Thursday, April 15, 2010

TONIGHT IN MANCHESTER: Standard Fare

After yesterday’s trip down indie-pop Memory Lane, tonight in Manchester one of the standard-bearers for contemporary indie-pop: Standard Fare play Night and Day Cafe. (And the other standard-bearers are all playing a gig in London tonight – Darren Hayman and the Secondary Modern, David Tattersall of The Wave Pictures and Allo Darlin' all on the same bill at the Borderline – advance tickets here).

Standard Fare are a trio based in Sheffield: Emma Kupa (bass/vocals), Danny How (guitar/vocals) and Andy Beswick (drums). They play a spiky guitar pop that picks over the complications, uncertainties and hang-ups surrounding modern-day relationships. Debut album “The Noyelle Beat” has thirteen tracks of gutsy indie-pop which dials down the tweeness of some of their contemporaries and ups the edgy drama. I wrote about this elsewhere and called it "an assured, intelligent and stirring debut that gets better with each listen". But for a proper in-depth assessment read this review on The Line of Best Fit.

If this doesn't make you want to buy the album, try the singles 'Fifteen' or 'Dancing' or listen to surely-will-be-a-single 'Philadelphia' below.




Support is from Bright Light Bright Light, Dead Kestrels and Samir Harmim. There’s no advance tickets on sale let alone a flyer/poster to be seen (what’s going on with Night & Day at the moment?) but it’s only £5 in and doors open at 8pm.



<a href="http://standardfare.bandcamp.com/track/philadelphia">Philadelphia by Standard Fare</a>

2 comments:

Phill said...

I can tell you exactly what's going on with Night & Day... After 2 years of independent promoting, I got the job of in-house booker - only to quit after 6 weeks, because the venue is an utter shambles. They refuse to listen to new ideas, rather attempt to live on past glories..
The manager is only interested in bands that do "flyer" deals - they don't promote gigs, no posters/flyers - they have no clue how to compete with the ruby lounge/deaf institute. They treat bands like shit. I actually booked the Standard Fare gig (by all accounts a band getting a lot of press) Night & Day did nothing to promote it. Check the myspace/facebook, its not been updated in months.
It was obvious I wanted to take the venue in a new direction.. and they weren't interested. Can't see it changing..

The Archivist said...

Sorry to hear this Phill. With Deaf Institute/Ruby Lounge doing so well, you thought that any 'sensible' venue manager would want to respond. Sad state of affairs.