It’s Written In The Stars The Sherlocks Are Going Everywhere

May Bank Holiday weekend saw South Yorkshire icons The Sherlocks take on our very own Stylus venue. This was the only Yorkshire date on the whole tour, and it was high in demand to be there. There was a lot of excitement around this tour as it was building up to the release of their fifth album Everything Must Make Sense and the race was on to get to number one.

The Sherlocks pride themselves on giving love to smaller talents coming through the independent industry, for Leeds they chose the amazing The Manatees and Cusp. Southampton’s The Manatees brought the energy and got the crowd going straight away. They powered through their set with high pace and distinct vocals. Cusp, hailing from Milton Keynes, were beautifully put together across their set and it’s easy to see why when frontman Dan has such intelligent insights into writing and crafting each song. It was really inspiring watching his The Sherlocks podcast episode and getting a feel for how their band works.

After 2 exciting support slots, the crowd were ready and raring to go for The Sherlocks to grace the stage. After seeing them at Don Valley Bowl, which was the most incredible day out and supporting Shed Seven in Hull, I couldn’t have been more excited for them to get out on stage at my own uni. Prior to the tour, The Sherlocks had been grafting away to promote the album, meeting fans after every Shed Seven show, constant Instagram livestreams and a lot of beautifully made teasers for each single. It all felt like it had been building up to this moment, the chance to hear the new songs live.

The band were introduced via the cheerful ‘Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag’, which got the crowd clapping along. They swaggered onto the stage with cheers so loud all of Leeds would’ve heard. They started with the newest single and album title track ‘Everything Must Make Sense’ and then ‘Escapade’ which is the first song of there’s I ever heard. There was no letting up from there as they continued with pace and power through high-speed tunes back-to-back, across all their albums. There was only a moment to take a breather from the amazing guitar solos, intelligent drum riffs and unique vocals with a slow interlude called ‘Porto’. This only meant one thing: one of the greatest songs ever made was next, ‘Falling’. This featured one of my favourite solos and is clearly a fan favourite too as no one in the room was still. Continuing the precedent of mind-blowing songs was ‘Bones’, another single off the upcoming album and this brought a very welcome surprise. It was double the length, the chorus made 3 appearances rather than 2 like in the single version, and the outro they played was simply beautiful. ‘Live For The Moment’ was another highlight as the band got the crowd to sing the bridge a few times over to build up to the final chorus which has always been a staple part of their sets. They powered through the rest of their set with no break to walk off for an encore, contrary to the general trend, still maintaining that infectious energy the crowd all loved. And to end a perfect night, ‘Chasing Shadows’ closed it out with more crowd singing and the band and crowd clapping together in unison.

The Sherlocks are a truly underrated band part of a rich line of South Yorkshire bands but stand out with their consistency, fan loyalty and true grafting spirit. Their gig in Leeds was a celebration of all their hard work to date and was a great teaser of the album to come.

Words by Ruby Macklin