This was my first experience of witnessing Inspiral Carpets live. It was also my first experience of visiting The Fire Station Parade Ground which is a superb outdoor venue at the rear of the main Fire Station building. Both the band and the venue exceeded my expectations. It was a great night with a band I have been meaning to see for some time.
The Fire Station website: “After a successful sell out 19-date run with fellow Madchester icons Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets are delighted to announce further live shows in 2024 including The Fire Station’s Parade Ground. These shows will be “a celebration of the music we created, which has brought so much joy to people over the last 35 years,” the band say. A vital component of the infamous ‘Madchester’ movement, Inspiral Carpets formed in Oldham in 1980.
Known for hit singles such as ‘This Is How It Feels’, ‘Saturn 5’ and ‘She Comes in the Fall’, they remain much-loved not only in Manchester but across the UK. These shows follow an eight-year break since Inspiral Carpets last took to the stage in 2015 following the tragic loss of their close friend and drummer, Craig Gill. A year later, they went on an indefinite hiatus.”
“Craig’s death had a profound effect on many people. The outpouring of love from around the world at the time gave some comfort to his family and friends as we all tried to come to terms with what had happened.”
On the reformation, the band are keen to emphasise the celebratory nature of the forthcoming live shows, giving fans a chance to sing along to their favourite hits and commemorate the life of Craig. “We know this will be an emotional journey for a lot of people, not least Craig’s family. We hope you’ll join us as we celebrate some of the music we created, and which has brought so much joy to people over the last 35 years.”
“We have never played in Sunderland before, so we are massively looking forward to the show. See you down the front.” – Stephen Holt. “We gigged all last year and after a successful run with our friends Happy Mondays, we’re back on the road. It will be fantastic to play for the people of Sunderland. We can’t wait.” – Clint Boon.
Jackie and I ventured out on a cool evening to see a very cool band (pun intended) at an increasingly becoming very cool venue and the place to go for music in Sunderland. The Parade Ground was full when we arrived. We had missed support band Voodoo Radio (unintentionally, I must emphasise) who are led by a crazy lady drummer and her father on guitar. Chris and I saw them a few weeks ago at Stockton Georgian Theatre and really enjoyed them. They were supporting The Wedding Present, and I reported on them in that blog entry.
We arrived just as Inspiral Carpets took to the stage. I was pleasantly surprised by their performance. The singer Stephen Holt is a great front man with strong vocals, cool hair, and very cool mod/psychedelic clothes. The lineup has changed many times over the years and the current touring band is Graham Lambert lead guitarist (1980–1995, 2003–2016, 2022–present), Stephen Holt vocalist (1983–1989, 2011–2016, 2022–present), Clint Boon on keyboards and backing vocals (1987–1995, 2003–2016, 2022–present), Kev Clark drummer (2022–present) and Oscar Boon bassist (2023–present).
They are all very dapper in their mod/psychedelic clothing and their music is a mixture of 60s/80s poppy tunes led by swirling Farfisa organ and strong, loud vocals. Magic. “Cool as f**k. The return of the Madchester legends. Currently touring UK & Europe.” proclaims their website. And it ain’t far wrong. I don’t know any of the songs but in a strange way they all sound familiar. The set list below is drawn from recent shows.
I am not sure if the encore really did include “96 Tears” by ? and the Mysterians but that song almost sums up the sound of the band: organ – led, punkish vocals and early psychedelia. It doesn’t get much better for a cool (in both senses of the word) evening of music in the open-air.
Many thanks to Jackie for the photographs and Chris for navigating the site. Bring back the 1960s, mod, psychedelia, and rave culture.
Setlist (something like): Generations; Weakness; Butterfly; Move; She Comes in the Fall; Directing Traffik; Two Worlds Collide; How It Should Be; Let You Down; Find Out Why; Uniform; Sackville; This Is How It Feels; Keep the Circle Around; I Want You; Commercial Rain; Dragging Me Down. Encore: Joe; 96 Tears; Saturn 5.
I have been meaning to see 
I was surprised just how true to the original Jam ideology and mod culture From The Jam were. They were in fact a revelation to me. Much, much better than I expected. The Boiler Shop was completely sold out, packed full of mods from every era, some wearing sharp suits and others wearing Parka coats. And to my pleasant surprise, the support act was Purple Hearts who I remember well from the late 1970s and early 1980s; I saw them several times during that crazy period.
In The Jam, Bruce and drummer Rick Buckler were the driving force, power and rhythm section behind singer, guitarist, and songwriter Paul Weller. Bruce’s versatility is evident, taking lead vocals on “David Watts” (The Kinks) and writing “News Of The World”, which to this day appears as the theme to the BBC’s Mock the Week show and has introduced his work to a new generation of fans.”
It is nice to know that “Bruce is again friends with Paul Weller which he emphasises is more important than music…… Paul asked Bruce to perform on his Wake Up The Nation album and join him on stage at the Royal Albert Hall on 25th May 2010, to a rapturous standing ovation from the audience. “No one could quite believe what they were seeing, it was history in the making and grown men had tears in their eyes” said one fan.”” (Again from the From the Jam website).
