News We Have Band’s Top Five Gigs

We Have Band have not long returned with news of their second album, eighteen months on from their debut ‘WHB’; they’ll release the new record early next year, preceded by new single ‘Visionary’ (out this week - read our review here).

With a new album, comes inevitably a whole heap of touring. So, before the band announce dates of their very own, they’ve given us a run down of their top five favourite gigs ever.

Radiohead - Shepherds Bush Empire - May 2003

Dede and I were in the early stages of our courtship and for me it was a privilege to see Radiohead in a relatively small venue at the height of their powers with the girl I was soon to marry. I’d seen them play an arena in 1998 and the experience had left me cold, but at this show it felt like everything was aligned. ‘Hail To The Thief’ was just about to be released so hearing songs like ‘2+2=5’ and ‘There There’ for the first time took my breath away. The encore of ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ will stay with me for ever being the one and only time I have been moved (close) to tears at a gig. - Thomas

Peaches - Geneva, Switzerland - 2009

We opened for Peaches at this gig and watching her play after us was great. She’s so nice and polite and was lending Dede makeup in the dressing room but when she gets on stage she’s totally wild. She really doesn’t care about anything, she just feel it. At one point she was crowd surfing but completely stood up with the crowd carrying her under her feet. The show has a performance art edge for but its quite pop too, she’s very skilled to make that work but it does. - Thomas

Bjork - Glastonbury - 2007

I’d been quite an obsessive fan of Bjork for years but I’d never seen her play live until her Glastonbury 2007 show and it was just amazing. It was my birthday and me and my friend Sam had hustled to the front during Arcade Fire so we were right at the front in the centre. I’ve seen Bjork play several times since and the stunning thing about her is how lost in her music she still gets even after all these years. Its like watching her sing at home on her own just having fun but she’s in total control too. She’s got a huge back catalogue and played all of the hits and some things that were very new at the time but it always felt cohesive and together. It completely went off at the end when she mixed ‘Hyperballad’ into LFO’s ‘Freak’. And Mark Bell was playing on stage with her so that was pretty cool. - Darren.

Doves - London, Somerset House - July 2005

I love Doves and seeing the band at a venue like Somerset House was amazing. ‘Lost Souls’ is one of my favourite albums and when they played ‘Here It Comes’ the drummer Andy Williams took lead vocal swapping with Jimi Goodwin and it was a special moment. I hadn’t made any music of my own at the time and I couldn’t believe how they swapped instruments so freely. On the encore I thought I was about to explode with euphoria and nostalgia when they played the Sub Sub classic ‘Space Face’. This is probably my favourite live moment of all time. It made me proud to be a fellow Mancunian. - Dede

Beach House - Zurich, Kaufleuten - November 2010

We had two days break in our Autumn tour and spent the time staying at a close friends in Zurich. The down time was much needed and but we managed to get hold of a few tickets to see Beach House at an lovely venue in the heart of the city. We’d been listening to ‘Teen Dream’ a lot on the tour bus but the translation from record to live was brilliant. The performance of ‘Victoria Legrand’ was startling, Alex Scally and the other players were almost stationary for the entire show it was hard not to get lost in the drama. The lights were great with 3 glowing tents reacting with the music and the huge glitter ball was held back from focus until the encore of ‘10 Mile Stereo’. Dede was swaying like crazy right at the front and it was a magical night. - Thomas

We Have Band’s new single ‘Visionary’ is out now via Naïve Records.