The Project

WHEN MATT, YAZ, SAM AND SHANA SAW CLICKSHAFT, ED SHEERAN AND THE FUZZ.

Turning up at dusk to The Marquee, which is a building the word ‘pub’ fully embodies – hard wooden floors, a pool table constructed in Yarmouth, and peanuts dispensed from a cardboard picture of a woman in a bikini – we were immediately spotted as press. It could have been our style, our finesse, our artistic vibe, or the press passes, but this will endure as a mystery. A member of staff saw Matt’s aged face (20 hard years have left their mark), and asked "I thought you guys were from a newspaper for young people?" After establishing who we were and our ages, we went to the backroom venue.

Being a pub incarnate, a place like this almost requires that there be a dingy backroom for local wannabes to strut their stuff. The Marquee takes this requirement above and beyond by, apparently, covering the back yard with a roof and building a stage next to it made out of shed. We got in just to catch five guys hanging around on stage, messing around with instruments, who turned out to be Clickshaft sound-checking. However talented as they are as musicians, I defy anyone to say they actually look like a band. We were quickly whisked away to the backroom, where Shana took photos of the Fuzz – a band that at first glance look not unlike a stock indie band – whilst Matt made up questions off the cuff with massive amounts of prompting from Yaz and Sam.

The gig opened with Clickshaft, the oldest of the bands – the average age being 26 – and therefore most sensible-looking of the acts. That said, they do have a trombonist, so our immediate prejudice towards them is positive, and they didn’t disappoint. Clickshaft are… well… weird. Their sound seems to lie in the netherworld between ska and funk – a classification that they continuously defied at will – which kept their set genuinely interesting throughout.

Clickshaft were followed by Ed Sheeran, a lone fiery-haired guitarist from London. He used samples of himself to make the set sound like that of a classical guitar hip-hop orchestra, managing to work in samples from In da Club by 50 cent without ever losing the folk rock overtones to his set. Truly a skill that is genuinely baffling, yet nonetheless awesome.

The last act of the night was The Fuzz. With three out of the five band members having massive Kooks-esque afros, we could be forgiven for deciding offhand that we were going to spend the next forty minutes listening to bland pop. We were pleasantly blown away – mainly by the presence of a clarinet and a massive bongo, both of which featured in The Fuzz’s set. Stuff like that (and the lead guitarist’s undone flies) distracted us from whatever preconception we had about their indie-kid look.

Everyone should see these bands. Facebook them, stalk them, sneak into their gigs. If they’re playing near you, go watch.