Tag: Tim Wills

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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

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REVIEW: Shed Seven, Live Summer 2025, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 14 *****

 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

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Shed Seven to finish chart-topping 30th anniversary with November and December tour. When do tickets go on sale?

Shed Seven: 23 dates in November and December, including Sheffield, Halifax, Hull and Leeds. Picture: Barnaby Fairley

YORK chart toppers Shed Seven will conclude their 30th anniversary celebrations with a 23-date tour – their biggest ever – in November and December.

Yorkshire gigs on their now traditional biennial “Shedcember” itinerary will kick off with the tour-opening Sheffield Octagon on November 14, followed by Victoria Theatre, Halifax, November 18, Hull City Hall, November 19, and Leeds O2 Academy, November 30.

The tour’s closing night will take the Sheds to Brixton O2 Academy, London, on December 14. Keeping it Yorkshire, the support band at all shows will be The Sherlocks, Kiaran & Brandon Crook’s indie band from Bolton upon Dearne, Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

Tickets for the 30th Anniversary Tour will go on general sale on Friday (22/3/2024) at gigst.rs/SS24. Fans who sign up to the Shed Seven mailing list at shedseven.com/signup by 12 noon tomorrow (19/3/2024) can access an exclusive presale on Wednesday.

“The tour promises to be our biggest yet, as we revisit cities and towns that have been instrumental in shaping our journey over the past three decades,” says the Sheds’ website. “Each night will see the band deliver a career-spanning set, as well as featuring tracks from our number one album, A Matter Of Time.”

The poster for Shed Seven’s 30th anniversary tour

“Expect some surprise guest appearances along the way too,” they tease. “This tour will be our way of saying thank-you to our incredible fans, both old and new,” says frontman Rick Witter. “So, whether you’ve been with us from the beginning or are just discovering/re-discovering our music, we would love you to join us for what will be an unforgettable celebration of 30 years of Shed Seven.”

The Sheds now line up with stalwarts Witter on vocals, Paul Banks on guitar and Tom Gladwin on bass, joined by 2022 recruits Tim Wills on keyboards and Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield, once a member of Banks’s band The Rising, on drums.  

The Sheds’ 30th anniversary celebrations kicked off with the maximum bang when sixth studio album A Matter Of Time topped the official UK album charts in January, a feat matched by latest single Let’s Go Dancing in the vinyl, seven-inch, and Scottish singles charts.

Should you be wondering why York is absent from this winter’s tour, the Sheds will be playing two sold-out home-city gigs in the York Museum Gardens on July 19 as part of Futuresound’s four-night outdoor festival, bookended by Anglo-Italian singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti on July 18 and hit-laden London girl band Sugababes on July 21.

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It’s only a matter of days before Shed Seven will know if they have made number one for the first time after 30 years…so buy NOW!

Feel the heat: Shed Seven could be hot news this week in the album chart

YORK band Shed Seven are on the cusp of hitting the maximum high after 30 years of chasing rainbows. New album A Matter Of Time is standing proud at number one in the midweek chart.

Their sixth studio album and first for their new home of Cooking Vinyl is on course to see the Britpop alumni become the first York group to top the UK album chart, giving them the perfect start to their 30th anniversary celebrations. Come Friday afternoon, all will be revealed.

Earlier today, the Sheds posted on Facebook: “We’re over the moon to confirm that A Matter Of Time is #1 in the midweek album chart!! Thank you all SO MUCH for buying the album and getting us to this amazing position.

“It’s not a done deal yet as we’re against the usual major label artists, so now more than ever, if you can buy a copy or download the album, it makes a huge difference to our chart position. Unfortunately streaming doesn’t make a big difference. https://shedsevenn.lnk.to/AMOT”

“We’d also be the first ever artist from YORK to get a #1 album, so let’s bring it home!!!!” they added.

That claim is not strictly true, however: All of 60 years ago, York-born composer John Barry wrote the score for the James Bond film Goldfinger, whose soundtrack album topped both the British and American charts, knocking The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night off its perch in July 1964.

The promotional campaign has caught fire from the pre-sale start last autumn. All test pressings? Sold out. Limited-edition Blood Records vinyl edition? Sold out. Live edition of the album? Sold out.

