Ten years after we first laid pensive melody to pounding drum beat, my Birmingham band Deaf Inspector proudly returned to our ancestral homeland of Muthers Studio.
To put it in other words, I’d had the ambitious (foolish perhaps) notion that it would be fun for my old band to get together and play a show in the building where we used to rent a lockup, back in the day…
With the venue in mind, I invited some of the finest Midlands-adjacent musos to complete the bill. First up were Cannockian combo Heavy Friends whose evocative indie-folk told tales from the heart of England to the coast of Wales. Complimenting their set, Flickers from the Fen went on to bestow a heady brew of dungeon synth upon the evening. We were in fine company.
When us DI boys finally graced the stage, it was a real joy to be back at it with the energy of the trio. Nothing quite matches the feeling of live drums in my opinion, however much I stray into programmed beats! The icing on the cake came in the form of one Sounds Like Space alumni (AKA the first iteration of our band, don’t go there…) jumping on stage to join us in our cover of ‘A.M. 180’ by the one and only Grandaddy. A real blast from the past.
Most of all, we were honoured that so many friends came out to join us. Travelling far and wide from the winding streets of Shrewsbury to the windy peaks of Sheffield.
Thank you to the team at Muthers for hosting the event and for Ike (our old recording engineer) making it sound huge.
A sonic memory of the event can be found on our Bandcamp:
A lucky few got to pick up some limited edition t-shirts (and one tote bag!) with a design I’d made in reference to our home county, alongside the genre of Midwest Emo which had (and still does) influence my musical meanderings. Thanks to Adam for letting me use his garage screen printing setup and for Hunk Print in Sheffield for making the screen.
There have been calls for another pressing, maybe if you keep on pestering me…
Another reunion however, maybe in 2034?!
