Four venues and three weeks of intensive shows, The 1975 are back and raring to go on their UK tour. But it’s no wonder that by the time the guys reach their final Glasgow gig on Sunday night at the O2 Academy, they’re ready to chill out for a bit.

Which is a testament to their latest album. I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It is an evolution of the self-titled 2013 LP. Gone are the pop rock chart toppers, and enter the languid 80s post-rock vibes. Tonight’s performance started out as such and who can blame them, it’s a 22 song set. Quite a risky move but when you’re new LP is 17 songs long, you could kind of guess it was going to be a jam packed evening.

The whole show is flawless as the band batter on through their catalogue of tracks. 10 tracks from the latest album were played tonight including ‘Love Me’ as the opener. Really, the fans didn’t need any more encouragement to love them. Even though the band seemed chilled, as soon as they came on stage it was pandemonium with crazed fanatical screams that you would expect from a One Direction show. A very surreal experience.

The mood changes over the course of the night going from eerie with ‘A Change Of Heart’ to the more mellow 1980s pop on ‘She’s American’. The only issue with this though is there is a heavy emphasis on the mellow tracks coming one after the other. But lead singer Matt Healy manages to keep the crowd’s attention with his swish, languid moves around the stage.

If you thought it was going to stay chilled, then that all changed when fan favourites ‘Chocolate’ and ‘Sex’ start strumming out in the encore. After chanting from the crowd, everything lit up and Healy was encouraging the them to sing. These guys know how to work the crowds and will do for years to come.

They have so much more to give. These guys are so flexible, even if just from the range of tracks they have in just two albums. They are bizarre, they are mellow and everything else in between. Here’s hoping that this tour is just the start of The 1975’s best year yet.  

It’s time to get your reverb out, and loosen up that vibrato arm because Surf’s up at Henry’s Cellar Bar tonight; and eye spy, I’ve already spotted some ho-dads hanging around the door looking conspicuous, maybe looking for trouble? but probably just looking for the gents ...  

It’s a busy night at Henry’s - the smallest venue in town (or at least that’s what it feels like). I’m very happy to hear that Edinburgh has a surf scene; or at least enough surf bands to host a whole evening of instro action.

Edinburgh fabled five piece Surf Manchu are already in situ when I arrive, and I have it on good authority that they’ve been playing for around 50 mins! Describing themselves amusingly as ‘Not so much SoCal, kinda more NoSco’. They’ve certainly made an effort to at least look the part, with polynesian shirts and fezzes, no less. Always a welcome sight.They are both youthful and enthusiastic, and I caught them playing Dick Dale’s 'Miserlou' and the ‘60s Batman theme - both of which are always good value. I hope to catch their full set next time.

Onto the Head Henchmen. The fantastic foursome take to the tiny stage. They say that ‘they still can’t decide whether they are a surf rock band or a sledge rock band’ check out their facebook page for more info on that one. Whilst not looking like most traditional surf bands, what they lack in that department, they make up for with sheer exuberance and a lovely longhorn bass guitar. Superficialities and joking aside, they are quite impressive. Their set is a mixture of self-penned numbers and choice covers, all performed with capability, pounding drums a-go-go. The give us a weird and wonderful mixture of tunes; the Tetris theme tune (an excitable young lady informs me), The Shadows’ ‘Apache’; the first but not the last Shadows cover of the evening. I would like to know a) when did The Shadows become cool?* b) why no Shadows Walk?**. Ending their set with a fabulous version of Nancy Sinatra’s ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’.    

Lastly, but by no means least-ly, it’s time for Preston Pfanz & The Seaton Sands. You may recognise a few of them from various other Edinburgh ‘60s repro bands over the years such as The Thanes and Les BOF!. And this particular band, although very modest about it, are definitely in a different league. They have a distinct presence. Kicking off with Link Wray’s ‘Run Chicken Run’, and then onto the more esoteric ‘Black Sand Beach’ by Kayama Yuzo (swoon!). They continue driving through their set effortlessly with a varied and cool mixture of surf / drag / spy and horror instros, along with more from the Shadows. Frontman Angus McPake challenges the crowd to a dance contest, but I don’t think the crowd are quite that tipsy, and to be fair there isn’t much space to Twist effectively, never mind Hully Gully.

They dedicate a rendition of The Beatles ‘Please, Please Me’ to the recently deceased 5th Beatle George Martin, as well as ending their set and encore with ‘Cry For A Shadow’. 

*I’m yet to disassociate them from Cliff Richard.

**The Shadows Walk is three steps within a 60-60-60-degree triangle with a reverse right-heel back-kick with optional can-can finale (source: Wikipedia)

If you missed them this time, Preston Pfanz And The Seaton Sands will be playing at the official after party for The Scottish Tattoo Convention at Studio 24 on Sunday 27th March details which can be found here.

"Hallo. We are The Cosmic Dead from Glasgow and this is us at home, playing a set of music for you!", so bellows the normally very placid looking Lewis Cook after turning to face the audience following the initial 11 minutes of sonic battering the band have given us tonight. I know it's been 11 minutes because the guy to my left has been filming the entire first song and it's displayed on his screen. Get a life buddy. Ironically the set's being professionally filmed anyway.

At home the band certainly are though. For some acts that would mean bigging up their place of birth to the already converted and having baying fans agreeing that this truly is Eden. Not for The Cosmic Dead though. They pass the Buckfast amongst themselves and keep pounding away. Whether the booze is what in fact fuels them creatively, just something they happen to like or an ironic prop is unknown but it has the effect you'd expect either way. What songs do they play? No idea but that's of no matter - volume, mastery of what they do and taking great pleasure from it & just letting it all hang out on stage are what they're all about tonight (they were tight as fuck but more restrained last time I saw them) and they give the impression of being in for the duration.

