The Music

Tonight, arguably the two most promising new British bands to emerge in a long, long time played the second leg of two homecoming gigs. The previous night in Liverpool, home of The Coral, and tonight on The Music’s home turf of Leeds. The Coral are the weekend’s underdogs. With just one, astounding, EP to their name, it failed to gain them the recognition it deserved. And with only a handful of dates so far, they’re along way from tonight’s headliners The Music. Hot on the heels of support slots for The Charlatans and Oasis (a slot The Coral apparently turned down), and a debut single, which sold out in a matter of hours. Tonight is not one to miss, its time to see if these two bands really are ‘the next big thing’.

Whilst a packed, sold out venue await, up in the balcony a certain Robert Harvey and Adam Nutter, both of The Music, gaze down at the adoring young fans. To anyone who doesn’t recognize the two, would be forgiven to mistake them for a younger Ian Brown and (ahem) John Squire. Their cocksure arrogance and persona is beyond their age, of just 18.

The Coral take to the stage to a welcoming reception but it’s evident that to the majority of the crowd this is their first experience of The Coral altogether. Front man James Skelly possesses the voice and swagger of a certain lost-legend and fellow Liverpudlian Lee Mavers, and from the opening song sets about winning over the static crowd. An early hitch occurs, with Nick Power’s organ failing to work. The Coral somewhat unbelievably call a group meeting mid-stage, and where anyone else would have been welcomed only with pint glasses and bottles thrown at them, The Coral manage to pull applause and laughs from the audience. You’ve either got it or you haven’t. Their set which started slowly with psychedelic haunting ballads such as ‘Shadows Fall’ and ‘The Ballad Of Simon Diamond’, both from the debut EP and the only two songs in bthe set which are remotely known, begins to build up and they finish their set with a rousing rendition of Bob Marley’s ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ during which they debut the Woy Oy Boy, a mad-for-it dancer who almost puts Bez to shame.

But tonight belongs to The Music. As they await to enter on stage the DJ conveniently plays the Madchester anthem ‘Fools Gold’. Its almost scary how convenient this moment is as hear is a band who have the potential, ability, belief and attitude to become the best band since The Roses. Opening track ‘The Dance’ sees front man Robert Harvey on top of his game. The high vocals, he manages with ease, and his astounding dance moves are close to being the highlight of the set. On ‘Human’ the quiet, funky wah-wahs of Adam Nutter’s guitar compliment the vocals to almost perfection. By the time they come to play the lead and title track from their forthcoming EP ‘You Might As Well Try To Fuck Me’ the venue is rocking. ‘Take The Long Road And Walk It’ take this to an altogether new level, and even when it is followed by the newer track ‘Disco’ the crowd are still continuing to move. They finish the set with the clear highlight of the live favourite ‘The Wall’s Get Smaller’. A claustrophobic instrumental carried out brilliantly by Phil Jordan on drums and bassist Stuart Coleman. The band leave to cries of “encore” but tonight they’ve played 8 rousing future anthems to a home crowd. This is the pinnacle of their extraordinary success so far.

8 years ago two bands, under the names of Verve and Oasis embarked on a similar set of dates together. You don’t need telling what happened to those bands afterwards, but on the basis of tonight you get the overwhelming feeling that these two bands on show could go on to achieve a similar feat.