Album release shows at Pryzm, Kingston upon Thames, on January 25, HMV Empire, Coventry, on January 26 and Project House, Armley Road, Leeds, on January 27 – the only times the Sheds will play A Matter Of Time in its entirety, coupled with a greatest hits set – all sold out too.

Timed to coincide with the album’s release last Friday, a ten-day record store tour began with meet & greet and signing appearances at HMV York, in Coney Street, and earlier that day at The Vinyl Whistle, in Headingley, Leeds, where the Sheds performed in stripped-back mode.

Shed Seven’s Paul Banks, left, Tim Wills, Rick Witter, Tom Gladwin and Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield in York Museum Gardens, where they will play two sold-out 30th anniversary shows this summer

The tour takes vocalist Rick Witter, guitarist Paul Banks, bassist Tom Gladwin and 2022 recruits Tim Wills, keyboards, and Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield, drums, to London, Southampton, Brighton, Bristol, Birmingham, Leamington Spa, Nottingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and back to London.  

At the weekend, Witter and Gladwin joined hosts Tim Lovejoy and Simon Rimmer in Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch studio, “chatting and cooking on gas”, followed later by a full band performance at the end of the show. “It will be the talk of the town!” they promised beforehand, in a reference to one of the album tracks.

Time matters, but it is not too late to support Shed Seven’s quest for the number one spot. A Matter Of Time is available to buy at shedsevenn.lnk.to/AMOTPR, with a range of album bundles and a new Going For Gold coloured vinyl LP format, exclusive to Banquet Records and limited to 300 copies.

Standing on the edge of achieving a new peak, the Sheds have returned to their roots with a deluxe digital download format that combines A Matter Of Time with Changed Giver, a stripped-back unplugged re-make of their 1994 debut album, Change Giver, recorded at Reel Studios in Elvington.

While Shed Seven have been a mainstay on the album charts over the past 30 years, their highest-charting record to date is 1999’s Going For Gold. That greatest hits collection peaked at number seven although 1996’s A Maximum High, 1998’s Let It Ride and 2017’s Instant Pleasures all made the Top Ten.

This summer, the Sheds will mark their 30th anniversary by playing two homecoming shows in York Museum Gardens on July 19 and 20  that sold out rapidly. Their special guest will be Peter Doherty, who contributes harmonies to the new album’s closing song, Throwaways.

Sheds’ vocalist Rick Witter enthuses: “Can you believe that after 30 years in the business, this album will be our highest-charting entry? We are also within reach of potentially getting our first number one album – we’d be the first band from York to reach the top! Thank you for all the support over the years and for A Matter Of Time. It’s genuinely appreciated. We have lots more planned throughout the year.”

Confirmed already is Shed Seven’s appearance at Blossoms’ Big Bank Holiday Weekend at Wythenshawe Park, Manchester, on August 25.

Expect more anniversary celebrations to be announced soon.

Shed Seven at last Friday’s meet & greet and signing session upstairs at HMV York
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Shed Seven launch new album A Matter Of Time in meet & greet session at HMV York

Shed Seven band members Paul Banks, left, Tim Wills, Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield, Rick Witter and Tom Gladwin at today’s meet & greet and signing session upstairs at HMV York

LET’S go. Shed Seven launched their 30th anniversary celebrations today with the release of sixth studio album A Matter Of Time, an accompanying video for opening track Let’s Go and an hour-long late-afternoon meet & greet, photo opportunity and signing session at HMV York.

Earlier in the day, the York band played in stripped-back mode at The Vinyl Whistle, in Headingley, Leeds, signing copies there too.

Released on their new home of Cooking Vinyl, A Matter Of Time has achieved a “phenomenal” amount of pre-orders, resulting in all copies of the live edition, Blood Records vinyl and all test pressings selling out months in advance.

The Sheds are marking the album’s release with a ten-date record store tour as A Matter Of Time looks set to become their highest-charting album ever: a record held by their 1999 compilation, Going For Gold: Greatest Hits, which peaked at number seven.

