Photos and review by Graham Finney
#360 Raw returns for its third event this time featuring Dottie Mai, Vaughan, Sam Wilde, The Harriets.
It’s Bank Holiday weekend again and, no surprise, Leeds has plenty going on for the discerning music fan all over the city. Tonight, for example, Stiff Little Fingers and The Buzzcocks are part of a four band bill at Millenium Square where pop-punk fans are preparing for the return of Slam Dunk to the city on Saturday. For music fans looking for something a little different, #360 Raw returned to the Lending Library for their third monthly night of live music.
While it looked like the night was going to suffer from the bigger events going on elsewhere, by the time opener, electro-pop artist Dottie Mai took to the stage, plenty of punters had started to work their way into the room. A quality opener, the singer wowed the room with her electronic based, powerful pop as tracks like “Chasing Shadows” and “Heartbreaker” certainly puts her on the list of ones to watch.
Next up was the mysterious Vaughan who looks like he has a busy year ahead of him. Announcing that this was his first gig under the name “Vaughan”, the singer spent most of the set sat behind his keyboards and, joined by his backing band, delivered a slick cocktail of electronic based pop with offerings like “Out Of The Sky” and “Farenheit” justifying the interest being shown in him. Highlight of the set though was an emotional “Silence” which saw Vaughan perform the track on his own showing quite why he is generating such a buzz.
The style changes for the appearance of guitarist Sam Wilde who, all hair and bags of energy, throws himself around the stage in front of a very attentive crowd. Imagine Queens Of The Stone Age meets Biffy Clyro, Wilde turned up the volume as he flung himself around the stage rocking out tracks like “On The Run” and the clearly very popular set closer “City Of Bones”. Now Sam, about you getting mugged in Leeds?
Headlining the latest event were Leeds based trio The Harriets who are quite frankly, the perfect headliner to kick off a Bank Holiday weekend. Jangly pop with almost surfer/beach/60s pop feel is the order of the day here and, while it’s well after half past ten when the band take to the stage, the likes of “Television” and “Café Disco” have this audience smiling and dancing around the room.
Sure, bigger events may have taken their fair share of the local music audience but, yet again, promoters Alan and Richard prove that when it comes to putting on shows, their wealth of experience guarantees a cracking night.
