SHED Seven have added extra dates in Leeds and Manchester in response to ticket demand for their December tour, but hold your horses if you are frustrated that a home-city gig in York is still not on their winter agenda.

The Sheds are planning to pitch an idea for a special concert at Bootham Crescent as the curtain falls on York City’s football ground after 84 years next summer.

“Not playing York this winter does open the way to maybe doing something a little bigger as a one-off next year,” says frontman and band spokesman Rick Witter. “I’m still holding out for something at Bootham Crescent when City leave the ground, though we’re yet to negotiate anything with the club.

“But, to me, it would make a lot of sense to do it, because of the connection we have with City, like the Shed 7 football shirts.

“In the past, you could have said ‘Oh, it will ruin the grass’, but after the last ever game there next year, you could create a stage, you have the in-house lights already, maybe some pink spots on the floodlights and there you go.”

Let’s make it a day of York music, suggests Rick, looking at the possibility of a full-scale summer show. “Why not have us headlining it and have other York bands supporting us?” he ponders.

Watch this space for further developments on what is only a proposal at this stage but one that hopefully will gain momentum. Before then, the Sheds will be on the road for a 16-date winter tour that will end with two nights at the Leeds O2 Academy on December 21 and 22.

The first Manchester Academy concert on December 11 sold out in only three hours, prompting the hasty addition of a second show on December 12, and all tickets have gone for the Sheds’ London concert at the Roundhouse on December 19 on a tour when the special guests will be fellow Nineties chart-botherers Inspiral Carpets. “We last played together on a short UK tour 21 years ago,” recalls Rick.

He urges York fans to make their way down the A64 to Leeds this December. “Leeds is the nearest venue to here and it’s a bit of a difference to York playing in Leeds, so I would suggest that anyone from York who’s not seen us play in Leeds should make that 20-mile journey because the atmosphere is massively different and these shows will be the last of the tour.”

Rick, an avid Twitter tweeter and follower, has been delighted by the reaction to the tour. “We announced it at the end of February and it’s not happening for another nine months, but the excitement it’s produced on Twitter is fantastic. It’s gone mental and it’s actually made me excited about the tour already,” he says.

While these biannual gigs by the reformed Shed Seven are inevitably nostalgic in character, Rick has noticed a new dimension. “When I’m looking out at the crowd, I’m seeing people of my age [Rick is 42] and slightly older, but also their children are there, singing every word, so it’s not like they’ve been dragged there!” he says.

“At the end of the day, we must be quite a good live act, who put our heart and soul into it, and I think that’s vital because it’s important that people go away saying, ