Tag: A Maximum High

Posted on

REVIEW: Shed Seven, A Maximum High, 30th Anniversary Show, The Piece Hall, Halifax, June 6 ****

Shed Seven lighting up the Halifax night sky when opening The Piece Hall’s summer season with a celebration of A Maximum High’s 30th anniversary

THIRTY years on, Shed Seven revisited their Britpop magnum opus A Maximum High in full for one night only to launch Cuffe & Taylor’s remarkable summer of no fewer than 41 concerts at The Piece Hall, Halifax.

A Yorkshire start to an international season was a canny choice, and better still, the typically Yorkshire weather forecast of rain at 6pm and 7pm to greet support acts Seb Lowe and The Guest List turned out to be wrong. There was no need to go chasing rainbows; that could wait until the end under the darkening Halifax skies.

Built as a cloth hall for handloom weavers to sell woollen cloth, the 18th century architectural splendour of the Grade I listed Piece Hall makes a natural amphitheatre for outdoor concerts – hence the busier-than-ever 2026 programme – and Shed Seven supporters turned out in full number, 6,500 filling the courtyard and the tiers above that transform as if by magic from two to three tiers. This is Yorkshire’s answer to summer opera at Arena di Verona, no less!

Guitarist Paul Banks on stage against the backdrop of The Piece Hall

The York band had last played here in their first gig out of Covid lockdowns on September 25 2021: strange circumstances, where proximity was gradually being reintroduced; circumstances too where drummer Alan Leach and guitarist Joe Johnson were in their last days before taking an “indefinite  break” from the line-up.

The Sheds returned on the crest of their second wave: two number one albums in 2024, a new album and biggest ever ShedCember tour on the way, and drummer Rob Maxfield’s gold drum kit  and guitarist and keyboards player Tim Wills settled into their groove alongside the familiar axis of bassist Tom Gladwin, guitarist Paul Banks and frontman Rick Witter.

Saturday’s focus, however, was on the past. Advance notice had suggested the set would open with 1996’s A Maximum High in track order, but Witter had promised surprises in his CharlesHutchPress interview. Wasn’t that Dirty Soul, the opening track to 1994 debut album Change Giver, cutting through the Halifax air after the band entered to Elmer Bernstein’s The Magnificent [Shed] Seven theme tune? Indeed so, to be followed by early favourites Mark and Dolphin.

Going for red: Rick Witter in that dazzling shirt, fit to burn any disco down

The grimy Shed Seven graffiti that formed the backdrop in black and white should have been a clue. Then Witter, as alert as ever to audience vibes, chipped in: “We know why you bought your tickets. We’re not stupid! It’s coming but not quite yet.” Cue Speakeasy, Witter’s first mention of his mum being in the audience, and Ocean Pie.

By now, the brass band, such a swell innovation at the Sheds’ brace of York Museum Gardens shows in 2024, and five-part Shed Seven Choir, as featured at Scarborough Open Air Theatre and Glastonbury last summer, had made their entry.

The Shed Seven scrawl made way for A Maximum High’s album cover – matched by trombonist Tim Hurst, saxophonist Andy Cox and trumpet player Jamie Brownfield’s T-shirts – and Witter jettisoned his black shirt in favour of a sparkling red number. He could have gone for gold, but maybe that was in the glitter.

A maximum high hat: Shed Seven drummer Rob Maxfield

Like any album, A Maximum High has its highs and lows, but those highs a very high – Getting Better, Where Have You Been Tonight?, Going For Gold and On Standby, all from Side 1, where track two, Magic Streets, held its own too, preceded  by Witter’s story of the song referring to “a house of ill repute above the Early Learning Centre”. “It’s about prostitutes. No-one knew!” he revealed.

After the audience sang its lusty version of On Standby before Witter joined in, there followed the lesser lights of Out By My Side, Lies This Day Was Ours, Ladyman and Falling From The Sky, some brought out of the vaults for the first time in two decades.

The Sheds gave them their all, Banks’s guitar parts especially so, but it was a lull, nonetheless, saved by the knowledge of what was coming next: schooldays’ crowd favourite Bully Boy, as belligerent and cocksure as ever, and Parallel Lines, the one helluva party album closer, with a light show to boot. No imagery from 30 years ago was shown, Witter painting the picture instead in anecdotes between songs.

