W&I: Callum Crawford
If ever there was an evening to encapsulate the current ecosystem of grassroots music venues in the UK then a Friday night in Bedford provided it. ‘Esquires’ can rank itself alongside other independent venues born from a community of music fans such as the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds and The Craufurd Arms, just a committed crowd surf away in nearby Milton Keynes.
On this particular night, Esquires’ main room was host to one of two sold out nights from Noasis, a tribute band to a long well established and very topical Manchester outfit, Oasis. Bucket hats gathered in the Esquire’s courtyard oblivious to the 3 gentlemen weaving their way through the crowd returning from an impromptu photoshoot ahead of their own headline set in the second room.
YAANG, a living and breathing Manchester based band, are made up of Davey Moore (Vocals/Drum Machine), Oliver Duffy (guitar/vocals) and Ben White (bass) and have been steadily garnering a reputation as a blisteringly unforgettable live outfit on the back of a handful of singles and their most recent EP ‘NO’ released via CrackedAnkles Records in March. Four songs that navigate their way through new-wave, post-punk, pop and many other fleeting genres. Think Johnny Marr joining Black Flag for a bit and doing Tears for Fears covers at your mate’s wedding.
Outnumbered by the mad for it bunch gathering upstairs, a crowd of YAANG devotees formed under the watchful eye of a stained glass Jimi Hendrix, a nod to Esquires’ early gestation as a methodist chapel. Some even making the pilgrimage from as far away as Scarborough in order to revel in an hourlong YAANG service. Davey Young acknowledged early on in proceedings his gratitude to the crowd for choosing the “only Manchester band” in Bedford that night before leading Olly and Ben through an athletic set regularly sprinkled with sultry dance moves and bodybuilder poses.
A good minute or so was spent bestowing upon Bedford the accolade of having the best Fish and Chips in the south much to the delight of the already converted and dancing congregation before them. Set closer ’Til Morning Light’ comes at you with a four to the floor beat so sexy it forces even the stiffest of 6Music Dad’s in attendance into a collective twist and jive. A cacophony of sweat, joy and pogoing in such abundance that there was a palpable sense of “give me a minute” in the air before YAANG returned for their formality of an encore.
The sold out room above clinging on to a simulation of a bygone Manchester era unaware that below them a product of the city’s fertile modern day music scene are rapidly helping to drag Manchester and it’s environs away from baggy beats and sniffing keys to impassioned proclamations of “Comfort me, I just want to be held” that you can’t help but dance to.
In 30 years time when a sold out room awaits the appearance of ‘NoYAANG’ upstairs at Esquires and does their bit to keep an independent venue like this alive, make sure you poke your head downstairs to catch the next YAANG/Idles/English Teacher/Yard Act…