★★★☆☆
Stockport’s Blossoms started the year on a golden high. The only band on the BBC’s Sound of 2016 list, they were finding an ever-increasing audience for their 1960s-tinged indie rock, with more and more girls swooning at the sight of the singer Tom Ogden’s lustrous locks shaking back and forth on stage. Then the four members and manager of Viola Beach, the young Cheshire band who had been touring as Blossoms’ support act, were killed in mid-February when their van plunged off a bridge outside Stockholm. The two bands had played a gig together only two days earlier. For their dates since then Blossoms have been playing a recording of Viola Beach during the time that they would have been performing their set.
With such a recent tragedy hanging in the air it wouldn’t have been surprising if Blossoms had their mind on other things, but this extremely short set, with no encore, wasn’t the best showcase for their potential as a great new British guitar band. Only nine songs long, it featured at least one classic in Blow, which combined minor-key moodiness with the kind of bravado not seen since the glory days of Stone Roses and the La’s, while At Most a Kiss sounded like the kind of sharp, new-wave pop hit, brimming with both hooks and attitude, that Blondie used to do so well. But it was over in a flash and the band were yet to get the hang of stagecraft.
“Give a round of applause for the keyboard player,” said Ogden after one song. “Give a round of applause for the drummer,” he said after another. “Give a round of applause for . . .” You get the idea. The biggest round of applause came for Viola Beach. The timing of this gig was unfortunate, but the catchy tunes and the self-belief of Blossoms put them in the noble lineage of Stone Roses, Oasis and other northern, working-class bands with dreams of rock glory.
On tour: The Tunnels, Aberdeen, Mar 2; Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Mar 3; Kasbah, Coventry, Mar 4; Sugarmill, Stoke-on-Trent, Mar 5