Gig Reviews

Wakefield is a contrary place - take it from someone who knows! It's a tired and run-down industrial city, somewhere you aim to leave behind as soon as you turn old enough, but people don't seem to stay away for long. Its most famous prodigal sons, The Cribs, have chronicled this strange phenomenon throughout their career.

The Lapels' singer Tim

Maybe it's the faded surroundings that fuels creativity because, at any rate, its music scene is in pretty rude health. The spirit of DIY independence is still prevailing and one of the Wakefield bands worth their salt are The Lapels, who sad to say, have drawn a thin crowd tonight. This lot have come on leaps and bounds in the last year or so and have really honed their sound. The slack indie pop hints at a love of Pavement, but rather than straight parody, they have a grown up resonance that's all their own.

So, if The Lapels have grown up, then the path is cleared for the next set of upstarts, a term surely invented for the likes of Emergencies. Barely out of school (sorry, college!) the Leeds-based band exude the confidence that only comes from being just legally old enough to drink. In all honesty, they're not the finished article, but they're young and they've got plenty of time to do the tightening up.

Emergencies

On a positive note, they have endless amounts of energy and definitely amuse with the RAWK!! shapes being thrown around the stage. The ideas they have are quite ambitious and they if they keep refining it enough to get it right, who knows what they might turn into?

The evening's torch then passed to the old timers. Leeds scene veterans International Trust have endured more line-up changes than The Sugababes. However you've got to give it to them, they've got stamina - along with what has to be combined age of all the support acts added together!! They will probably last as long as Status Quo, and never fail to raise a smile (and a few participants for the shout-a-long choruses). 

The Paddingtons, on the other hand, were never much to shout about. Riding on the back of The Libertines popularity wave, with a couple of tunes in hand, they’ve always left me cold. Tonight is no exception, with the new material as patchy as ever. Never mind though, it seems the youth are holding up the fort.

Natalie Kaye saw The Lapels, Emergencies, International Trust and The Paddingtons at Joseph's Well on Friday 5 June 2009.