Brakes, Sheffield Fuzz Club

are long-term friends of Fuzz Club and they’ve returned for what is the first of the club night’s 10th Birthday Celebrations. Road-testing songs from the brilliant forthcoming album ‘Touchdown’ they deliver tonight, a full throttle rock n roll set that’s excellently received by all present.

Eerie lighting and a sci-fi drone accompanies the bands entrance to the stage and they launch into the salvo of ‘Red Rag’. During which, frontman Eamon Hamilton enters, dressed in a silver ‘space suit’ to deliver his vocals with a shouty vocals. Without pause they then go straight into ‘Margaritia’ and the crowd are already in the palm of their hand. Indeed there’s a hardcore set of Brakes fans right in front of the stage, going as hell for leather as the band, they’re shouting back every word, even to the songs that aren’t yet released.

It’s ‘Porcupine Or Pineapple’ which gets the best response of the night, with seemingly the entire audience jumping like crazy. Before this, however we’ve already been treated to the brilliant forthcoming single ‘Hey Hey’ and some slower moments such as ‘On Your Side’, which has given the more active fans a chance for a bit of a rest. Old favourite, the ten second long epic ‘Cheney’ is put to rest tonight, due to the recent change in establishment over the pond. The lyrics are changed from “Cheney, Cheney…. stop being such a Dick” to “Cheney, Cheney… goodbye” and the crowd sing along victoriously. The noises of the crowd are however mocked by guitarist Tom, who asks after one song if someone in the audience came. There’s no answer to the question but so good is the show that had this been the case it would be entirely understandable.

Most of the bands best material is aired tonight, including brilliant singles such as ‘Hold Me In The River’ and ‘Cease And Desist’, however the atmosphere is spoiled slightly by one or two in the crowd, who are not only there just for indie anthem ‘All Night Disco Party’ but are very vocal about the fact that they want this played. This is most annoying during ‘Isabell’, which sees Eamon accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. ‘Don’t Take Me To Space (Man)’ follows this and is certainly the highlight of the forthcoming record. ‘…Disco Party’ is given its compulsory run through after and it’s then into the first airing of ‘Comma Comma Comma Full Stop’. This is then played a further two times (well, it is only six seconds long!) much to the crowds utter delight.

Running a bit late Brakes have to cut their encore off tonight, but before they go they play the beautiful ‘Oh! Forever’ which fills the Foundry with its epic swelling rock roise and the simple refrain of ‘I know it’s you / I know it’s true / Oh! Forver’. It’s a great end to the day and an even better way to begin Fuzz Club’s tenth birthday celebrations.