Venues

• Sound Marshalls
• Kid British
• Small Amp
• Shooter
  

For the next instalment of the Red Stripe Music Award, we moved ourselves all the way up north to Manchester, the city where it all kicked off, at the Roadhouse venue smack in the heart of this illustrious musical city.  The city which boasts the likes of Oasis and the Smiths obviously has a massive injection of musical talent and we were gearing up to the prospect of seeing real grassroots indie rock loud sounds coming from the venue this evening.

Shooter, being the youngest band taking part, showed no signs of nerves or fear as they played their set professionally and with real venom that entranced the not-so-packed crowd. With influences definitely coming from their heroes Oasis, you could see that by having 4 years together under their belt, they knew each others’ strengths soundly and banged out the instrumental parts of their set.  Kid British were the next band to take the Roadhouse stage and I had no idea what to expect. This pop rap indie sound went down a treat with the now packed audience and I don’t think I saw anyone stood still. Kid, the front man, showed his musical ability by playing a selection of guitars, sax and keys during their set which also saw 3 backing singers wearing matching dressing gowns.

Attitude was the next emotion that was conveyed at the venue, showed by the front man of Small Amp. With great lyrics and a loud mouth followed by a smashing voice, heads began to bang and even standing on the amps was part of the energetic gig.  Sounds Marshals finished the gig off with some standard indie rock noise caused by their talented drummer and their massively competent instrumentals.

The sound in the venue was fantastic. The great PA and huge amps by the stage have still got my ears ringing....