The swanky Shed Seven logo, familiar from the past few years, returned for the rushing thrill of encores: High Hopes, latter-day landmarks Talk Of The Town and Let’s Go Dancing and the swaggering finale of Disco Down and Chasing Rainbows, sung by one and all as always as they exited.

Another night, another town, once more Shed Seven had burned this disco down.

Crowd shot: Shed Seven at the finale to Saturday’s A Maximum High 30th Anniversary Show at The Piece Hall

Posted on

Shed Seven to mark A Maximum High’s 30th anniversary with surprises in store at The Piece Hall, Halifax, on Saturday

Going out for the summer: Shed Seven, filmed by the huts on Brighton beach, are heading to Halifax this weekend

TICKETS sold out in only six and a half minutes for Shed Seven’s one-off 30th anniversary celebration of A Maximum High, their hit-laden 1996 album from Britpop’s apogee, at The Piece Hall, Halifax, on June 6.

Enjoying their second coming to the max, the York indie band will be opening the West Yorkshire outdoor venue’s summer of 41 shows, playing the 250,000-selling album in its entirety, complemented by a second set of career-spanning greatest hits and crowd favourites, in their only headline show of the British summertime.

“We are looking forward to giving A Maximum High’ the birthday party it deserves,” said lead singer Rick Witter, when tickets went on sale last October.

“We’re especially excited to be revisiting some of the songs we haven’t played for decades.  We hope that fans will come from far and wide to join us at this ‘one night only’ huge celebratory event.”

They will indeed be doing that – and in very different circumstances to the last occasion the Sheds played the Piece Hall courtyard on August 28 2021, headlining an all-Yorkshire bill featuring Leeds bands The Pigeon Detectives and The Wedding Present and York’s Skylights.

The album artwork for Shed Seven’s second album, A Maximum High, released on April 1 1996 on Polydor Records

“My big memory of that night was that it was a little weird because it was our first gig coming out of the [Covid-19] lockdown, when we were allowed to mingle again,” Rick recalls. “To go on stage close to all those people actually span my head a little after sitting on my own in my kitchen for months on end! It took a little time to adjust.”

The primary focus will be on A Maximum High, released in 1996 on Polydor Records on April 1 – this was no April Fool’s Day prank – and going on to peak at number eight, spend 26 weeks on the Official UK Album Charts and spawn five singles, Where Have You Been Tonight? (a hit in 1995), Getting Better, Going For Gold, Bully Boy and On Standby.

Before the year was out, stand-alone single Chasing Rainbows peaked at number 11,  making the Sheds the only British band to achieve five Top 40 singles in the UK charts that year.

Thirty years on, Rick looks back to the genesis of that landmark album. “We’d used an unknown producer [Jessica Corcoran] in 1994 for our debut, Change Giver, so it was very innocent, very raw. It was a case of, ‘these are the songs and that’s all we’ve got’, like REM and U2’s first albums,” he says.

“At this point it was all Blur versus Oasis, and we knew we had to hold our own. Out came Where Have You Been Tonight?, and then we kind of scrapped songs, then did a showcase in the record company offices of Bully Boy and Going For Gold, where the record label owner said he wasn’t convinced by Going For Gold!”

Shed Seven’s 2026 line-up: Paul Banks (guitar, keyboards), left, Rob Maxfield (drums), Rick Witter (lead vocals), Tom Gladwin (bass) and Tim Wills (guitars and keyboards)

They could have been dispirited but the Sheds responded by writing Lies, Getting Better and what would become the album-closer, the six-minute Parallel Lines, the Champagne Supernova of A Maximum High.

“I’d written the lyric ‘I’m feeling bright, I feel all new’ and we’d go round town shouting that line,” says Rick. “That set the tone, going into the studio.”

This time, too, they would be working with an established producer, Chris Sheldon, at RAK Studios. “He’d produced Therapy,” says Rick. “They were Mickie Most’s studios, with accommodation rooms for us and big sunken baths that you could imagine Status Quo having been in there!

