The Valley studios, once known as ‘610’, is an unlicenced recording studio/live music venue. This means you can bring your own booze. Consequently, many people were very drunk.
This show was sold out. Local lads + lady Skinny Jean, starting rather late, were a perfect fit for the bill, mixing pop rock and alt-country into a dancable mix with creative vocal arrangements. The already large crowd was pleased.
Subsequently, the John Steele Singers had a huge, drunk and jolly crowd bopping to their harmonies. Beginning with an epic drum intro, they busted into a new song before indulging the audience with more familiar material. The John Steele Singers take the catchiest parts of 60’s garage rock and add horns and three part vocals to make an extremely entertaining mix, and their live show did not disappoint. The band between songs drank from their various longnecks that they had brought in with them and grinned at the audience.
Outside Valley Studios is Birdee Num NUm’s and the area between it and the bus stop there, was totally packed with drunk gig goers shmoozing, or mostly smoking. There were steady runs of people between this area and the nearest bottle shop. Any gig at the valley studios is going to be worth it just for the great location and the fact you don’t have to pay anything for drinks.
Everyone crammed back into the venue as Yves Klein Blue were getting their gear right, and the venue was completely packed by the time they began their set with Digital Love. The entire band are bursting with energy, falling over their instruments as they attacked every chord, especially the band’s great-looking drummer Chris Banham. Guitarist/singer Michael Tomlinson was a consummate frontman, weaving lullaby melodies until the guitars distort into rock and the chords are punctuated with yells and growls. The room began to jump in unison when Triple J hit Polka bounced out of the speakers, and followed up by some new material the Yves Klein Blue set was nothing short of a delight.
But the show was not over yet. The John Steele Singers joined the stage before YKB had left, and the combined ‘Blue Steele’ supergroup launched into a roaring set of their own, featuring Pump It Up by Elvis Costello and Bowie’s Suffragette City. The sellout crowd rocked with joy and when the show finally concluded everyone agreed they’d surely had their money’s worth.
