Review Of The Month: JANUARY 2017.

Esquires Bedford.

Considering that January is notoriously a quiet gig going month, Esquires bucked that trend by hosting a number of shows in all its three rooms, including many sold out ones. The first took place on Saturday 7 when the mainstage featured local skiffle – punk wordsmiths, The Ouse Valley Singles Club. Because of the sheer weight of demand for tickets, this show originally booked for room 2, was hastily moved upstairs. Playing throughout, O.V.S.C. split their set into two halves. For me the highlight was when they performed Central Heating Skank. A song so appropriate at this chilly time of the year, the addictive chorus gets a lot of people singing along in unison.

Saturday 14 features a long five band show, headlined by garage blues rockers, Smoking Durrys. Although this was poorly attended, the music on display was strong. The undoubted stars of the evening were a Manchester band called Psyblings. Imagine putting The Fall and The Fat White Family together and you might get some idea of the output concocted by this weird but wonderful collective. They are also fronted by a somewhat loveable off kilter vocalist, almost capable of igniting anything musically. I was most impressed by their live show. A competent and polished Southampton group called Valensole, also made a good impression.

I have over the past few years, been to many charity gigs at Esquires. Some have been poorly organised, despite all time good intentions. On Friday 20 I witnessed one of the best ever charity events. It was hosted by Herokvlt And Stone Crow Tattoo and was all about raising money for Cancer Research UK. A four band line up provided much metal mayhem! Crowd moshing, but more importantly parting with a lot of cash and hoping to win some fantastic prizes, including Nuclear Blast merchandise plus free tattoo and piercing days. Jon Hawkins principally organised everything and his band The Hero Dies First opened the show and put on such a truly dynamic display, that left everyone breathless with excitement. This fantastic and successful evening also featured Young Kings and Scar City. I must make special mention of the Beds Rockers Seasons, technically gifted and singled out for praise by Kerrang Magazine, they once again blew me away with their tight and towering performance.
As I write this review it was announced by the organisers that the awesome amount of £1,120.39p was raised for cancer research. Well done!

Bedford Esquires is once more involved in Independent Venue Week. This yearly event is held throughout the country and endorsed by so many prominent musicians and D.J.’s it is aimed at raising the profile of all the small clubs and venues, that continually give young bands their first chance of playing and getting noticed. on Monday 23, Amber Arcades headlined our I.V.W. show sadly and although the Esquires boss Mr. Gareth Barber wrote a Bedfordshire On Sunday article about how lucky we are in Bedford to have such a great live music venue, only about sixty or so people attended the gig. Those not there missed a sumptuous treat. Female vocals, swirling dreamy pop, all laced with some epic sweeping guitars. Perfect for the shoegazers in attendance. Slightly more psychedelic leanings came from the support band Hunck. In a tough environment, let’s hope we can celebrate I.V.W. here at Esquires for many more years to come.

”Hey You, its seven o clock, time for a sex party!” with this opening line, it really can only mean one thing, the legendary Quireboys are back on the mainstage on Saturday 28, for their annual show, for the second successive year, the gig coincides to celebrate the birthday of their guitarist Guy Griffin. The large crowd loudly sing “Happy Birthday” to him. With the band currently on a nationwide unplugged acoustic tour, tonight represents a chance for them to revert to their familiar full on electric show. Old favourites, new songs and plenty of between song banter from vocalist Spike. Crowd participation is non stop and the room is packed to capacity. It even includes ex Quireboy Mr Guy Bailey. As usual the atmosphere is quite superb and needless to say the bar is drunk dry!

This review only covers a small selection of the many bands that played at Esquires during January. It does not include any of the novelty tribute bands who played but do have a core audience. Mention must be made of a talented and perfectly attired retro psychedelic indie band from Northampton called The Keepers, who played a support slot on Friday 27. They offered up a fine introduction to the Bedford crowd of their songwriting skills.

See you in February!

Review by Martin Stapleton. www.bedfordalternativemusic.co.uk