Opening proceedings, Deaf Havana take to the stage and, despite some sound issues throughout, show why they’re one of this countries finest bands. Smashing through an 8 song set, the likes of ’22’ and ‘Boston Square’ elicit mass singalongs, whilst ‘Leeches’ rumbles through the venue. Frontman James Veck-Gilodi plays with a higher level of passion (which is saying something as he’s always oozing passion on stage) and the band sound tight, with only the PA letting them down on occasion. A rousing ‘Anemophobia’ rounds off their set and sets them up for a massive 2016.

Your Demise ended their tenure as a band over a year ago, but they’ve returned for this one off performance to show solidarity with The Ghost Inside. And the main question is why? Why have they stopped? As soon as they hit the stage, they invite carnage, with pits opening instantly and hardcore kids throwing themselves around. They blast through tracks like ‘Burnt Tongues’, ‘Miles Away’ and a ripping ‘The Kids We Used To Be’. Ed McRae is the ring leader, crowd surfing, getting the audience to sing back to him & dancing like there’s no tomorrow. Your Demise were on top form & paid perfect homage to The Ghost Inside.

The last time You Me At Six played a headline London show was at the O2 Arena. Tonight’s settings are a far cry from there but they play with the exact same motivation. Filming their set for The Ghost Inside, they tore through the classic ‘The Truth Is A Terrible Thing’ before diving through ‘Loverboy’. The PA problems are long gone & whilst the band haven’t performed in 6 months (Josh Franceschi admitting that he’s gotten out of shape during that time) they sound like they’ve been touring for the last year non stop. Their set delivers an emotional roller coaster, from the feel good bangers like ‘Fresh Start Fever’ & ‘Reckless’ to the somber ‘No One Does It Better’. With ‘Liquid Confidence’ the band show why they’re one of British rock’s shining lights. With no encore, the double punch of ‘Lived A Lie’ & ‘Bite My Tongue’ rounds off the night in great fashion, even with a mistimed end of the closer.

The show was announced & sold out all in less than 4 days. It was all in a show of solidarity for a band who’ve given so much to so many. Music creates solidarity and with three diverse bands all paying tribute and doing something for the scene they’re in, the night was an absolute triumph. Best wishes to The Ghost Inside.

So, first things first, for people living under a rock, what is this ‘incarnation’ of Your Demise all about?

Well, quite simply, it’s just a new farewell. It’s basically the goodbye or closure that I never got. It’s a revisit of the party vibes that I proper miss from way back when, and it’ll be great to play the old tunes and see them off properly.

How did the band come about? Was it just a spur of the moment thing or something that’s been floating around for a while?

Well the idea has been knocking about for around a year or so, when Pat who’s playing bass came to me with the idea. I was pretty 50/50 at that point as the ‘modern’ or whatever Your Demise as most people know was still going. It was all in the past for me and I’d got on with my life. But the more I thought about it, and after they split, it was the perfect opportunity to jump to it and get my fucking farewell I guess. I fucking missed all that shit for a very long time, and bands I’ve done since just didn’t reflect the buzz and rush I got from playing those songs. Dean from Three Swords Records brought up the idea of an old YD reunion. It was declined by others, and I thought, ‘You know what, fuck it, i really want to do this’ and here we are I guess.

You’ve booked a tour for August of this year. How does it feel to be able to play these old YD tunes again?

It’s fucking jokes. We have had a couple practices, and literally the lot of us are laughing our fucking heads off, as it’s nothing that the five of us would ever have imagined would be a way we’d spend an evening in 2014. Every time we crack into the start of ‘Blood Stays On The Blade’ I get a proper cheeky fucking grin on and I cannot wait to blast these tunes out live. I’m mega excited.

Do you have anything you want to achieve with the band? Or is it just for good times and a bit of a celebration of the old material?

Good times. Old vibes. See old friends. Give people that never saw this YD a chance to come party. It’s just all about having a fucking great time.

