“This isn’t Monday night – this is Leeds,” quips Nick Hodgson, shortly after taking to the stage – at once showing his affection for the city in which he grew up in, and mocking its slightly ill-gotten public reputation as the north of England’s party destination.
It feels like a party too, with a crowd of well-wishers roundly filling out Headrow House’s no frills main room, an audience of uber-loyalists joined also by Hodgson’s former Kaiser Chief bandmates Simon Rix and Andrew White. Ostensibly to celebrate the launch of his new album Tell Your Friends, tonight the idea is for a low-key premiere of some of its material live, the workout an acid test for any newly crowned frontman.
Leading a five-piece made up of various local banderati, the singer appears nerve free enough to give away his beery rider to a member of the audience, but the real star of the show is Tell Your Friends itself; home recorded and largely played by him, it’s a record which isn’t too slick, mining a vintage seam of 20th century pop in the mould of Wings and bygone Mancunians Sad Café, and full of highly personal lyrics about life since leaving the Chiefs delivered with a typically bluff Yorkshire honesty.
So, if you’re gonna showcase, showcase; the certified good ‘uns RSVP, I Love The Way Your Mind Works and Suitable all deservedly get an airing, the latter a great example of the songwriter’s art in at first seeming a little too downbeat before its gentle hook eventually becomes an irrepressible Monday morning whistle-along.
Ground-breaking tug of the occasion notwithstanding, it would be wrong to suggest that the gathered punters were unreceptive to the idea of some reminders of a blinder – and accordingly we’re treated to a feisty Oh My God, the more obscure Boxing Champ and finally I Predict A Riot, Whitey himself nodding appreciatively along to its finely turned out guitar solo.
The show finishes with Tomorrow I Love You, comfortably Hodgson’s best new song and more importantly one at a level you feel he needs to replicate to carve himself a new identity separate to his past. What’s still up for debate is what constitutes doing well on this new, unfamiliar scale – but in Tell Your Friends he’s undoubtedly armed with the goods to control much of his own destiny.
It may be Monday, but it’s still Leeds – and an easy home win.
