Where Fires Are live in Leeds

Closing their UK tour (following their release of their 3rd EP) in their home city of Leeds, I was extremely impressed with this band I’d never heard of previously. Not only have they become a confident outfit who look at ease on stage, lead singer Robbie Gillespie has an awesome, formidable vocal range. James Clegg […]

Closing their UK tour (following their release of their 3rd EP) in their home city of Leeds, I was extremely impressed with this band I’d never heard of previously. Not only have they become a confident outfit who look at ease on stage, lead singer Robbie Gillespie has an awesome, formidable vocal range. James Clegg was commanding on the bass, setting the rhythm throughout and linking well with drummer Matt Exton and Nick Banks on the keys. The band used the keyboard to great effect especially in ‘They Are The Enemy‘ resulting in an almost hauntingly beautiful sound at times, with great riffs in all the songs coming from Ash Reynolds.

Given more time together I can really see this band going places and having huge anthems and stadium sing a longs. Although the band were new to me I felt I connected with their performance and felt as if I’d seen them live many times before and the majority of the crowd were singing along and wearing ‘Where Fires Are’ T-shirts and knowing most of the lyrics, which is rare for an unsigned band although, I can see someone giving these guys a record deal at some point in the future.

For me personally, my favourite song by these guys is ‘Your Brother’ it has the hauntingly beautiful and powerful sound the band do so well, for me it has the potential to be a hit record, and the demographic is huge for this type of song, similar to songs like ‘Clocks – Coldplay’ or ‘Kings of Leon – Use Somebody’ which means its only a matter of time until these guys have a song worthy of a Brit Award.

The Band who are a 5 piece from Leeds consisting of: Robbie Gillespie, Nick Banks, James Clegg, Matt Exton and Ash Reynolds who are really down to earth nice guys and they deserve a lot of credit for the performance last Friday at Brudenell Scoial Club. There were a decent amount of people there and the support acts chosen complimented each other resulting in a good night for everyone who attended. At first the crowd were slightly subdued but in time the crowds will get bigger the songs will get better and I cant wait to see them again after that solid performance.

Sam Johnston

March 2, 2017

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