The Beat Surrender

Shall we start by letting you into a little secret. We are both virgins. Well, virgins in the sense that this is the first time we have ever reviewed a gig in a professional capacity. So please be gentle.

A very late call-up in the absence of your usual Beat Surrender suspects for these two untried reviewers – a mere couple of hours before the gig – meant there was little time for any pre-match nerves in making our writing debut. We were confident we’d be just fine. We make each other laugh loads and consider ourselves to be quite intelligent. So how hard could this writing lark actually be?!?

As we walked down to the Cockpit, we saw something we’d not experienced here before – Cock-en-ey touts. In Leeds!! Asking 40 quid a ticket!! We’re not in London now. This is Yorkshire – as we would be reminded at various points during the night.

A few beers had settled any remaining writing nerves we had and as we took up our positions with just minutes to spare, a slow motion movie style ‘noooooooooooo’ realisation hit us – we didn’t actually know that many Subways’ songs. How could we possibly do justice to them. And you.

Just as a young Harold Ramis, of Ghostbusters fame, completed the final mike-checks, the topless threesome arrived on stage – well actually, only two were topless – guess who wasn’t??

The Girls & Boys Tour hails the release of the long, and eagerly awaited 2nd album, All or Nothing from Welwyn Garden City’s finest trio. But as we were soon to discover, tonight would be more a celebration of their 2005 debut, Young For Eternity.

Your eternally young reviewers – with a combined age of 73(!) – kept a safe distance from the mosh pit – for professional reasons only you understand. However, we were close enough to narrowly avoid the flying trainer mid-way through I Want To Hear What You Have Got To Say.

Billy Lunn, The Subways’ energetic lead, started his banter with a ‘Hi Leeds – are you ready to go f*ckin’ crazy?’ Leeds definitely agreed by belting out every word to Oh Yeah. The song also marked the first of many crowd surfs of the night.

New song Alright (which was more than alright!) followed with Billy and blonde bombshell bassist Charlotte Cooper undertaking some Beach Boys style harmonising across the stage. Followed immediately by a crowd-pleasing rendition of Mary – where Billy paused for a moment to be kissed by yet another surfer and stood back with his hands behind his head while the entire place sang the chorus.

Meanwhile, drummer Josh Morgan, soaked with sweat, proved what a great decision it was to turn up topless, working at a level of enthusiasm that would make Dave Grohl proud.

One Buster Bloodvessel look alike crowd member got on stage for the third time as Billy apologises that they’ve all been away for such a long time and tells us they’ve got a new album they’re very proud of. He offers up I want to hear what you have got to say as a little present for our patience. This goes down brilliantly with a very thankful Leeds once again, singing every word.

A further swift guitar change for Billy was accompanied by the obligatory and, very original, chanting of ‘Yorkshire, Yorkshire’, which seems to echo around most Leeds live venues these days. Billy had to stop one fella in the front row to ask what everyone was saying. A quick explanation followed and Billy took his opportunity while the room was quiet to kick the next song off before wishing Carl (?) a happy birthday – we hope you had a good one Carl.

Another sing-along With You which could have been the love child song of Alex Turner and Meg White got us wondering how can 2 guitars, a drum kit and a couple of voices make so much noise – and so much brilliant noise at that?

Continue