The campaign to take the Sheds to a maximum chart high has been bolstered by today’s announcement of a new Digital Deluxe edition of the new album that adds a re-recorded version of their September 1994 debut album, Change Giver, now retitled Changed Giver, available at store.shedseven.com.

“Let’s Go is the Sheds’ inner rock animal rearing its head and showing its teeth,” says Rick Witter

“2024 marks the 30th anniversary of our debut album,” says the Sheds’ website. “’To mark the occasion, we’ve taken a trip down memory lane and revisited the entire album in recording sessions at Reel Studios in Elvington, giving it a stripped-back, unplugged vibe that we think sounds amazing.

“We’ve poured our hearts into re-recording these songs, rediscovering the magic of the songs that started it all. It’s been a fantastic journey, and we’ve fallen in love with them all over again.”

Physical formatsof A Matter Of Time can bought at shedsevenn.lnk.to/AMOTPR, available as signed copies, vinyl and cassette editions in various colours, a regular CD and a deluxe edition with three extra tracks, Watch Out World, Feels Like Heaven and Starlings (demo).

The video for the raucous, punk-tinged rock’n’roller Let’s Go captures incendiary footage from July 15’s sold-out 6000-capacity headline show at Leeds Millennium Square last summer.

Hot news: The cover artwork for Shed Seven’s new album, A Matter Of Time, out today

Frontman Rick Witter, 51, says: “Let’s Go was always intended to be the grand opener to the album. It shows a statement of intent. It’s the Sheds’ inner rock animal rearing its head and showing its teeth. It’s an invite for us all to hold hands and travel the globe. It’s tight, frenetic and a potential punch in the gut. Let’s go!”

A Matter Of Time features Sheds stalwarts Witter on vocals, Paul Banks on guitar and Tom Gladwin on bass, joined by 2022 recruits Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield, from Audioweb, on drums and Tim Wills, from Ian Brown’s band, on keys.

The recording sessions in Spain reunited the Sheds with Youth, the Grammy Award-winning producer of their 2017 comeback album Instant Pleasures, and mixing was by Cenzo Townshend, whose credits include Florence + The Machine and Inhaler.

The singles In Ecstasy (featuring Happy Mondays’ Rowetta), Starlings, F:K:H and Talk Of The Town were introduced to a rapturous reception on last autumn’s headline tour. Further tracks include the sky-scraping melancholia of Let’s Go Dancing, the dreamy folk-rock of Tripping On You, complete with backing vocals from Reverend & The Makers’ Laura McClure and the buoyant, vintage Britpop vibes of Ring The Changes.

The curtain comes down with a special collaboration with long-term Shed Seven fan Peter Doherty, who contributes vocal harmonies to Throwaways.

The artwork for Changed Giver, Shed Seven’s re-recording of 1994 debut album Change Giver, available to download with the digital edition of A Matter Of Time

This month’s Stripped Back, Signing and Meet & Greet record store tour will take the Sheds to London, Southampton, Brighton, Bristol, Birmingham, Leamington Spa, Nottingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and back to London.

They will end the month with a series of sold-out album release shows at Pryzm, Kingston upon Thames, on January 25; HMV Empire, Coventry, on January 26 and Project House, Armley Road, Leeds, on January 27 at 7pm, promoted by Leeds record store Crash Records. Each night, the Sheds will play A Matter Of Time in its entirety – for the only time, exclusive to these gigs – plus a greatest hits set.  

This summer’s special 30th anniversary concerts at York Museum Gardens on July 19 and 20 have sold out too. Peter Doherty will be the guest act on both nights. “We discussed adding a third night but thought selling out two so quickly was a good look – and we’re going to announce a big Shedcember tour sometime soon,” says Rick. “We’re conscious of overkill, even though I’m sure a third night would have gone pretty quick.”

Look out too for Shed Seven’s appearance at Blossoms’ Big Bank Holiday Weekend at Wythenshawe Park, Manchester, on August 25. Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk/blossoms-tickets.

Expect further 30th anniversary plans to be announced in the near future. Watch this space.

“We’re going to announce a big Shedcember tour sometime soon,” says Shed Seven’s Rick Witter. Picture: Barnaby Fairley