Yard Act with Special Guest Nuha Ruby Ra at FC2, Warrington

Monday 23rd May 2022 

Well, this is a gift from the music gods! Surely?  On my doorstep, and to have a band as immense as Yard Act play such a cracking, intimate venue as FC2! Well, it’s happening tonight…we’re excited! FC2 (Friars Court 2) in Warrington town centre is a great venue for live music. I’m a regular, it’s no secret, but tonight I just know it’s going to be special. Yard Act have created a musical frenzy and are the talk of the moment in the British music scene. Set to play Glastonbury next month and they’ve already reached number 2 in the official UK album charts with their debut album ‘the Overload’ released in January this year. NME have awarded them not only best UK new act but also best global new act and BBC Radio One have named Yard Act ‘ones to watch.

4 piece, alt indie/rock, post punk band Yard Act are going places…fast. Tonight’s event (I’m guessing one of the last of this intimate nature) is completely sold out, I’d expect nothing less, and it sure is rammed in here! The first thing I’m struck by is the vast mixture in age groups. It’s brilliant and testament to this band’s wide reach as well as brilliance.

Nuha Ruby Ra_Credit: Nathan Cole

Support – Nuha Ruby Ra

 Arriving on stage with an aura of happiness about her, in quirky bright red mac and baseball cap, we can sense this set is gonna be fun. Chatting naturally as she readies herself, she s very likeable. As the set begins the atmospheric, slowed down pace of a dream like state, club sound filters out amongst us. Singing to backing tracks, a very conceptual sound, Nuha’s vocal is very distinct and powerful, a wide range and very different. As she dances around the stage in slow motion with one leg in the air, it’s fascinating to watch, almost a performance art piece. Flashing strobe lighting adds to that underground club theme, it’s a very primal feeling, very ‘other realm.’  She announces that she wants to feel like she’s lost in a club somewhere and it’s amazing…I think it’s safe to say we got that feeling. 

With pulsating beats, throbbing guitar sounds and illuminating electro, then strings layered and then at times an almost eastern, spiritual feel, the wailing, shouting, screaming and angsty expression of her voice is mesmeric!  Encouraging the crowd to join in and scream – “Come on, you’ll feel good, everybody needs to scream some time, so let’s do it here.”  The crowd readily participate… “Good, now doesn’t that feel better?”  Oddly, it’s very therapeutic! Nuha Ruby Ra…You well and truly captivated us as an audience and really got the vibe up. Excellent, quirky… bonkers, but brilliantly so. Wonderful!

Headline –Yard Act 

James Smith – lead vocal. Ryan Needham – bass.,Sam Shipstone – guitar, Jay Russell – drums

It’s straight on stage and at it, to roof raising cheers and applause. This no nonsense style and leads us straight in with screaming guitars and banging drums and a powerful bass line.  The crowd are off…first song in and we’re already pogoing, moshing…the wilds are back again in FC2 and it’s full on… moshpit ripples are spreading out, encompassing us all (very happily). Musically it’s very, very tight – an early punk feel but with a fine tuning, great guitar feels and a fast pace. The vocal is predominantly spoken word or that combination of fast talking that merges into singing with chorus and hooks being sung, the odd shouted parts and of course the deliciously punk style screams and howls. It’s one brilliant sound; it’s raw, it’s unapologetic, it’s loud, angry but it’s intelligent, sensitive and communicative at the same time. 

Yard Act_Credit: Nathan Cole

James Smith as a frontman is something quite special. The energy given by the entire band is nonstop and of the highest! He’s not still for a minute, punching the air, swaggering about the stage and kicking in time to the music. Lyrics are clever, hard hitting, very observational, witty and often politically driven. James often conveys them as if he’s in a discussion with us, in a face to face manner…almost like he s waiting for a reply. It’s really something to watch. Other times he bounding around, swinging the mic and belting his message out like his life depends on it. There’s urgency in the sound of some of the tracks. I’m instantly reminded of Ian Drury and the Blockheads; it’s that kind of feel, but more layered musically, with a louder, heavier indie rock base. The feels are of some underground comedy club in early 90s Manchester…think the Fall and John Cooper Clarke…but then other times there’s a real Jarvis Cocker vibe going on. I can detect so many musical influences, all cleverly bound into one explosive and new sound. James cites the Streets as a massive influence and that definitely comes across….it’s Sleaford Mods with a Northern sound! It works well, very well, in fact. We cannot keep still.  

Lead, Sam Shipstone is legendary…bouncing, jumping, raising his guitar whilst still playing and his instrumentals are simply incredible! This sound is huge, it’s powerhouse. The witty narratives are fed to us and we devour them straight from James’s hand – he has us all under his musical spell. The deliverance during deeper spoken word songs is that of a street speaker at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park…standing on a soapbox in the late 1800s…it’s utterly commanding!

It’s a set full to brimming with amazing sounds. James explains that to get to the stage tonight they had to walk through 3 different rooms so they aren’t going to bother going off stage to come back on for an encore, instead, they will crouch down on the floor whilst we pretend they’ve left, then when they feel we’ve made enough noise they’ll carry on with the encore. It’s a concept that seemingly works well! As the lights dim all 4 band members do indeed crouch down on the floor, as a crowd we appear to have got even wilder!…screaming, thunderous applause…then after a few moments Yard Act stand up, the lights go back on and James invites his Granddad, Dave, on stage. He then performs Tom Jones’s ‘Green green grass of home’ while the crowd sing along, swaying and clapping in time. It’s a real heartwarming moment, and the most unexpected event at a wild, post punk, indie gig! But this has been an unusual gig, full of banter about old times and audience interaction as well as the heady heights the sound has taken us to.

For the final song, James shouts out song titles and gauges our reaction to them…the deafening response to ‘Fixer Upper’ makes it the clear winner. In possibly the biggest moshpit in a small venue ever, with the heaviest, loudest, most energetic finale to an encore most of us have probably ever seen, Yard Act end their set. As a crowd we are positively buzzing. It’s been a brilliant, memorable, intimate gig with genuine interaction and touching moments and nonstop, brilliant sounds of the highest calibre – for me this is gonna take some beating. It’s stand out stuff. 

Keep a close eye on Yard Act, and get to see them live…that’s a must!  This was one of my all time best gigs tonight. Huge thanks to Simon Pugsley of Friars Court and FC2 for his help before the gig, to Kurtis Murphy from the sound desk for his help during the night and a special shout out to Aiden Hankin and his dad, Gary….keep gigging Aiden!!

Setlist: The overload, Witness, Dark days, Land of the blind, Dead horse, Tall poppies, Pour another, Rich, Payday, 100 per cent endurance, Encore -, Green green grass of home, Fixer-upper.

Review by Janet Harding

Photography By Nathan Cole

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