Hey Sholay Save The Day

To the Macbeth pub in Hoxton last night where a seemingly disastrous mixture of acts were playing half-hour sets on the venue's tiny stage. We arrived in time to see a death goth rocker (aged approximately 45 and dressed like your dad) screaming down the microphone that God hates us all. We sat out the rest of his mid-life crisis at the back of the room for the next 20 minutes with a glass of wine. Then there was an extended break, punctuated by another glass of red while we wondered what was going to hit us next.


Our patience was finally rewarded in the form of Hey Sholay, an as-yet unsigned 5 piece from Sheffield, who belted out 30-minutes of joyous indie electro pop. Lead singer Liam Ward's voice and mildly eccentric 'dancing hands' are entirely unique and distinctive and although he is boy band handsome, he has something of the Steve Buscemi's about him which, when the band get their break, is going to have the freaky girls forming a less than orderly queue.

The songs are ace and the sound is far tighter than many signed bands manage to achieve during a live set.  Highlights are the pop-tastic 'Dreamboat' and the final song of the night 'The Bears, The Clocks, The Bees' whose psychedelic play on the lyrics 'I know it sounds strange but I don't know how to change the clocks' lodged themselves in this blog's head all night and most of the following morning. Cool, without being too cool for school, Hey Sholay deserve to be a regular fixture - not just in the mainstream music community - but on a very decent label's roster.http://www.myspace.com/heysholay