The Beat Surrender

The Inspiral Carpets used to be one of my favourite bands when I was a young teenage lad really getting into music for the first time properly. Not sure what attracted me to them in the first place, it might have been hearing This Is How It Feels on a compilation album. Could have been the bright t-shirts with the slightly offensive message (Cool As F**k), tyhe same message that was on a postcard that was on my wall and when I got home from school the next day my Ma had cut the bottom of it off!

Thinking back I think the actual reason was because even at that age I always had a thing for being on the side of the underdog and in my eyes the Inspirals were always underdogs. While their contemporaries were given adulation and column inches from the press on a regular basis, the Inspirals were always derided and mocked by the press for their bowl cuts and seemingly less than cool hammond organ sound, courtesy of Mr Clint Boon. The press though are sometimes a little too far removed from the mindset of the general music fan…it was precisely for those reasons that the Inspirals were so unique and so loved the first time round.

They did of course also have some bloody good tunes to back it up with, songs that you could sing along to in a group, songs that you could fall about the dancefloor at an indie club to after too many White Lightnings or weak lagers, songs that you loved. They also never seemed to be blessed with a lot of luck either, an example being the fact that they still hold the record for the most number of top forty singles without one of them reaching the top ten. Always so close yet so far away from the big prize.

Tonight see’s them out and about on a relatively short tour to support their forthcoming digital only b-sides album, it isn’t a comeback as such because that started about three years ago. The venue is Leeds University but fears of it being too big for them are put to one side when we realise that it’s at the Stylus venue rather than the Refectory. Once inside and down the maze of stairs and over the top security you get into to find a very good looking venue with a large bar, balcony standing all around and then stairs leading down on four sides to the actual dancefloor/pit.

First up is another blast from the past as former Shed Seven frontman gives us an introduction to his new band, called Rick Witter and the Dukes he plays out a pretty average set of songs that you know aren’t going to get anywhere chart wise and certainly aren’t going to revive a career that started to flag a while ago. He’s still got the same cockiness and arrogance he always had, the difference is that it kind of fits a bit better when you’ve got something to strut about and Rick Witter certainly hasn’t now on the strength of tonight.

Moooooooooooooo! yep the build up has started for the 5 piece to make their way out to the almost sold out crowd, they step on stage all smiles and waves to the crowd with the odd handshake for the masses (made up in the main by blokes aged between 30 and 45). Clint Boon still looks cool as…minus the bowl cut but still cool, Hingley has piled on the pounds but his voice still retains the same qualities it always has and for a guy who isn’t getting any younger he is still pretty enegetic on stage.

They open with three classics in Generations, Joe and Move, quickly follow that up with Directing Traffic and then hit us with back to back songs This Is How It Feels and Two Worlds Collide which the crowd go mental for. The old school atmosphere is added to by seeing 40 year old blokes, moshing, crowd surfing and when they land on the stage, waiting for security to come before jumping back into the crowd at the last minute, this cat and mouse game continues for the rest of the night.

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