a rainy night in late october, i stepped out of my northern quarter flat headed to the castle hotel on oldham street.
not for a pint – although there were plenty to be had – but for one of the best gigs i’ve truly witnessed in a long while. carl north and his lonely hearts packed out the backroom with a sold out single launch for their newest track ‘worst of you’.
establishing last year and following a summer full of festivals – including glastonbury, D2D and YNot – the rhythm and blues band were joined by solis, scruffy bear and mister twisted who all warmed up an already sweaty and gloriously rowdy audience.
but when carl took the stage, the lights went down and the crowd was captivated by his stunningly echoey vocals to solo piece ‘sun to go down‘ – the rest of the band then joined him on stage and dove without hesitation into the next track ‘off guard‘.
what followed was a non-stop 45 minute set – an impressive 11 tracks, including a flawlessly funky cover of ray charles’ ‘i got a woman’ which got the crowd moving despite the heat of the cosy venue.
front man carl was visibly buzzing throughout, a factor that made the performance all that more satisfying to watch. the set was a haze of longing lyrics, bluesy guitar riffs, crashing rhythm and honeyed vocals – paired with the backing vocals of anna wilkes striking her tambourine to the beat.
chants for an encore were quick to emerge and the lonely hearts were only happy to oblige. ‘got my mojo working’ kept true to pace and crowd participation led by carl kept everyone singing and dancing their hearts out ’til the very end.
it was sweaty, it was steady and it was soulful.
CNATLH are what can only be described as ‘foot-stomping’, a raw and bluesy sound that you scarcely come across these days and it was certainly refreshing to the ears of this veteran local gig-goer.
You can next catch Carl North & The Lonely Hearts supporting The Americans at Gullivers NQ this Tuesday 7th November.
‘Worst Of You‘ is also available to stream on Spotify here.
cattface.com 