Chris Helme + Tom Hingley / Joseph's Well, Leeds

A recent addition to the regular Joseph's Well line-up was the 'Naked Bar Guitar' night, run and hosted by singer and guitarist Chris Catalyst, née May. As well as being an all round good egg, Chris later formed one of my favourite bands from Leeds, Eureka Machines, and was jammy enough to be asked to join Sisters Of Mercy's touring line-up. Back in 2001 though he was frontman of the band Catalyst, a writer for the Leeds Music Scene website and a regular at the Well. It wasn't exactly the Rolling Stones, I still thought it was quite a coup for Catalyst to book former Seahorse, Chris Helme, and former Inspiral Carpet, Tom Hingley. Although Joseph's Well was definitely at the forefront of the Leeds scene by this point, big (or medium in this case) touring acts were still thin on the ground. 

Me and my mate Spen got to the Well too late to catch opening act, Ramon but unfortunately not late enough to miss Tom Hingley's uninspiring set. Despite the fact that most of the audience were clearly there because of his links with the Inspirals, he hardly played any songs by his former band, and the ones he did play were ill-suited to being played acoustically, especially as he wasn't a very good guitarist. Opening track, "This Is How It Feels", sounded limp and grey without Clint Boon's organ riff, while the bland and drawn out "Two Worlds Collide" was even worse. A couple of ill-advised covers did little to engage the crowd, particularly an embarrassing take on the Janis Joplin classic, "Mercedes Benz". His new solo material was slightly better, but the gig room was half empty by the time he finished his set, with the majority of the audience deciding that refilling their pint glasses was a more interesting option than listening to Hingley.

Chris Helme had the fortune/misfortune to be plucked from obscurity by former Stone Roses guitarist John Squire to front his post-Roses band, The Seahorses. Although he had the opportunity to tour the world and have a small number of his own songs accepted by Squire, he also had to sing stupid utter nonsense about "Strap-on Sally" and "happiness being egg-shaped", which caused literally no-one to shed a tear when the Seahorses split while recording their second, unreleased, album. Although Helme had been responsible/part responsible for the only decent Seahorses songs, such as "Blinded By The Sun", "You Can Talk To Me" and "Moving On", he'd never really emerged from Squire's shadow. He must have been quite elated, therefore, to see a capacity Joseph's Well crowd greet him when he took to the stage.

Although he had more reason than Hingley to avoid material by his former band, he played great versions of "Moving On" and "Blinded By The Sun", alongside his newer material, which was pretty good. Helme managed to sidestep the 'generic indie' pitfalls, thanks to some catchy melodies, a great stage presence and an excellent vocal range.