Wednesday 2 April 2014

SECTION 60 Review and Interview. Sheffield Leadmill 29/03/14

Section 60 make no qualms about it They're a guitar band. As their website says, 'We are what we are and we ain't gonna change for any trends.' Their loyalty to indie guitar anthems is almost matched by their loyalty to Sheffield United. When they tie their collective flags to a mast they don't hold back.

What this Steel City 5 piece do though is write and play some of the greatest indie guitar tracks since The Stone Roses at their peak. Catchy, singalongs but with deep lyrics that always leave you wanting more. In Daniel Smith they have one of South Yorkshire's finest songwriters.

Two quality albums under their belt already it's live where these boys come to life. Again, lyrically leaving no holds barred, they open with The North Will Rise Again. You're immediately drawn in. Swirling guitars over Chris' impassioned plea of defiance against all that the North has stood firm against over the decades.

Elysium comes third in the set. Bit early for me. I see it as a natural closer. It's epic. It's not just my favourite 60 song, it's one of my all time favourite songs. It builds and builds.  Elysium = A state of great happiness. Sums it up really. The stage awash with dry ice, the crowd already a sweating, grinning mess. 

Reputation follows with the boys 'hiding their halos' in a mass Leadmill singalong. Both the band and the crowd are flying now.


Stop The World followed by the title track of their stunning debut album Is This Our Day In The Sunshine. I'd seen Section 60 probably 5 times before but this is the best yet.

And then it's Champions Of The Underdog and it's all over far too soon. I interviewed the band pre gig and we talked about the following they were building in places like Manchester and London. On this performance it wont be long before they're selling out venues all across the UK.

Set List

The North Will Rise Again
Dream Factory
Elysium
The World Doesn't Revolve Around You
Reputation
Stop The World
Is This Our Day In The Sunshine
A Way With Words
Champions Of The Underdog

Section 60 Interview

SS: I'm backstage at The Leadmill with Section 60, Sheffield's finest. Two quality albums under their belts, Is This Our Day In The Sunshine and Welcome To The Dream Factory, firmly established as part of This Feeling's rosta. Supported Courteeners in the past and Dexters tonight of course. It's going pretty well chaps.

Addy (guitar): Yeah it's going well for us. Finally. We've had a bit of luck with the football. Sheff United use our song Champions Of The Underdog. We've had a lot of people from the football starting to watch us in Sheffield, lot of hits online which has got a lot of interest in the band obviously with The Blades cup run. 

SS: Haven't Sky Sports picked up on it too?


A: Yeah it's been on Sky quite a lot. We've seen it on boxing and rugby on the Superleague show. A few other bits on Sky as well and it's been on 5live. Yeah it's been doing well for us that particular song. It's getting the name of the band out there.

SS: Speaking of football, excited about Wembley?


A: Yeah cant wait

SS: You going down?


A: Yeah we're all going down together in a minibus. 

SS: Good luck to you. So how does the songwriting process work for Section 60?


Chris (vocals): Smits the main songwriter though I got the idea for Champions Of The Underdog from reading Keith Richards' biography. He said something about The Sunday Times being the great champions of the underdog. I just picked up on that, it just leapt out at me. I wrote it down and we just built a song round that. 

SS: It works really well. It's like a Section 60 anthem but you're quite an anthemic band with songs like Elysium, The North Will Rise Again. As a live band you are quality, one the hardest working bands in South Yorkshire, you always seem to be gigging. Is it live that Section 60 really work?


C: For me it is. I don't think there's owt finer. I love just playing with the lads. There's nothing better than getting up on stage and putting what you do in the practice room out there. seeing people sing along. That's great . Going in the studio does my f***ing head in. It gets on my nerves.

Kyle (drums): It's a drag.

C: I just find it stressful. Don't get me wrong the people we work with are great, and to watch a song grow as the day goes on is brilliant...

SS: But it's not till you play it live that you really get the feedback


C: Exactly

K: It's the reactions

C: Yeah it's seeing peoples' reactions that I love.

A: I think the technical side to recording can be quite stressful. We like to play live and buzz off each other. We're a team and we work as a team. 

SS: As the newest member of the band Eddie how does it feel to be with these boys?


Eddie (bass): It;s great. Really enjoying it. Busy all the time, pushing the new song out. I'm loving it. 

SS: So obviously gigging tonight with Dexters, you're in Doncaster at The Social with Sunshine Underground on April 20th. What else have you got lined up?


A: We've got London again next Friday. 

SS: That This Feeling again?


A: Yeah. We've got a few in Manchester coming up. We've got a decent fan base now in Manchester. Probably on a par with Sheffield to be honest with you. We go down well in Manchester. Starting to get a little bit of a following in London. I think if you can crack them major cities then you're doing something right. This Feeling is a great night. 

K: Let's face it, London's not a massive fan of Northern guitar bands but when we go down we always get a great reception there. 

C: When we played This Feeling I couldn't believe how the crowd were just so into it. It was electric. After the gig we had people queuing up to talk to us. 

A: When we were playing for first ten seconds they weren't interested. After forty seconds we'd got em. It was on a par to playing a home town gig in Sheffield. It was great for the band. You need things like that to keep you motivated.  

SS: So Welcome To The Dream Factory came out middle of last year was it?


C: Yeah about May time.

S: We've talked about Champions Of The Underdog. Any other new songs in the pipeline?

C: We've got loads.

K: We're always working with new stuff.

C: But with Eddie coming into the band he's learning the older stuff but we're always writing, we've always got ides bouncing about.

A: To be honest with you I think we're gonna get these gigs out of the way, Eddie's gonna learn the back catalogue, which wont take him long. We feel as a band we're gonna move forward now. It won't take us long to get these new songs sorted. 

SS: I can't wait to hear em. Well it's always a pleasure chaps. Have a great gig and I'll see you down the front.

S60: Cheers mate.





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