Following the demise of the much missed Duchess, this is one of only a handful of places you would expect to see HMHB in Leeds. The Cockpit, The Uni or The Poly are a bit more central and would probably get bigger crowds, but who wants that when you can have the cosy intimacy provided by a sparsely populated Irish Centre? It was a bit like a wedding reception with everyone either sat round at tables or lurking at the bar, with a massive empty dance-floor. All that was missing was those white table-cloths. Maybe the place needs to go back to the days when Fred Trueman introduced "Indoor League" from there.
Zane were first up and played about half an hour. They did OK but there was nothing there to make them stand out from any other Travisesque band (so that's them destined for stardom then). A scan of the set list shows that HMHB played nine songs from "Trouble Over Bridgwater" and also went back to "T. Riots", "H. Quinn", and "Squabble". And the encore included a splendid "B. Todd". There were also the beginnings of a song involving Radiohead and Birkenhead. A review of the album in the cold light of day leaves me wondering if they have ever played "Cynical At Christmas" live. Or are they holding it back, ready for an assault on the charts at the end of the year?
And the supply of Evil Gazebo golf-tees is running out, so get to a gig very soon.