Saturday night saw the triumphant return of Manchester legends Inspiral Carpets to Manchester’s Albert Hall. After a six year break the six piece consisting of Stephen Holt, Clint Boon, Graham Lambert, Jake Fletcher, Kev Clark and Oscar Boon stormed the stage with a belting set list playing to a sold out crowd of Manchester music fans.
The dress code was nostalgia central, a nod to the nineties with a sea of bucket hats, Adidas and paisley pattered shirts as far as the eye could see. Kicking off the proceedings and treating us to classic indie anthems was Manchester’s very own Dave Sweetmore. Sweetmore knows how to win over a crowd, he’s one of the best in the business, a perfect starter to get the crowd on their feet, singing along and causing chaos! A particular highlight was watching the entire Albert Hall sing along to as Dave calls it ‘The National Anthem’ also known as Oasis’s finest track (in my humble opinion) ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’. There are some moments that will stay with you for life, and this was one of them, temporally pausing the song to let the crowd sing in unison was perfect.
Sandwiched between two classic Sweetmore DJ sets was Wigan based band ‘Stanleys’. The band have gone from strength to strength over the last year, securing some top notch support slots including The Lottery Winners and fellow Wiganers The Lathums. Front man Tom Concannon is a fantastic front man, full of charisma and throwing shapes not dissimilar to Suedes Brett Anderson. The band are currently preparing for a UK tour which kicks off in May. The band are supporting Inspiral Carpets at a number of their UK shows and have recently been in the studio recording new tracks and their music has clocked up over and impressive 300,000 plays on Spotify proving that Wigan’s latest music exports are going places.
Six years have passed since Inspiral Carpets last toured. It was an emotional evening and in a touching tribute to former drummer Craig Gill, the drums displayed a touching reminder emblazoned with the band logo and his name. The band did him proud, the atmosphere was electric and the crowd were quite possibly the most enthusiastic I have ever seen at this venue. The set list was played out and sang back, and by track two, hardly anyone was seated in the balcony.
As ‘This is How it Feels’ opened up with Boons famous intro, the excitement crept up even further as the singing from the crowd almost drowned out Stephen Holt who looked genuinely humbled by the reception. The evening closed with a very moving tribute to Gill with his son Levon taking to the drums for the final track. It was a perfect tribute and a beautiful moment as Gill’s family watched on from the balcony.
The band continue their tour of the UK and tickets and further information can be found here https://inspiralcarpets.com. I would advise you to be quick as these hotly anticipated shows are selling out quickly, and after Saturday’s mind blowing performance, too difficult to sum up in words it is easy to see why! Get yourselves down the front…MOOOOOOOO!
