The Chapman Family @ The Cluny 15/10/09

The Chapman Family

The Cluny 15/10/09

There is always a certain charm to seeing a local band coming good inside the hallowed walls of The Cluny. To see them stepping up from the conveyor belt of standard Northern lad-rock and hopeless bohemian types to take the first rung on the ladder to national recognition, and an assault against the standard Manchester-London axis that dominates the British musical landscape. The Chapman Family hail from Stockton on Tees (nearer Middlesbrough than Newcastle I’ll admit but the North East it remains…) and tonight they did indeed come good. Meeting the boys before hand and ending up embroiled in a discussion about which member of Take That has the most edge about him and the best period of Bowie’s career, reassured me about their musical ethics, with Kingsley, vocalist of the band, claiming that they started a band due to boredom and frustration with everything else they were hearing. Thus they had erected a significant platform from which they would have to prove that they were indeed something different, something aside from the generic that sparked them into life. And that they were, playing an hour long set that bristled with raw and energetic passion, often bordering on all out fury, but always reigning it in before their musical intent was compromised. Kingsley’s vocals switched in an ear-shattering second from quiet contemplation to raging outbursts, highlighted in their best known single ‘Kids’, which was received well by a decent sized crowd, considering that they are still unsigned and with only two major release singles. New single ‘Virgins’, which the tour is promoting, sounded like a pissed of Futureheads or Glasvegas if they stopped moping and just let it all out, and highlighted a further potential which bodes well for The Chapman Family to step up and take this country by storm.