh sensation. It doesn’t matter to most people anyway as the DJ is doing a great job, playing some soul, funk and northern classics to put people even further into the mood.

Finally, Duffy steps out from the door behind the stage with her band that look as though half of them could also double as her security team, says hello and then fails miserably to pronounce the name of the venue in her Welsh tone, which lightens proceedings nicely!

Things actually start off on a disappointing footing, it takes the sound guy 30 seconds to get her vocals right and even then it could still do to be a little louder. One thing that is clear though, is that the girl can really sing. She belts out Rockferry, Warwick Avenue and songs like Syrup And Honey and Stepping Stone as if she’s done this all her life and is a seasoned professional and I loved Distant Dreamer which she really peaks on for me.

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