The Wulfrun Hall was a little under half full when the night's support the Harrisons took to the stage. It became obvious straight away that Paul Weller is a heavy influence on the Sheffield four piece, both musically and visually.  | | Coming to the forefront: The Harrisons |
The fusion of Jam-like melody set to a high tempo disco beat obviously appealed to some of the audience still buying drinks. The bar emptied and the main room filled quickly during Harrisons' set. Anthemic HarrisonsMidway through the performance came the first stand out track; 'Take Her To The Mattress', a high tempo tune that sounded not dissimilar to 'Lay Down The Law' by Switches, but delivered with more pace and venom. The second highlight was 2006 single 'Blue Note', a huge sounding, anthemic ode to days gone by.  | | Well wishers: Harrisons line-up |
As they head off in tour with The Enemy in June, Harrisons will no doubt be a pleasant surprise for fans of Cribs, Switches and the like. The Twang: Crowded room for main eventBy the time the crew had set the stage up for headliners The Twang, the Wulfrun Hall was absolutely heaving with a capacity audience. The Twang had spent the last few months prior to going on tour camped in Wolverhampton's Magic Garden Studio recording debut album 'I Love It When I Feel Like This' so, although the band were in their home town Birmingham just four days later, the night had a real home coming feel to it. A roar of delight went up from the audience as three-fifths of The Twang arrived on stage. Straight away they open with lairy lad rocker 'The Neighbour'. Just in time to take up their duties, co-vocalists Phil Etheridge and Martin Saunders swaggered on stage and it was obvious that they are in party mood.  | | Wide Awake? Saunders leads the audience in song |
The feeling was infectious and, before long, almost everybody in the room was dancing away or waving their hands in the air. Indie influencesPeople have compared The Twang to The Happy Mondays because of the laddish good-time vibe they create, best encapsulated by The Twang's dance cross-over 'Loosey Dancing'. However, if you dig a little deeper it's obvious that there are other strong influences that go towards making their sound. Throughout the set there was more than a hint of 'Last Broadcast' era Doves and the bass line to album track Two Lovers was reminiscent of 'Made Of Stone' by The Stone Roses. Dance like no-one is lookingThe Highlight of the night was the thousand-plus audience sing-along to debut single 'Wide Awake', a song that perfectly captures that morning after feeling, set to euphoric, floating melody and solid, pounding drums and bass.  | | The Twang |
The band left the stage but the audience demanded more. The Twang obliged and indulged them with three more songs including set closer 'Cloudy Room'. Front Man Phil told the crowd that it's their last chance to have a dance and it seems like the whole room took him up on this. Everybody in sight was dancing like nobody was looking. The Twang are definitely worth catching live if you can and are certain to be a big draw at this summer's festivals where they'll no doubt bring their unique euphoric party to fields and camp-sites all over Europe. | 
