Before the BBC Sound of … poll and Brits critics’ choice award, the regular NME tours were reliable barometers of pop’s next big things. Kings of Leon and the Killers trotted through the cider-encrusted doors before the bottom fell out of indie and the NME went free. The revived version bills the sponsors higher than the bands under the heart-sinking slogan “Topman on tour with NME”, but again brings fresh live music to a student audience.
Kentish 19-year-old Will Joseph Cook looks younger than many of the crowd, and his music is accordingly fresh-faced. It’s light, airy Talking Heads/Orange Juice pop-funk, although he does seem slightly overawed by the early slot once occupied by Florence + the Machine.
Festival favourites Clean Cut Kid are more accustomed to such occasions. “I’m a Scouser. Can you understand a word I’m saying?” quips singer Mike Halls, his big beard at odds with his band’s name. His banter may be semi-unintelligible and include the word “bird” (which “means girl in Liverpool”), but his band’s sharp, exuberant, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers-type powerpop prompts fist-pumping and cheering.
The familiar “bigger name headline act” slot falls to Peace, ahead of what may or may not turn out to be their “difficult third album”. After presumably gazing enviously towards the enormous fanbases of Foals and the 1975, the Midlanders have retooled their sound accordingly, adding a more robust funk chassis. Teenage girls bellow the choruses and bodies are passed over the audience. Indie rock might not be dead just yet.
- At University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, 17 March. Box office: 0141-204 5151. Then touring.
