2006 was a superb year for bands and especially bands that you wouldn’t class as mainstream or the generic. It was an era when bands didn’t particularly fall into a category and in-fact went on to make their own.
One of those were the Sunshine Underground.
The 4 piece comprised of Craig Wellington, Stuart Jones, Matthew Gwilt and Daley Smith who collectively produced one of the most remarkable yet most under-appreciated of debut albums, Raise the Alarm - released in 2006.
The album jinked, grooved and danced its way through the set of 10 beautifully crafted songs. The album was dropped bob in the middle of the aforementioned music scene, but still stands up today.
The second album hit us in 2010 and this was the platform that this tour was built on. Nobody’s Coming to Save You
The wonderful Leeds Academy hosted the final night of the tour on February 19th 2010 and was a fitting venue for the adopted Yorkshireman who hailed from Shrewsbury and gave a sold out crowd a night to never forget.
Title track Coming to Save You… kicked off the evening, immediately ramping up the dancing Indie vibe, followed by Wake up, then intertwining seamlessly between first and second albums tracks.
Plopped in the middle is the incredible… You Never Party…. of which you cannot fail to dance along. It is brilliant.
The venue was bouncing and the songs set themselves up perfectly. Craig’s voice had a superb ability to power its way through songs and he blended it beautifully to power tracks such as Spell it out and the superb choice of slowing down Borders. His voice clear, piercing and reaching ridiculously high notes…. teasing us all waiting for the crescendo of perhaps their most well-known song.
The band were clever, mixing intros, tweaking layouts of songs and clearly caring about what they produce whilst giving everyone what they wanted.
Elements of this continued to become more and more prominent in album three and four, but it did feel like a momentous occasion and a right old party. The lads on stage played like they loved it and we definitely did so too.
Further memories of the gig are hazy, largely shall we say due to time lapsed and not the all-day session that preceded the gig.
Sadly, now no longer a touring or producing band, for those who knew them, we will cherish every minute, song and tour. For those who did not know who they were, it’s their loss as the Sunshine Underground were a band who did what they did, didn’t conform and produced some right belters along the way.
I for one still love listening to the band, reminisce over the countless Sunshine Underground gigs I attended, but this one was one of the best for me.
Thanks for the memories and I will continue to share your music to anyone and everyone.
TSUarmy
LGR x
Setlist
Coming to Save You
Wake up
We’ve always been your Friends
Commercial breakdown
In your arms
A warning sign
You never party
Borders
Spell it out
Any minute now
The way it is
The Messiah
..........................
Here it comes
Put you in your place
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