Obviously a lot of people have become accustomed to the ‘new’ now defunct Your Demise. Did you feel you never really got to say goodbye before having to leave the band back in 2009?

Fuck knows what happened. My last show was Ghostfest 2009 and I didn’t know it was my last. It was a fucking horrid part of my life that I’m pretty glad I’ve forgotten a lot about. The YD shit was the last thing I was worried about at the time and as time went on I was pretty fucking pissed off. The fact I was never given any chance to say goodbye or leave it is precisely why we are where we are at now. It’s gonna be so much fun for me and I hope other people will have as fucking great a time as I know I’ll be having. Selfish as it may seem, I’m doing this for me. A lot of people are against it, or hate it, or for it and love it. Fuck it. People can come be negative or positive as fuck. I know why I’m doing this…

You’re also bringing a 12″ record out in August to coincide with the tour. What can we expect from it?

It’s ‘Blood Stays On The Blade’, with six B-sides that were never released or even played for that matter. It’s a strictly vinyl vibe. No MP3s or CDs. Just fresh as fuck plastic. I’m psyched to chuck a vinyl out for the first time personally. And Dean is buzzing his tits off about it at Three Swords Records. Glad to be collaborating with an old mate for it. There will be a few pre-sales shipping worldwide or whatever, but then it’s strictly for Essexfest and the tour. After that I might just use them as frisbees or melt them into plates in the oven. Theres a re-recording of ‘Denham’, which in my opinion slays the original recording. Can’t wait to get it out and spin it on my technics with some techy house or something.

Finally, what should we expect from your sets this summer?

Party party vibes! Most of the old tunes. A nice spread across the first to the last record featuring me on it.

STEVEN ECOTT
@stevenecottOMG

OCTOBER 2013
Wed 9 Oct- Dynamo, Eindhoven, Holland
Thurs 10 Oct- 1210, Stuttgart, Germany
Fri 11 Oct- Kranhalle, Munich, Germany
Sat 12 Oct- Scheune, Dresden,Germany
Sun 13 Oct- Magnet, Berlin, Germany
Mon 14 Oct- Hafenklang, Hamburg, Germany
Tues 15 Oct- Underground, Cologne,Germany
Wed 16 Oct- Schlachthof, Wiesbaden, Germany
Thurs 17 Oct- JH Thope, Bruges, Belgium
Thurs 25 Oct – Hard Club, Porto, Portugal
Fri 26 Oct – Ritz Club, Lisbon, Portugal

MARCH 2014
Tues 11 March- Joiners, Southampton
Wed 12 March- Cathouse, Glasgow
Thurs 13 March- NQ Live, Manchester
Fri 14 March- Underworld, London

Check out the video using the player embedded in this article.

http://www.facebook.com/yourdemise

Your Demise are up next, taking the heavy music baton from Marmozets and smashing up the stage. They come onstage to the sounds of Kanye West with frontman Ed McRae donning a towel on his head, which he proceeds to keep there for the majority of the set. The look might even catch on, who knows? They bounce around the stage playing some massive hits like ‘The Kids We Used To Be…’, ‘Miles Away’ and ‘These Lights’. The crowd bloody love them and it’s just a shame they’re playing fairly low down on the bill.

Next up are New York-based pop punkers We Are The In Crowd, who are quite the contrast to the two heavier British bands before them. When the heavy bands have gone down so well, it’s interesting to see how a bubblegum pop punk band will be received, but surprisingly they go down an absolute storm. Frontwoman Tay Jardine is absolutely tiny and sometimes it’s hard to spot her bobbing around onstage, but for such a small girl she has bucketloads of presence. We Are The In Crowd don’t bring anything incredibly different to the table, but their pop music is pleasant on the ear and the crowd love them, so you can’t complain too much.

