The Shades Live at The Vaults

The pre Halloween capacity crowd were baying for pole position in anticipation of a scarily entertaining performance from celebrated rising stars The Shades.

It was just after 9pm the band opened proceedings with The Arctic Monkeys bitter sweet rocker ‘Mardy Bum’ setting out their musical stall with authority from the opening chord.

An indication from the outset that tonight was about feel good contemporary classics that demanded crowd participation, no problem with that as the evening unfurled , Banbury up for it with the appropriate gusto.

Both sets showcased the sheer abundance of great British rock and popular music, with nods to the Britpop era, post millennium periods, and brave left field digression into the sixties with The Rolling Stones classic blue eyed soul rocker ‘Satisfaction’ it worked.

Stateside legends were represented with Kings of Leon 'Use Somebody' The White Stripes 'Seven Nation Army' and the monumental Killers behemoth that is ‘Mr Brightside’

Canada icon Bryan Adams was acknowledged with a truly rousing interpretation of ’Summer of 69’ a real highlight of the night, along with an inspired cover of The Libertines bombastic ‘Don’t look back into the Sun’

The audience participation award was a tough call tonight, virtually all songs fitting the criteria, but up there were ‘Chelsea Dagger, Parklife, ‘Staceys Mum’ and the iconic ‘Don’t look back in Anger’ ( we heard them say)

The show drew to a close, with a rousing audience demanded encore and a further anthemic Oasis standard ’Wonderwall’

Another assured performance from surely one of the most entertaining bands in the area, enigmatic lead singer Ben cavorts,caper, commanding the stage backed by his musically tight and competent bandmates Danny, Richard, Andy and Lewis.

Tonight was a celebration of our small islands contribution to music , no one else writes lyric, melody and pathos as we do with such abundance and variety.

It gives multi talented bands like The Shades a foundation , a reason to perform, and to project such joy in that performance.

They show respect to their peers , whilst at the same time injecting personality and exuberance of their own to great effect.

Queues outside the renowned venue illustrated the popularity of the band , who are working on original material which will be definitely (not maybe) worth waiting for.

Don’t worry lads , the futures bright.