Go East young man.

by bob osborne. 19.04.10.

A conundrum – stay in on Sunday Night and watch Foyle’s War or pop out into the night air to watch a couple of Salford bands? Out I think.......

Another trek around the ring road for your intrepid reporter to catch Salford bands playing “off manor”, this time in an eastwards direction to Tameside and the fleshpots of Staly-vegas and the delightfully compact and bijoux “Harrops Bar”. As usual my human sat-nav failed and I nearly ended up in Mossley before finally finding Stalybridge Town Centre just around about chucking out time at the Bingo Hall. “Bingo Master’s Breakout” perhaps?

I arrived at Harrops just in time to catch the last song from a chap with a guitar whose name I didn't catch. Up next the increasingly wonderful "The Hidden Gem" who delivered a short but, I felt , more rock based set than when I last caught them at The Blue Cat. Great to hear the excellent "Bulletin Board" in a group setting and the staples of "Flick of a Wrist" and "The Loudest Silence" still stick in my head as excellent compositions. Watch out for these guys they are great live. And to be fair to them, as I might have inferred previously, their bass sound is not particularly Peter Hook-ish, more an amalgam of Hook and the muscular legacy of Steve Hanley.

Then a trio playing bluesy rock with lots of flanged guitar and a propensity to pluck anthemic choruses out of the air - the catchy "Mancunian Way" was the high point of the set, and the non radio friendly "F**k You" was a humorous closer.

Getting close to 11pm on a Sunday night is probably not the best time to headline as people were drifting off for a curry or their beds but Pearl Divers delivered a foreshortened set with their usual vigour, bonhomie and witty banter - the most acerbic comments of the evening being directed at Mr Montague when he had to take his jacket off.

The Doherty/Lingard lead vocal line-up grows in confidence and Ben is injecting more raps into the songs . However the set was constantly interrupted by a very friendly punter who clearly liked the band but kept interrupting them to tell them that, and at one point joined the band on stage until he was ushered away into the night by his mates. I think this, to some degree at least, knocked the band off their stride.

However despite that another fine set from Pearl Divers cementing their place in the pantheon of great new bands from the city of Salford. Particularly pleasing was the new song “I Love The Music” which has got classic written through it like a stick of Cadishead rock.

Again this begs the question why Salford has not got a small venue like “Harrop’s” where bands can play low key gigs. However just as relevant, as the erstwhile Mr Coupe mentioned in respect of the recent Kin gig, why free gigs like this with four bands cannot attract more than a couple of dozen people is a mystery to me - especially when they are quality turns.

There’s something wrong in the fabric of the musical universe.