Revered Manchester indie band gave audiences an electric experience in sell-out show in Bury on February 1
Acclaimed guitar-electro pop band The Slow Readers Club played an extraordinary show to a sell-out crowd of 400 at The Met last night. The Manchester four-piece, who only a few days earlier had won Best Breakthrough Act at the prestigious City Life Awards, were visiting the Bury venue to perform a special show as part of Independent Venue Week 2018. With hundreds of voices singing every word, and hundreds of hands in the air, the atmosphere in the historic building was pure electric.
The band have a special relationship with The Met, and their show was the first of three intimate gigs to be performed there this week in celebration of the beloved local venue. Slow Readers Club are one of the hottest groups around right now. They ended 2017 with a sold-out UK tour visiting some legendary music venues and drawing huge crowds at summer festivals, and tickets to last night’s gig at The Met sold out in minutes.
The Slow Readers Club delighted fans by announcing from the stage that they would be performing their hugely popular 2015 release, Cavalcade, in full. The band recorded the album at The Met’s own recording studio, Edwin Street Studios, and just weeks ago were in the studio putting the finishing touches to their forthcoming album, which is due out soon.
The Met have long championed The Slow Readers Club, booking them in 2015 for the main stage of Head for the Hills, the boutique music festival which the venue organises every September in the Lancashire market town of Ramsbottom. They returned in 2016, this time packing to overflowing the largest tent on the festival site and collecting a large crowd outside.
This is first year that The Met have been involved in Independent Venue Week, a national event which showcases the valuable work of independent music venues, now in its 5th year.
Radio 6Music presenter Chris Hawkins interviewed The Met’s CEO Victoria Robinson on the importance of small venues in the music ecology. She said; “Smaller venues are internationally important in developing emerging artists who will go on to become big stars. Independent Venue Week is incredibly useful in shining a spotlight on the work of these venues and encouraging people to take a risk in seeing a band they’ve not heard of – yet!”
The Met puts on around 2-3 gigs a week and does a lot a work with new bands and emerging artists, from programming them at the venue and Head for the Hills festival to working with them in the recording studio and providing music workshops for people of all abilities.
Proudly independent venue The Met will also host singer and guitarist Richard Hawley at two more sold out gigs over the weekend.
Photos by Chris Payne