The last time I went to the Town and Country Club in Leeds was in December 1998 to see Gomez (it wasn’t until they did a cover of the Door ‘Soul Kitchen’ that I realised how much Ben Ottewell sounded like Jim Morrison). Soon after that it ceased to operate as a gig venue and changed into a Discotheque.

10 years later and going to gigs is fashionable again and the venue has reopened under the umbrella of the Academy group. Great news for Leeds I think. The Kaisers opened the venue and on the next night Simon and I went to see the Foals.

The Foals LP ‘Antidotes’ didn’t do a lot for me. It felt a bit ‘try hard’ and intentionally obscue, so when Si said he had a spare ticket and asked if I wanted to go……initially I wasn’t that bothered. Then in a spirit of “Well, it’s a gig, and in the new T&C, and you never know….” I accepted his offer – and I’m SO GLAD I DID!

We caught the end of the Wild Beasts (who seemed anything but sounding like Coldplay to me) and were handed one of their very nice balloons. First impressions of the venue were good – but it was bloody loud!

The Foals came on to a moodily lit set and did a good 10 minutes of intricate noodling, caal and answering on the guitars and generally building things up until the crowd were exstatic and then they burst into life to give a quite remarkable set. The two guitars entwined their African tinged, high up the fret board sounds to wonderful effect and the drummer was awesome. Front man Yannis Philippakis leaped bare-chested into the crowd near the end – the boy’s a star!

So I get home – deaf but happy and feel I need to give the LP another shot……hmmm – still doesn’t work for me but live – this band are Killers!

Bob the Chiropodist