It was my mates birthday celebrations and the sun was shining so it was again with great anticipation that we headed to Castlefield Bowl, Manchester on this Friday evening.
I make no secret of this but Sea Girls are one of my favourite bands and as soon as I saw they were supporting The Kooks last night in Manchester I was going to be there. Having seen these lads at Gorilla earlier in the year I was really looking forward to this one.
If you've not heard Sea Girls how would I describe them? Each tune is beautifully written, the songs are catchy as hell and with each single they're getting better and better. I was listening to Closer their latest single the other day with my headphones on and it was my first time hearing it on Spotify (they play it live) and he said was I ok? This bands songs touch my heart. They move me. Music is all about how the songs make you feel and these lads are masters at writing songs that move you.
They played Closer, All I Wanna Hear You Say, Open Up Your Head, Damage Done and a few more. It was over way too quickly for me, but for now I'm happy as I see them in 2 weeks anyway at Y Not Festival. Cheers to Andy & Oli who stopped to say hello later on in the evening also. Top blokes and they play amazing music!
Next up was The Sherlocks and I'll be honest as big as they are I hadn't heard much of their stuff. My mates were well up for them and they put on a great show. Cracking tunes, great riffs and catchy songs. They played their new single I think is called Magic Man (see below video) and their set again seemed to go way to quickly. I've added them to my Spotify so that's an accolade to how great they are from this music lover.
Finally The Kooks took to the stage and by now the place was heaving. They played She Moves in Her Own Way quite early which surprised me, but thinking about it they have so many bangers that they don't need to worry about ending on a high. They covered all the favourites, Four Leaf Clover, Sweet Emotion, All the Time, Sofa Song, Seaside (one of my favourites, it's a beautiful song and even more so live) and the last song of the encore was the classic Naive.
Having been around for a long time The Kooks are very, very talented musicians and they put on a bloody great show. I was very glad I went and whilst Sea Girls were my favourite band yesterday, The Kooks were an incredible ending to what was another fantastic evenings music in Manchester.
Great music, great company and a cracking venue. What more could you ask for?
All videos and photos my own.
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