A review of Orphan boy from the ' That Manchester' event
Put on by concrete records.
7th October 2006


'Orphan boy down in the city, orphan boy down in the city am a orphan boy down in the city', Crack fizzle. 'Where's the sound man!.'
This was the first attempt at the opening to the orphan boy set at the that Manchester night at the Irish Centre Cheetham Hill. An event put on to promote the bands from painfully hip Manchester label Concrete Records and their equally fantastic musical offerings and more.
There was much confusion as to if Orphan boy were actually going to play. As the drummer started walking around the crowd explaining to people that the guitar was knackered due to over use during the day.
This interval was short lived though but enough time for everybody to get there next round in and go to the toilet and such like.
Orphan boy then ripped into another fantastic set, the second of which I have seen.
They did there introduction (semi instrumental) which whipped the crowd up into a beer spilling mentalists, spilling booze all over yours truly. This did not faze me as I also found myself thumping around like a mad man being promptly told by my other half to calm down again.
They then kicked into their first single offering from concrete records Trophies Of Love, which is a story of a whirl wind romance between a footballers wife and a mortgage adviser from Kent. It's a track which was taken from one of Steve Lamacqs BBC 6 digital radio shows, he boasts is one of his most played tracks on his ipod at the moment. Which as got to be good publicity.
The rest of the orphan boy set was a blistering set which had anthems coming out of its ears. In a nut shell I came out battered, bruised and drenched but satisfied. Look out for this band people you will not be disappointed. Check out their web site and myspace for pictures and downloads.
Also other bands to look out for from the night are The Pedestrians as well as the The deadbeats who where joint headliners with The Longcut.

Orphan Boy
For a three piece band, I have never such a meaty and explosive sound. The Grimsby trio put on an electrifying and very entertaining performance; I even noticed the bar staff were dancing and tapping their feet as they served punters.
The musical style bows its head to bands such as an early Libertines and, the current tabloid favourites Arctic Monkeys. But Orphan Boy bring a dirtier edge to their sound, bringing back some values reminiscent of late seventies punk, like that of The Jam and punk pioneers The Clash. I thought this so much, I was on the verge of breaking out into a full scale pogo dance; but was promptly stopped by my girlfriend.
I was impressed when, mid way through their set, the lead singer swapped his guitar with the bassists, and the original bassist thrashed out four equally as energetic songs bringing the set to a thundering close.
Look out for this band this August at the Depercussion Festival, you will not be disappointed.


Dirty Circus
Next on the bill was the much hyped Dirty Circus, who have just signed to the major label after their performance last year at Glastonbury.
I've already heard quite a great deal about this band from some mutual friends and people from the former label; so I was pretty curious hear what they had to offer.
I had some mixed feelings about this particular performance though, the singer's voice seemed to fall into the background behind the music, but I think this was more of a technical problem rather than a reflection on the bands talent. The frontman however, did seem to be enjoying himself and was loving the attention the crowd gave him as they sang along with his ditties. At one point he decided to have a crack at climbing one of the supporting pillars, but, entertainingly, to no avail. Nevertheless, the actual instrumental sound of the band echoed some Kasabian influence with a twist of ska.
The musicians of this band had a very calculated and smoothed out chart-friendly sound with a lot of potential.

The Mekkits
The third and final band of the night was The Mekkits. This band seemed experienced with each other as they had a very gelled and well-rehearsed sound.
They were also baptised in the holy water of modern ska music; more so, it seemed, than the other two bands, as The Mekkits reminded me of The Specials towards the end of their careers, after they had calmed down and matured a bit. Not suggesting that The Mekkits didn't put on an energetic show, they kicked off with a lot of sweat and grit; sucking the crowd in straight away. They calmed a little mid-set, but soon picked it back up towards the end with an excellent performance by the trumpet player.
After the gig the singer handed me a flyer with the bands information on it and a cool stickman drawing of the band, which was nice.

Reviewed by Dean Duffy