Y Plas, Cardiff University Students Union, Thurs 1 Oct
Postpunk poets Sleaford Mods stumbled into Cardiff with a can in one hand while the other is clenched ready to cause a class riot. Off the back of their latest and most widely exposed album Key Markets, Jason Williamson (vocalist) and Andrew Robert Lindsay Fearn (instrumentalist) delivered a stripped-back, minimalist set which went down like a four-pack of Red Stripe in front of a packed crowd of young punks and mods.
The out of nowhere success of the middle-aged duo has something to say about the ever-growing unrest between the class systems in Britain. Songs like Jobseeker, Mr Jolly Fucker or Tied Up In Nottz seem to resonate with the anger and frustration of the younger generations that are born into council flats with no hopes or work. Whether they like to say it or not, Sleaford Mods have picked up where Oasis left off as the voice of the working class.
Williamson’s vocals incorporate the sounds of spoken-word punk poets, the likes of John Cooper Clarke or Mark E Smith, with the edge of hip-hop. He stamps on stage with all the anger and musicality of a gorilla and bursts out each lyric like it’s the last thing that will ever come from his mouth. In contrast, Fearn slinks onto stage like a homeless man wanting to pinch a fag. Andrew’s sole job is to press play on his laptop and stand back and bob while the fast rhythmic beat is injected into the crowd. And the crowd came prepared to violently bounce their shoulder back and forward as the anger seeps into them.
What makes the Sleaford Mods stand out from endless punk posers like Slaves is that their stage presence has no air of pretension whatsoever. You feel like they don’t give a fuck if they were playing in front of five people in a local pub or performing in front of thousands at Glastonbury.
words JAYDON MARTIN