Aside from this weird working of events where I’m now unintentionally stalking a band, I was glad to see them again after seeing them in Lancaster, which was the best time I’d seen them, thanks to a support act dropping out and us getting a longer set than usual for them, alongside highlights such as the ‘Play Your Cards Right’ opening.
However, that acknowledgement of that gig being the best one I’d seen them at is now null and void as last night’s gig topped it even more. Set inside the Well, a small student-friendly bar with a bottom floor used for live venues, though with a relatively expensive drink price-list, it was full to the brim on the warm Saturday night with a good 50-50 mixture of fans and people new to the Hotpots.
Lacking a support act but making up for it with a massive two-hours of music for just £12, you’d be hard pressed even in a city as big as Leeds to find as much great entertainment for such a long time for such a cheap price. The Rolling Stones may be charging £200+ for a ticket to their gig, but I’d be surprised if they get as much bang for their buck as that.
The set list for the night was almost identical to the Lancaster gig, which isn’t really a problem even with its familiarity, as it was a cracking list of songs. Opener ‘Let’s Get Leathered’ with its crowd-friendly sections got the audience into the atmosphere and the fans sung back throughout the gig and were the most responsive crowd I’d seen to their music, adding to the atmosphere. Though the band had been on top form at both the Lancaster and Bingley gigs, they were more on fire this night with Billy McCartney on the keyboards particularly strong on the night with lots of witty one-liners even if sometimes he got cut off mid-flow by lead singer Bernard at times. There were plenty of running jokes throughout the set, primarily about the ongoing news story about Jimmy Saville, which led to lots of jokes that fitted in rather than seeming awkward, though I’m surprised they did it at a Leeds-based gig, a city he called home for a while.
Second song ‘Bitter, Lager, Cider, Ale, Stout’ continued the drinking theme and the band powered through many of their hits including ‘I Met A Girl On MySpace’ and ‘I Fear Ikea’, complete with a neat reference to my home town of Bradford, all engaging well with the crowd and all strong renditions. Their short joke song ‘Roy’ returned and was extended with three different versions, and though I’ve seen the joke performed several times now it still doesn’t feel old. Personal favourite ‘Ebay Eck’ was next followed by the first of their variety songs ‘Uncle Bernard’, with a changed line to reflect the Saville story, which brought the crowd out in hysterics, alongside the pantomime stylings of Bernard’s ventriloquist puppet, with the best introduction of that character I’ve seen live.
‘Chav’, complete with its YMCA-style dance, was as well received as ever, and the variety antics continued as Pirate Bernard arrived on stage to do ‘Cinema Smugglers’ and ‘The Perfect Pint’, a song that the bassist Bob Wriggles actually made a mistake on, but this led to some good running jokes for the rest of the gig and it went we got a second rendition of what is an enjoyable live hit.
Second percussionist Dickie Ticker took over lead vocals for another personal favourite ‘Has Anyone Seen My Dongle?’, and he certainly camped this up and, like a lot of the performances, was at another level, as was the drumming of Ken Bo who, though taking a back seat in the comedic stakes to the rest of the band – someone give him a mic next time! – was an integral part of the music.
The hits kept on coming with ‘Keys Wallet Phone’ and drinking song ‘I’ll Ave One Wi Yer’, plus another favourite in ‘Kebablishment’, before we got into the dance section of ‘Indie Disco’, ‘Beer Olympics’, ‘He’s Turned Emo’ and ‘A Lancashire DJ’, complete with the musical and crowd-based conga which, though not as much adopted as I’ve seen in other gigs, brought it to life. The main part of the set was brought to an end with ‘Me PSP’ and ‘Chippy Tea’ which were excellent as expected.
Though we lost ‘The Firewall Song’ from the set-list, we did get an extra acoustic song in the encore in the form of ‘Cottaging’, which was very well received, and then a huge triple ending with another personal favourite ‘The Girl From Bargain Booze’, ‘Shopmobility Scooter’ with the ‘Hey Jean’ ending, with a great sing-a-long section for the crowd, and the lengthy ‘Bang Bang Thumpy Megamix’ ending complete with more tongue-in-cheek references to the news, bringing the two-hour gig to an end.
I’m a huge fan of the band and have seen them live many times but this was the best time I’d seen them. They are tight as a band and the set-list now all hits and no misses. Billy McCartney, as one of the newer members, is an asset to the band and brought much of the humour to the gig and helped make it their strongest appearance yet. Scattered between the songs we got lots of topical references to things and, of course, the Hotpots own version of song-of-the-moment ‘Gangnam Style’ dubbed ‘Fish, Chips and Gravy’.
The sound in the venue was also great, though I was at the front so got a good balance between vocals, bass and the percussion of Dickie Ticker, which is usually lost a little in the mix. It’s just a shame that the venue was quite warm and, to quote the band, “sweating more than John Terry and the Notting Hill carnival”.
With a long list of entertaining well-written songs and a big focus on between-song banter and crowd involvement, it’s difficult to find a better amount of entertainment for such a cheap price and for such a long time.
Long live the hotpots!
(9/10)
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