And last but definitely not least: tonight’s headliners, Young Guns. Three years ago, Young Guns played to a small handful of people in Cardiff Barfly (RIP), and tonight they’ve sold out Solus, a 2200-capacity venue. There aren’t many bands around who have worked as hard or deserve it as much as Young Guns, so tonight is an absolute pleasure to watch. They open with recent single ‘Dearly Departed’, which sounds flawless, much like the rest of the set. There are some utterly fantastic ‘YG’ lights onstage, that most of the audience would kill to get their hands on.

Although Young Guns always put on a brilliant show, tonight they reach the next level. They have a huge pool of massive tunes to dip into, and they do just that tonight, cracking out ‘Weight Of The World’, ‘Crystal Clear’ and ‘I Was Born, I Have Lived, I Will Surely Die’ all towards the beginning of the set. Midway through, they give the crowd a choice between three tracks from their ‘Mirrors’ EP and the crowd choose ‘There Will Be Rain’, which is absolutely incredible. The only shame about the set is their exclusion of ‘Daughter Of The Sea’, one of their biggest bangers.

They slow things down for a partly acoustic rendition of ‘Learn My Lesson’, followed by a cover of Adele’s ‘Set Fire To The Rain’. Frontman Gustav Wood’s voice sounds spectacular throughout, despite some technical hitches (which none of the audience noticed whatsoever). The band go offstage and then come back on for an encore post-11pm, smashing out both ‘Winter Kiss’ and the absolutely huge ‘Bones’. The crowd singalongs are enough to blow anyone away. Tonight is a gigantic success for Young Guns. They should be proud of themselves.

LAIS MW

http://www.facebook.com/yourdemise

It’s the second single taken from their forthcoming album ‘The Golden Age’ (out 26th March 2012 via Visible Noise), and you can watch it using the player below:

More from the band at http://www.facebook.com/yourdemise.

Eddies is the new home to the former Edwards Number 8 Club which before being destroyed by fire, was once a haven for all brummies seeking something a little less mainstream and an alternative to the Academy. After trying out a few venues Eddies has settled in this off the track venue which is essentially a glorified social club whose walls have been painted black and pictures of Pinhead and Marilyn Manson decorate the walls. It’s a bit of an odd venue – the room had no stage and so the bands were set up on one edge of the central square dance floor with a couple of low tables acting as barriers.

The first band on were Brutality Will Prevail. I didn’t not like thembut they seemed to be pretty standard hardcore act. They were a good opener and set the tone for tonights line up which was probably a little too hardcore for my personal taste.

The second band on the bill were This Is Colour, who on first impressions seemed to be a your usual hardcore band but as they played it was clear that these guys have called upon a variety of influences and highlighted their expected heavy sections with well placed lighter instrumentals. This added an extra dimension to the songs and made them more listenable. The vocals literally did the talking for this band, they were at the front of the mix and were comprised of nearly all screaming but luckily the rest of the band took the edge off the abrasive noise.

The Eyes of A Traitor managed to wake the crowd up a little and they gave everything you’d expect from a hardcore band – a lot of bass and a lot of screaming. The lack of stage meant that the band were free to roam around the dance floor and vocalist Jack Delany certainly used the space and tried to whip the crowd up. The weren’t the most exciting band I’ve ever seen but I can see why people like them.

By the time Your Demise come on the room has filled up with hair straightened within an inch of it’s life and stretches aplenty and the kids were getting
lary. Arms were flailing everywhere and the room had more windmills in it than Holland. I step back to avoid a beating and lose track of the band who are somewhere in this mass of bodies. The bass was heavy and my ears felt angry at me for not wearing protectors. The low ceiling was savagely ripped apart by air punches and falling ceiling tiles add extra drama to what could be confused as some kind of battle scene. It was like the room had woken up and everyone knew the words to the incomprehensible screaming and had remembered why they came to the gig in the first place. Upsettingly Your Demise only played for 25 minutes and whilst I’m not the biggest hardcore fan, I would have liked a little more. I definitely recommend them to anyone who is a fan of this genre.

Libby