“We got on a roll with it, and what potentially could have been a ‘difficult second album’ actually became quite easy. We then wrote Chasing Rainbows while we were on tour for the album and thought it was too good to hold back for the next album in two years’ time – and that song is now very much associated with that year.”

For all their achievements in that annus mirabilis, the Sheds did not garner the headlines of the likes of Blur, Oasis and Pulp. “I’ve never really been one to not be myself, and to get magazine covers you had to do something like slap someone around the face, and I’m just not that kind of guy,” says Rick.

Shed Seven’s poster for Saturday’s one-off concert, A Maximum High 30th Anniversary Show, at The Piece Hall, Halifax

“That hindered us in some respects, but that [behaviour] does not compute with me because music is for everybody. There were some nice things said about us by the music press, but also some terrible things, about my haircut, my choice of trousers I was wearing, but if we kept selling records, we were happy just trundling along!

“It was the same story with wanting to stay in York, where we knew everyone and we could stay grounded, whereas if we’d moved to London, I’m convinced we would have been finished by 1999. Going home from London, it was two hours on the train, then you’d be seeing your friends, they’d ask you questions and then they’d tell you about fixing radiators.”

Further hit singles would follow – 15 in total – but A Maximum High would live up to its title  until the Sheds’ renaissance was crowned with two number one albums in 2024. “I think we’re now in our second peak,” says Rick, as they look ahead to the biggest ever Shedcember 20 tour in November and December and continue to work on their next album. Already in the can is the video for the first single, filmed in Wakefield, but details will be kept under wraps until early July.

“The surprises” promised for The Piece Hall must remain a secret too until next Saturday’s set.  

Shed Seven, A Maximum High 30th Anniversary Show, TK Maxx Presents Live At The Piece Hall, Halifax, June 6, supported by special guests Seb Lowe and The Guest List. SOLD OUT. Doors open at 6.30pm.

Posted on

Shed Seven to play 21-date Shedcember X tour, heading to Sheffield Octagon & Leeds O2 Academy. When do tickets go on sale?

Shed Seven’s Paul Banks, left, Rob “Maxi” Maxfield, Rick Witter, Tom Gladwin and Tim Wills: Heading out on tenth edition of Shedcember in November and December

SHED Seven will conclude their Shedcember X 2026 Tour at Leeds O2 Academy on December 12, but no home-city gig will be on the York band’s 21-date itinerary.

The two-time album chart toppers will play a further Yorkshire show at Sheffield Octagon on November 27. Tickets go on general sale on Friday at 10am at https://lnk.to/ShedSevenX; fans can access pre-sale tickets from today (22/4/2026) at 10am by signing up to the Sheds’ mailing list at https://www.shedseven.com/signup.

Marking this much-loved festive run, the band have unveiled a heartfelt fan-focused film,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2um2NroTZ8, celebrating the tenth Shedcember season, written and directed by guitarist Paul Banks, capturing the essence of Shed Seven’s shows and the appreciation they have for their dedicated fan base.

Shedcember X promises to be the Sheds’ biggest and most celebratory yet. Since its inception in 2007, Shedcember has grown into a cult institution for fans, becoming their definitive start to the festive season.

Shed Seven singer Rick Witter: “Expect the big hits, along with a few surprises, and the thrill of us all singing our hearts out together for a couple of hours,” he says

Lead singer Rick Witter enthuses: “We can’t wait to get out there up and down the UK and soak up what is a unique atmosphere at a Shed Seven gig. Expect the big hits, along with a few surprises, and the thrill of us all singing our hearts out together for a couple of hours. See you down the front.”

Each night the Sheds will deliver a career-spanning set packed with anthems such as Going For Gold, Chasing Rainbows, Disco Down, On Standby and Talk Of The Town. Special guests The Academic, the Irish indie band with multiple number one  albums in their home country, will join for all dates.

As the Sheds’ tour announcement puts it: “If you’ve never been…this is the one to start with. If you have…you’re already know you’re coming…because every couple of years…this is where we meet again.

