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Last Friday saw The Warehouse Project play host to the Transgressive Records Roadshow, featuring Lady Fuzz, Battle, Larrikin Love, The Young Knives, The Subways and The Mystery Jets. And up to see it all for one night only was my Dad, Pete Jackson. Already famous for his epic films, production of Blue Peter and above all star appearance in Pete Jackson’s Band of the Week on the award winning Andrew Jackson Show. Accompanying him on his ‘trip up North’ were Simon ‘Middle Child’ Micklewright and Willy ‘Beanie Hat’ Weston.

Up first were Ladyfuzz a shouty screamy Scottish/Eastern European affair – yes I couldn’t tell which – who used their guitarists vocals for bass. They were closely followed in The Rig by Battle. Definitely a hit with the crowd, Battle delivered a well polished set which surely peaked with their track Tendency. It was good to see they haven’t been too hyped of late, the lead singer having to set the stage himself in order to prepare it for his distinctively shaped guitar.

Larrikin Love were on next in the main hall and it was a relatively smooth transition from one stage to the next without the hanging around seen at the Long Blondes/Longcut/Brakes gig. What amazes me is that people of my generation actually like Larrikin Love. I mean, I think they’re excellent; they blend it all in for me, reggae, ska, country, and folk are all elements apparent in their latest album The Freedom Spark. Add to that the street urchin ‘cardboard box’ look the lead singer carries and they’re probably the oddest outfit out there. Yet, despite they’re less popular influences the crowd went mental. Up at the front it was very festival-esque: it wasn’t so much jumping up and down as rubbing up the back of someone it was so packed, steam rose off of the crowd into the rafters of the warehouse, and there was the obligatory smell of beer, sweat and poppers. “If they liked that” remarked my Dad afterwards, “then you’d have thought they’d all love The Levellers.”

Before The Young Knives came on I managed to grab a few photos of everyone else that had come down including Harry [who just couldn't wait to ask Pete what his favourite band was this week], Cath, Sam, Cat, Vicky and her friend Kerry. The Young Knives put on a good show, still lots of sweat and beer down the front, but you weren’t quite sure how fast to rub.

However, the highlight of the night surely has to be The Subways. They were ferocious, and the crowd equally so. At several points The Subways lead singer Billy Lunn had to announce on behalf of the management that the crowd had to calm down, at which point he slagged of chart acoustic music and launched into another headthrashing number. In fact The Subways’ crowd won the once off but much acclaimed Pete Jackson’s Mosh Pit of the Week. “They had a good circle going on in there, I was almost tempted to join it myself,” Pete commented.

The most controversial point of the night, as shown in the picture below, came when Billy climbed the eight or so foot right speaker. However, instead of jumping back onto the stage as he had done on the previous two occasions, Billy poised to throw himself into the jubilant crowd below. What followed was an attempt by a grey hoodied member of management to stop Billy, who then jumped onto the stage and was half dragged to the opposite side and into the edges backstage. There was a brief scuffle before Billy returned to his guitar and announced down the microphone, “The stage manager is a c*nt, everyone say ‘the stage manager is a c*nt’”. The crowd did what they were told and the band launched into their next song with even more energy than they’d started the set with.

So as you can imagine after all that The Mystery Jets were a little bit slow. So we watched a few tracks and headed back. The night was rounded off by a kebab, a beer and a visit to the Mabfield house party which was still in full swing, and strangely enough smelt of beer, sweat and poppers.

All the photos from the night are now available.

Last night I embarked on my final freebie of the week to The Warehouse Project to see The Long Blondes, The Longcut, Brakes and Uncle Bob [seen in revere order]. Unkle Bob were a bit out of place for the event, and they came out onto a very cold stage to a very small crowd. I think someone at the marketing dept for the warehouse project needs to have a rethink about putting unheard of bands on a Thursday night, at an unconventional location during reading week. I think they must have panicked and got XFM to give a shed load of tickets away. It was only Cat, Vanessa, Sam and I in attendance but we all had an extra three places on our guestlists each.

Brakes livened things up a bit with their short snappy shouty numbers; they’re an interesting accompaniment to The Killers latest tour. The Longcut were so much better last night than when I saw them with a dozen other people on the XFM stage at In The City. Their sound suits a larger venue and it also helped that they had a few fans along. You can see them performing their track Late Night Bus over at the videos section.

However, by the time The Longcut had finished it was around quarter past midnight, and I have to shamefully say I was knackered. Cat and I had arrived at 8:45 and had been on our feet since, so we were all a little frustrated to have to wait until 12:45am for The Long Blondes to make an appearance. They were good though, a little static at first but soon the lead singer got a bit of a sexy jive on and things warmed up.

You can see all the photos from the evening here as well as The Longcut video here. They should prove a taster for is to come at the Transgressive Records night on the 17th November where I’ll be seeing The Mystery Jets, The Young Knives, Larrikin Love, Battle, and The Noissettes.