Saturday 16/06/07 Day Two @ Wireless, Harewood House, Leeds

Eyeing up the weather predictions before we make our way to Harewood House, ‘reports of localised flooding’ sound alarm bells. However, like many of the bands on the bill for Saturday, reality DID NOT live up to the hype: it is overcast with drizzle.

First up were those strange boys, The Crimea. ‘Lottery Winners On Acid’ is their big smash hit – well the one most people have heard of anyway – and it gets a few people singing in the small crowd gathered around them. Davey Macmanus’ vocals are quirky and feminine; soundly very much like the Magic Numbers but much better of course. They patter out some easy pop, with an ironic eyebrow raised as they claim to be from France and Russia – anywhere but London – before each song.

Next The Duke Spirit, who’ve been missing for a while but are back with a grudge and a vengeance.  And Liela Moss is on top form, thrashing her tambourine around before whipping out a great talent for the harmonica to complement her luscious singing voice. They give the audience a taste of songs they’ve been working on while in America. Much in the same vein as ‘Cuts Across The Land’, you sometimes can’t understand what Liela is singing out, but she does it with such passion you presume it must be worth sticking around for. Luke Ford’s guitar solos are second to none and old tracks ‘Love is An Unfamiliar Name’ and the sultry ‘You Were Born Inside My Heart’ go down a treat.

STOP PRESS – after this brief interlude of creative distraction, on comes the monotony of new indie repetition.

Good Shoes are from the suburbs of London so they have the same forgotten chip on their shoulders that the Jam had, but to compare this ordinary band to the great and good of British guitar history is a crime. They dwell on the staccato-riff opening and chanting vocals favourable of so very many new kids on the old and tired block. Lead singer Rhys Jones plays on his South London accent (like that hasn’t been done before) and single ‘We Are Not The Same’ is the only one we can remember and it was predictable nonsense.

By the way all of the bands we went to see were on the Main Stage or Red tent, as the queue for the O2 Blueroom was too large and winding to even think about it. Moving on top rated The Pigeon Detectives and The Twang – who switch around so the latter and more hyped could go on later.

The Pigeon Detectives have been labelled the ‘band most likely to leap to the main stage in 2007’ by many this year. Well they haven’t got there yet, but from their crowd-pleasing performance we can understand how this could happen. Single ‘I’m Not Sorry’ sticks in your head and will work off the back of their unusual name and online exposure to ensure their survival in the near future. Lead singer Matty Bowman actually mingles with fans, confirming their ‘we’re doing it for the people so **** off’ image. But like so many of these bands, they’ll be forever in the shadow of a certain group of monkeys who with the same Northern charm already have the 'we’re doing it for the people’ thing down to a tee.