“For those who’ve been there before, Shedcember needs no introduction. It’s warm beer, bright lights and songs that never left you. Familiar faces in the crowd and new ones found somewhere between the first song and the last. Arms around shoulders. Voices filling every corner of the room.”

Shed Seven’s poster artwork for Shedcember X

This year, Shed Seven are marking the 30th anniversary of their hit-filled apotheosis A Maximum High, released on Polydor on April 1 1996 with its quintet of singles, Where Have You Been Tonight?, Getting Better, Going for Gold, On Standby and Bully Boy. The landmark Britpop album will be revisited in full at The Piece Hall, Halifax, on June 6. Tickets are on sale at ticketmaster.co.uk.

The full itinerary for Shedcember X is: November 13, Nottingham Rock City; November 14, Birmingham O2 Academy; November 17, Nick Rayns LCR, University of East Anglia, Norwich; November 19, Aberdeen Music Hall; November 20, Glasgow O2 Academy; November 21, Edinburgh Usher Hall; November 23, Leicester O2 Academy; November 24, Brighton Dome; November 26, Cardiff University Great Hall; November 27, Sheffield Octagon; November 28,   Newcastle O2 City Hall, and November 30, Cambridge Corn Exchange.

In December:  December 1, Bristol Beacon; December 3, Stockton Globe; December 4, Mountford Hall, Liverpool University; December 5, Manchester O2 Apollo; December 7, Lincoln Engine Shed; December 8, Stoke-on-Trent Victoria Hall; December 10, Bournemouth O2 Academy; December 11, London O2 Academy, Brixton, and December 12,
Leeds O2 Academy.

In the Sheds’ 2026 gig diary too are: Victoria Park, Warrington, May 23 and 24; Isle of Wight Festival, Big Top Tent, June 18; Engelfield House, Theale, Berkshire, July 24; Shed Seven Live In Belfast, Mandela Hall, Belfast, October 23, and Shed Seven Live In Dublin, Vicar Street, Dublin, October 24.

NEWSFLASH 24/4/2026

SHED Seven have added a second night at Leeds O2 Academy on December 13 in response to “phenomenal demand in the pre-sale” for December 12.

In addition, Shedcember X now will open a day earlier on November 12 at Nottingham Rock City after a similar pre-sale scenario for November 13. Box office: https://lnk.to/ShedSevenX.

The updated poster for Shedcember X with new dates added at Nottingham Rock City and Leeds O2 Academy

Posted on

Shed Seven to play A Maximum High in full on 30th anniversary in ‘one-night-only’ gig at The Piece Hall, Halifax on June 6 2026. When do tickets go on sale?

Shed Seven in concert at Scarborough Open Air Theatre in June 2025. The Piece Hall, Halifax, awaits next summer. Picture: Andy Little

SHED Seven will be mark the 30th anniversary of landmark 1996 album A Maximum High with a special one-off gig at The Piece Hall, Halifax, on June 6 2026.

In the York band’s only headline show of Summer 2026, they will perform their most hit-laden album in full, followed by a second set packed with the Britpop alumni’s greatest hits. Special guests that night will be Seb Lowe and The Guest List.

Tickets go on general sale on Friday (24/10/2025) at 10am at thepiecehall.co.uk andticketmaster.co.uk.

Singer Rick Witter says: “We are looking forward to giving A Maximum High the birthday party it deserves. We’re especially excited to be revisiting some of the songs we haven’t played for decades.  We hope that fans will come from far and wide to join us at this ‘one- night-only’ huge celebratory event.”

Released on April 1 1996, A Maximum High was a defining moment for the Sheds,  reaching number eight, selling more than 250,000 copies and spawning five Top 40 singles, 1995 hit Where Have You Been Tonight?, Getting Better, Going For Gold, Bully Boy and On Standby.

The band achieved chart history when Chasing Rainbows, released later in 1996, made them the only British band to notch five Top 40 singles in the UK charts that year.

The last two years have been nothing short of extraordinary for the Sheds. They achieved two number one albums in 2024 with January’s A Matter Of Time and September’s Liquid Gold  – a feat only 19 other acts have managed in the UK charts – and in September 2025 they were crowned Best Live Performer at the AIM Independent Music Awards, an accolade made even more special as it was voted for by the public.