On their final momentous number ("15 minutes? That's not even long enough for an intro") the guitar though becomes unusable, the keys almost tumble to the floor and a microphone is lost in the minor chaos of their rescue & things have to thunder to a halt. The crowd doesn't go wild but then it's hard enough to just clap after such a pummeling. Mind and senses numbed you wonder how any act can follow such a performance. Do these words do it justice? Not in the least.

White Hills get themselves set up (tonight has seen a lot of kit needing replaced on stage for each act) and launch off at the pleasingly high volume that's featured throughout the night. Having found them electrifying in larger surroundings at the Liverpool Psychfest a couple of years ago the prospect of seeing them in the compact basement space of Nice 'N' Sleazy's had been tantalising since seeing the date advertised, a fact shared by a great number of others too given the size of the crowd (which in a way seemed to have changed from that which was there previously). 

Something however just wasn't, for me, ticking all of the boxes. Whether it was the choice of songs ('No Will' from recent album Walks For Motorists has always seemed a bit of a plodder) or the band were just in the touring zone or something else, there was a sense of motions being gone through and I didn't feel engaged. Mine was most likely a minority of one but if you're not feeling it past the halfway point of a set then you're unlikely to be pulled back from the brink and just have to write it off.

Opening proceedings tonight was Leeds' one man noisefest Girl Sweat. Unintelligible, sonically punishing blasts of lap guitar and self-help levels of howling make up his short set as he pads about the place bare-footed, killing his own electronics in the process. A rambling, shambling, Hawaiian shirt clad mentalist.

The Cosmic Dead's new album Rainbowhead is released on March 25 and is available from amazon. 

Here's a stream of it:-

It only feels like five minutes since I was at the The Senior Service single launch gig in London. What a night that was, you can read about that here. Graham Day and Wolf Howard are back again, this time with accomplice and bassist Allan Crockford. I digress; this is a different town, different venue, and indeed a different band.

As I get myself ready for a pre-gig tipple, a pretty little bird messaged me to say that support act, King Mojo, are sounding fab at the sound check, so I was looking forward to seeing what they had to offer having not been acquainted with them previously.

Also having never visited Stockton-on-Tees I wasn't sure what to expect, but it's a fair sized venue; very busy, and as expected the show has pretty much sold out. The crowd is predictably full of excitable over 30's (possibly older, but looking youthful), with a strong mod presence.  

King Mojo I'm guessing, being a local Middlesbrough band, have lots of family and friends in the audience spurring them on. This retro four piece have charisma; with no small help from a Roland VK-7 which is switched on to Hammond mode. They belt out a souped-up cover of The Small Faces 'Get Yourself Together', and continue their set with '60s British psych rock sounds and mod power pop; not forgetting a few mellow instrumentals to boot. One cannot help but draw comparisons to the headliners previous incarnations; they even finish their set (and encore) with a cover of The Primemovers' 'Crystalline' (with the blessing of the band I'm reliably informed), which was a brave and touching gesture, and luckily for them, it paid off.

There's a queue out of the door for the bar, and if you're lucky you might get a refill before the main act. The prices of drinks here are ridiculously cheap compared to the prices down south, as of course this is The Forefathers first gig up north. A fellow gig-goer, who like me has travelled from further afield, commented on the fact that it's too expensive to get drunk in venues like the Half Moon.  

There's a warm and welcoming atmosphere as The Forefathers literally leap into action with 'Good Things'; obviously glad to be here, and ready to entertain. It's full steam ahead into what seems like much more Solarflares numbers than I've heard them play previously (always delighted with that!) particularly the electrifying 'Open Your Eyes' which is like a breath of fresh air, and sounds better every time I hear it.

With the customary shouts for Prisoners songs, the band were in obliging mood and performed old favourites such as 'Be On Your Way' 'Love Me Lies' and 'Reaching My Head', and encouraged the crowd to sing along. Crockford, always the one with the cheeky banter, said something along the lines of "this next one is a real killer" possibly referring to the velocity at which they had all been performing up until that point; and with no sarcasm intended (I'm sure) they launch into 'I Am The Fisherman'. There's a couple of Gaolers numbers in there too; the rousing 'Sitar Spangled Banner' is always good value, and executed by Day with the usual scraping of the guitar neck on the monitors.

A guy behind me has been shouting for 'Hush' all night, and at the very end his wish is granted as the band return to the stage for a second encore with 'I Drink The Ocean' which blends seamlessly into 'Hush'. I wish I could have bottled that moment for him.

Rewinding slightly, the last time I saw The Forefathers play was at the Cosmic Trip Festival in Bourges, France in May 2015. It was most unfortunate that they, and other bands, such as The Baron Four, were playing on the main stage. It was far too big, the sound was all wrong, and there was little to no atmosphere… it was a shame. We knew it, they knew it; so it's great to see them tonight, back on form, and more importantly, enjoying themselves.

I can only echo what I've said before. That The Forefathers are even more dynamic now, and gave a relentless and gratifying performance. Proving once again that they are a band at the top of their game. Should there be any doubt about this; check out the photos, the camera doesn't lie... 

The Forefathers will be appearing at Le Beat Bespoke on Thursday 24^th March details for that can be found here, and the the Medway Legends Weekender in San Sebastian, Spain details of which are here. The Senior Service will be launching their debut LP The Girl In The Glass Case on 18^th June at The Lexington in London, details to follow.

Photographs courtesy of PJFImages.