Hyde and Beast, The Sebright Arms, review: Music with the broadest smile on its face

Early-70s-inspired summer rock creates a fun game of 'spot the influence'

Hyde steps out from the kit to front the seven-piece outfit with his tremulous, Marc Bolan-like voice (Simon Hardeman)

Listening to Dave Hyde and Neil (“Silent Beast”) Bassett’s early-Seventies-inspired summer rock is the most fun game of “spot the influence” since the Dandy Warhols’ Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia. There are echoes of T Rex (and Tyrannosaurus Rex), Mungo Jerry, and much more - even folky singalong like Lobo.

Hyde and Bassett are drummers (with The Futureheads and The Golden Virgins respectively) and, while on record they share drumming duties, live it’s Hyde who steps out from the kit to front the seven-piece outfit with his tremulous, Marc Bolan-like voice. Behind him Bassett thumps away on a bass drum whose front skin is a mass of blue feathers. The amiable Hyde retains the diffidence of the drummer, announcing that he’s not that keen on talking too much, other than revealing it has taken them seven hours to get here (the band hail from the north-east).

That ordeal doesn’t blunt their enthusiasm as they stomp through a set drawn from their very-well-received recent album and EP, culminating in the “In the Summertime” groove of “Never Get to Heaven” and glam riff of “Blue”, the hugely infectious single that, like many of their songs, pins a melancholy lyric to a joyous tune. This is music with the broadest smile on its face: it’s OK to la-la-la once more.