Reverend & The Makers - The Marijanovic -Michelle Bapoo - Ryan Redwood
On a sweltering Friday we head to the Waterfront and up to the studio to catch some of the freshest talent around supporting a Sheffield legend.
Up first is the wonderful Kyle aka The Marijanovic. His wonderful writing really lends itself well in an acoustic setting. Songs such as the beautiful new single ‘Butterfly Feeling’ ‘Distortion’ and ‘True Love’s Dream’ really fill the room with passion and emotion. His songs are dark, brooding and emotive, if you love music that will move you with incredible vocals then you’ve found your new favourite artist.
Michelle Bapoo and friends gave us a lovely country fuelled set with some intricate guitar playing and delightful vocals. ‘Happy/Sad’ had hints of latter day Teenage Fanclub Playing tracks from her latest album ‘Cable car’ the three piece found the audience swaying along, lovely stuff.
Ryan Redwood strolled onto stage of energy and enthusiasm and with a bunch of songs that back the attitude right up. Hints of Oasis in the chord structure (my friend and I both started to sing the opening lines to Morning Glory at the same time at one stage) Ryan got the crowd engaged and we even got a proposal ( not Ryan’s) during his set, that’s got to be a first for a support act at the Waterfront surely?
Jon McClure aka the Rev is surely the hardest working musician around. Only a few months ago (February to be precise) the band sold out the room downstairs and tonight we have the acoustic set selling out the studio.
Being given the chance to play songs he doesn’t often get to play Jon is in his element.
Naturally we get the big shots like ‘Open Your Window’ and ‘The Heavyweight Champion Of The World’ but it was refreshing to hear Jon talk in length about songs such as ‘Sex With The Ex’ ‘Shine The Light’ and ‘Miss Brown’
Even a broken string two songs in (Ryan’s trusty guitar came to the rescue) doesn’t dampen the spirits, the set is full of joy and laughter. Jon invites any ladies who want to join him on stage to sing along to ‘He Said He Loved Me’ and a few oblige whilst clearly having the time of their lives.
A big shout out to Toby who joined The Rev on stage, a wonderfully talented musician who lent his vocals to the songs perfectly, the chants of ‘Toby, Toby’ are thoroughly well deserved.
We end quite wonderfully with Jon leading us like his merry band outside the venue to carry on playing. As the crowd chanted through the corridors to ‘Silence Is Talking’ The Rev himself played a couple of covers to end the evening with ‘Rudy, A Message To You’ getting those of us stood outside with him dancing along. What a brilliant way to end a cracking evening, come back soon sir.