Support band Purple Hearts are: “an English mod revival band, formed in 1977 in Romford, eastern Greater London. They were often considered one of the best English mod revival groups, the NME calling them “one of the few mod bands to actually cut it on rock ‘n’ roll terms. In September 1979, the band scored a minor hit with their debut single, “Millions Like Us” which reached number 57 in the UK Singles Chart. The band then toured the UK with Secret Affair and Back To Zero on ‘the March Of The Mods’ tour in 1979.” I remember the March Of The Mods tour very well and have written about it on this blog. It called at Newcastle Mayfair and there was complete mayhem, involving fights between skinheads (“We hate the mods”) and mods (“We are, we are the mods”) and tables being thrown from the balcony of the ballroom onto the dancefloor below. The bouncers came in, complete with Alsatian dogs and brought some control to the situation. Crazy days.
Jackie and I arrived in time to catch Purple Hearts who were excellent, playing a mix of songs old and new; each track blending punk with 60s mod. A great start to the evening. We went to look for some From the Jam merchandise. The guy at the merchandise stand told us “I am selling Purple Hearts merchandise, the guy selling From the Jam merchandise has not arrived yet but all the merchandise is under the table”. Well, I don’t know what had happened but he never appeared so we were unable to buy any From the Jam gear. Never mind. Perhaps I will be tempted to buy something from their online store.
After a short break the main act took to the stage exploding into “All Mod Cons” followed by a string of Jam hits. Each song sounded true to the original, Russell Hastings performing the front man part extremely well, and the full band accompanying Bruce and Russell were great. Hit after hit followed: “David Watts”, “Billy Hunt”, “A Bomb in Wardour Street”, “Down in the Tube Station At Midnight”, “Pretty Green” (now I realise where Liam Gallagher got the name for his clothing range: I recently bought a shirt from the site and foolishly did not wear it for the occasion), “Town Called Malice”, “That’s Entertainment” and closing song “The Eton Rifles”. The entire crowd sang along; this band is the real thing and, judging by my experience at The Boiler Shop they have a very strong and loyal following.
The encores were “Beat Surrender” (I had forgotten just how good that song is), “Going Underground” and finally, back to the start with “In the City”. Fantastic. I would have liked to have seen them play “The Butterfly Collector” (my favourite Jam song) and close with “The Batman theme” just as they did in the early days. But then you can’t have everything.
Setlist (something like this): All Mod Cons; To Be Someone (Didn’t We Have a Nice Time); Mr. Clean; David Watts; In the Crowd; Billy Hunt; It’s Too Bad; Fly; The Place I Love; English Rose; ‘A’ Bomb in Wardour Street; Down in the Tube Station at Midnight; Pretty Green; Town Called Malice; That’s Entertainment; Lula; Heat Wave; The Eton Rifles. Encore: Beat Surrender; Going Underground; In the City.
“Jools and Paul Donnelly have been avid collectors of all things vintage since the late 70s with a particular focus on the 1960s mod scene. Both Jools and Paul have a passion for mod culture and since first meeting they have combined their collection some of which will form part of this exhibition at Newcastle City Library. The collection includes vintage ladies and men’s mod clothing, shoes and accessories, ‘mod’ magazines, records and books. Their love of the 60s era motivated them to successfully lobby Newcastle Council for a heritage plaque at the site of the legendary 
Jools And Paul kindly invited me to their exhibition at Newcastle Library which, I must say, is pretty impressive to say the least. The couple have amassed an excellent and extensive collection of all things mod in Newcastle in the 1960s. The exhibition brought back lots of memories of my own early teenage years in Sunderland when I would go to Sunderland Top Rank Suite (the Rink) on a Saturday morning and dance along (yes, I had the bottle to dance in those days, which I lost somewhere along the path of life) to great pop/mod classics as Small Faces “All or Nothing”, Love Affair’s “Everlasting Love” and Barry Ryan’s epic operatic “Eloise”. I thought I was a young mod in my hipsters and Paisley “Rave” shirt. I even got dressed specially for the occasion, wearing a Vivian Westwood T-shirt with lovely ballerinas all over it, my best new Beatles Chelsea winklepicker boots and a pair of tiny round John Lennon sunglasses. You can never keep an old mod down! Jools and Paul kindly stood next to me for some selfies. Many thanks.
The exhibition contains records, 60s magazines and classic clothing from the era. Much respect! Encouraged by their collection, I went home, straight on to eBay, and bought a couple of folders containing Record Song Books from “back in the day”. The exhibition runs until the end of the month and I recommend you go along and see it. Aye, it takes you back. Wonderful.
Many thanks to Jools and Paul for signing my copy of their excellent book which tells the story of everything mod in 1960s Newcastle. Wonderful! It’s a great read and takes me right back to the 60s and many of the bands I wish I had seen back in the day! Never mind I have tried to catch up since
North East, they tell us their story, a story of what it was really like to be young in those glory years of Newcastle’s musical history. Newcastle in the 1960s was known as a ‘Mod Mecca’ the book describes the mod haunts, the clubs, the scooters, the music and of course their love of clothes. Covering also Newcastle’s Beat and jazz scene and the early days of The Animals. But above all this is the story of the thrill of being a teenager and of their sheer joy for life spent in a Newcastle that sadly no longer exists. For anyone who has an interest in the mod scene and of the social history of 1950s and 60s, Newcastle this book is a must.”
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