Feeder: The Stage, Leeds Metropolitan University

I could almost feel the silver in my hair as I reminisced about my first Feeder purchase as a cherub-faced 7 year old; saving my not-so-hard-earned pocket money to buy their magical, grungy debut ‘Polythene’ and being called ‘little dude’ by the shop assistant.

Back then, our boys sported long hair, loud clothes and peddled a much heavier, Kerrang-worshipping sound. But that was a long time ago.

As a fan of fourteen years, I naturally walked into this gig with astronomical expectations – though my self-professed fandom may on the surface inhibit my words, I am never shy to admit when a gig is, to be frank, a big pile of brown smelly stuff.

Tonight, Feeder managed to avoid stepping in any. A stage full of smiles saw two surviving original members Grant Nicholas and Taka Hirose take the band through a live jukebox of their greatest hits, interspersed with tracks from their latest offering; ‘Renegades’. New songs such as ‘Call Out’ and the rallying call of the title track bleed seamlessly amongst old school rockers ‘Insomnia’ and the inevitable ubiquity of ‘Buck Rogers’.

Drummer Karl Brazil was solid and thunderous throughout; all symbol splashes and some roaring melodrama on the tom-toms as if channelling the spirit of the late and greatly missed Jon Lee.

The long-forgotten favourite ‘Yesterday Went Too Soon’ marked a welcome return to the set, and for a moment, had this writer bleeding tears from his eyes.

‘Pushing the Senses’ and ‘Feeling a Moment’ fired the band, and indeed the venue, into interstellar overdrive, soaring across astral planes and inducing the kind of euphoria brought on only by copious amounts of ‘special brew’.

The double-whammy encore of ‘Seven Days In the Sun’ and ‘Just a Day’ brought the evening to a rousing, ear-splitting close, having purchased my obligatory t-shirt on my way out, I spent the train journey home in a pie-eyed daze.

My only grumble had to be at the lack of any early material – we’re talking ‘Swim’ and ‘Polythene’ era here – but since they’d recently indulged these on their recent ‘back to the clubs’ tour, I can forgive them for that.

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