Rick Witter fronting Shed Seven in their Scarborough Open Air Theatre debut. Picture: Andy Little
IT’S been a dream of ours for some time to head out to the coast to play Scarborough OAT,” said Sheds frontman Rick Witter, when tickets went on sale for their long-overdue debut at what he branded “Yorkshire’s very own Hollywood Bowl”.
Overdue? Here’s why. York band, from up the A64. Anthemic hits, ripe for crowd roars from pitch level and the terrace banks behind. Not to mention early singles by the nautical name of Ocean Pie and Dolphin, both aired here in a 21-song set list.
Overdue, yes, and yet the timing felt just right. “It’s worked in our favour,” reckoned Rick in his York Press interview. And here’s why.
Shed Seven are a band re-born, going for gold anew rather than growing old on the Britpop heritage treadmill. Two number one albums in 2024, their 30th anniversary year. Match fit for outdoor exertions, as much as the indoor Shedcember seasons. The back line firmed up by “new” signings Tim Wills, on keyboards and guitar, and Rob “Maxi” Maxfield behind the drum kit that still bore the Liquid Gold livery from last autumn and winter’s travels.
Samantha Seth leading The Shed Seven Choir at Scarborough Open Air Theatre. Picture: Andy Little
Bolstered by 2017’s Instant Pleasures and the more constant pleasures of 2024’s A Matter Of Time, more Premiership-quality songs than ever are worthy of the set list, to the point where Casino Girl, She Left Me On Friday, The Heroes, Devil In Your Shoes, Cry For Help and Why Can’t I Be You? could be left out of the match-day squad.
Back in the distant day, your reviewer once called for more theatricality in Sheds’ shows, coupled with more technological aplomb (projections, razzmatazzier lighting), not merely the addition of a keyboard player, to a band that always had chemistry, terrace tunes that stuck like gum to summer soles, audience rapport aplenty and a lean, lippy totem out front.
Now, if Carlsberg did Shed Seven gigs, they would probably do this one, this way, this set list, getting better all the time. Warm weekend night. Capacity crowd of 8,000. Typically low-key, high-efficiency event management by Cuffe & Taylor and venue staff. Canny choice of supports, the sunshine Liverpool Nineties’ pop of Cast and Jake Bugg, dressed as Milk Tray Midlands Man.
8.45pm, enter Wills and Maxfield, stalwart bassist Tom Gladwin and guitarist Paul Banks, then Witter in dandy sequin shirt (from Phix Clothing, should you be wondering), sparkling from the off in instant singalong opener Room In My House.
Rick Witter and Rowetta: In Ecstasy, in Scarborough, on a seaside Saturday night. Picture: Andy Little
Witter had promised “some great ideas”for the Live Summer 2025 shows, in keeping with Huntington School choir singing Bully Boy in last summer’s Museum Gardens gigs, and boy, did they deliver.
For presentation top marks, there were projections to either side of the stage; razzmatazziest lighting, and a huge Shed Seven insignia, lit up in ever-changing colours.
Content was built on regular rotation of supplementary players. Through the darkening night, the Sheds would be joined by a five-piece Manchester choir, led by Samantha Seth, temporarily christened The Shed Seven Choir for Scarborough and upcoming gigs at Glastonbury, Manchester Castlefield Bowl and Leeds Millennium Square. If it worked for The Rolling Stones, it works wonders for Shed Seven.
Glory be, the brass section was back from Museum Gardens 2024, this time Tom I’Anson, on trombone, Jamie Brownfield, on trumpet, and Mike Smith, on saxophone, kitted out in Shed Seven Summer ’25 T-shirts.
Arms outstretched: Shed Seven fans in excelsis at Scarborough Open Air Theatre
Returning too were York acoustic guitarist Stuart Allan, tucked away studiously to the side, and Happy Mondays’ Rowetta, resplendent in red, to resume her rowdy jousting with Witter at the height of In Ecstasy.
By then, the set had taken in the early urgent days of Speakeasy and Ocean Pie, and Witter looking up to the Scarborough heavens in 2024’s mystical, magical Starlings. Riding on the crest of Wills’ keyboard wave, its yearning poetic beauty promptly met its marrow in a devotional cover of The Smiths’ There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.
In keeping with last summer, Going For Gold segued into Elvis’s Suspicious Minds, this time embellished by both brass and a choral coda, before the Sheds’ answer to Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Power Of Love, Let’s Go Dancing, the swaggering Getting Better and Parallel Lines, stretched to a maximum high, closed the set.
Still the “great ideas” kept a’coming in the encores. First up, a piano being wheeled on, centre stage, for Paul Banks.“I’ve never played piano on stage before, even though I play piano/ keys on all the records. Been too nervous to do it until now!” he said later.
Rick Witter and Paul Banks, at the piano, performing Your Guess Is As Good As Mine, the song they wrote aged 14, at Scarborough Open Air Theatre. Picture: Andy Little
Cue Better Days, and the next surprise, Your Guess Is As Good As Mine, written by Rick and Paul in Huntington School days and since performed at their acoustic duo gigs but never on piano, nor at a Sheds gig until now. Why the long wait? Your guess is as good as mine.
“Really loved playing it on Saturday,” Paul reflected afterwards. “I don’t think Rick and Paul aged 14 would have believed it.”
And what’s this? A band of drummers, Global Grooves, rehearsed by Maxi in Manchester, whose idea it was to bring them over the Pennines. All a matter of keeping time for extra oomph and visual drama in Talk Of The Town and Disco Down. Catch them again at Castlefield Bowl and Millennium Square.
Chasing Rainbows, what else, bade us farewell, sung into the salted sea air by one and all beyond the final bow and team photo of band, brass, choir and Rowetta. It had been a glittering night to match Rick’s shirt.
Beat that! The Global Grooves drummers playing in Shed Seven’s encores at Scarborough Open Air Theatre. Picture: Celestine Dubruel
Shed Seven set list, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 14, 8.45pm
Room In My House; Let’s Go; Speakeasy; Where Have You Been Tonight?; Ocean Pie; Starlings; There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (The Smiths cover); Dolphin; High Hopes; Bully Boy; In Ecstasy (with Rowetta); Going For Gold/Suspicious Minds (Mark James/Elvis Presley cover); On Standby; Let’s Go Dancing; Getting Better; Parallel Lines.
Encores: Better Days; Your Guess Is As Good As Mine; Talk Of The Town; Disco Down; Chasing Rainbows.
The poster for Shed Seven’s Live Summer 2025 series of outdoor concerts