The poster for Shed Seven’s one-night-only A Maximum High 30th anniversary gig

This year too, the Sheds played to 28,000 when supporting Paul Heaton, at Bramall Lane, Sheffield, in May; made their long-overdue debut at Scarborough Open Air Theatre in June, and played Sounds Of The City 2025, at Castlefield Bowl, Manchester, and Leeds Millennium Square in July.

In a summer of 14 festival and open-air shows, they returned to Glastonbury on June 27 for the first time in 30 years, revelling in a late-afternoon set on the Woodsies tented stage. “It appears we have become big-time Charlies,” Witter told the crowd, as the Sheds performed with five backing singers, three horn players and Elvis-fronted Nirvana tribute act Elvana’s frontman Paul Kell (aka Kellvis), who joined Rick on vocals for Suspicious Minds.

Next June’s celebration concert will be a welcome return to The Piece Hall for York’s indie stalwarts after a sold-out headline show in the open-air courtyard in 2021.

Shed Seven join Embrace, Ethel Cain, Billy Ocean, The K’s, Opeth and David Gray among the first headliners to be announced for TK Maxx presents Live at The Piece Hall 2026.

Nicky Chance-Thompson, chief executive officer of The Piece Hall Charitable Trust, says: “These announcements just keep ‘getter better’! It’s going to be quite the party when these Yorkshire heroes head back to our beautiful courtyard.

“Shed Seven played here back in 2021, and marking the 30th anniversary of their iconic 1996 album seemed to perfect time to invite them back. Hearing A Maximum High in full, plus all their greatest hits on top, will make this an unmissable gig for their legions of fans.”

Today’s announcement follows a record-breaking year at The Piece Hall when 36 headline shows drew 185,000 ticket sales: a new box-office record for the historic West Yorkshire venue. Plans are well underway for 30-plus shows next year.

Posted on

Shed Seven to re-start Covid-stalled tour tomorrow. Leeds concerts WILL go ahead

Back on the bus: Shed Seven head to London tomorrow

SHED Seven will resume their Covid-interrupted Another Night, Another Town – Greatest Hits Live Tour tomorrow night.

The York band had to postpone their run of dates from December 10 in Nottingham to tonight’s gig in Bristol after members of the touring party tested positive for Covid-19.

The Sheds play the London Roundhouse tomorrow and Saturday, then Leeds O2 Academy on Monday and Tuesday, finishing off on the other side of the Pennine divide at Manchester Academy on Wednesday.

The band tweeted last night: “Excited to confirm that the tour WILL resume this Friday in London – let’s finish what we started!! New dates for the shows that were postponed will be announced next week. Shed Seven Ride Again…See you down the front. x.”

Bumping into tour manager Leon Banks in York city centre this morning, he said the revised dates would be in March. Meanwhile, to ensure maximum Covid safety, the band would be heading straight from the tour bus to the London Roundhouse to play each night’s gig, then back onto the bus, and finally back up to York.

On December 10, on the day of their Nottingham Rock City gig, the Sheds posted the statement: “We regret to announce that due to members of our tour party testing positive for Covid, we have been forced to postponer our run of shows from Bristol to Nottingham. These shows will be rescheduled to next year.

“We plan to complete the tour from London onwards, which should allow us time to ensure that everybody is safe and the show can be delivered to the same standard as it has so far. We are absolutely gutted to bring you this news as the tour has been amazing.

“We’re sorry for the late notice and apologise to those that have booked travel and accommodation. Thanks for the support and love to you all. Shed Seven”

The “Shedcember” tour had begun, as always, in Scotland on November 22 in Dundee, but gig number 13 in Birmingham on Dec 9 turned out to be unlucky number 13, with the itinerary stalling at that point until tomorrow’s resumption.

The Sheds will be looking to finish on a maximum high in the year when the limited edition, 500-copy 25th anniversary vinyl reissue of 1996’s singles-laden A Maximum High sold out pronto.

Tickets are still available for both Leeds gigs at ticketmaster.co.uk/shed-seven-leeds. Doors open at 7pm each night.