I remember vividly hearing LIFE for the first time in the BBC Introducing Uploader, long before I ever saw them live. They were a new band but born out of former Steve Lamacq favourites The Neat, so I was ready to be critical. We all were. So what did I hear on that first listen back in 2013? Eloquent anger in the lyrics; a DIY ethic summed up in the hand-held video that popped up online to accompany the single; furious guitar woven into a melody so memorable that I could sing it back to our presenter Alan Raw by the time the track dropped into the BBC Introducing Humberside playlist the same week. Then another track followed, and another. Each one a new favourite.
So could they do it live too? Oh yes they could. Headlining Hull’s weekly music night The Sesh, headlining The New Adelphi Club, headlining the city’s Freedom Festival in 2014 - LIFE on stage make you glad you waited around in the rain to catch the very last chord rather than opting for that very last bus home.
I can say, proudly, that LIFE’s tracks sit in BBC Humberside’s section of the Uploader, shared around by our team to BBC 6 Music, to Radio 1 and played, played, played. In 2015 it was the single GO, GO, GO that lit up our playlists (watch a session version of the track below). BBC Introducing colleague Jericho Keys from BBC Radio York tweeted at our show last week, “Go Go Go. Tune & a half!”. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
LIFE play the BBC Introducing Stage at Reading and Leeds Festival 2015, watch them in session for BBC Introducing on Radio Humberside below.
