Event Date: 04/12/2007
Event Venue: Manchester Apollo

Following the release of a couple early singles, at this time 'Acrylic' being the most recent, and a few well placed words by lead singer Liam Fray the atmosphere around this band was electric, and I was a fool if I wasn't going to see them live before they shot into the mainstream. And this was the perfect arena, at the majestic Apollo with Charlatans heading a (mostly) Manchester bill ('The Cribs' played lead support, they're from Wakefield) including Starsailor, Stepehen Fretwell and The Ting-Tings. There really was no better place to showcase their material to their home crowd.
 
Unfortunately, the gig was a disaster. So many things were wrong I can't start to give it's poorness credit, but firstly they hadn't made the step up from the tiny venues and failed to deliver to a 1000-strong crowd with too much instrument staring and failure to deliver the endearing arrogance that had given them so much column space in NME. The vocal, which I have heard other times sound good, on this occasion was passable at best. And while they had the hardiest of fans moving to their singles their remaining tracks had everybody staring, non-plussed, at there mediocrity.

They left the stage to luke warm applause to be followed on by seasoned pros, 'The Cribs' who instantly had everybody excited and jumping about again. This served to show how far they were from where they wanted to be and perhaps that something would always be lacking. There is nothing worse than going from excited anticipation to despondant depression, it was worse than England being knocked out of a major tournament or knocking over a pint someone else has bought for you. In short, I thought they were the saving grace of a rapidly declining Indie scene; in fact, they are part of the detritus bringing it down.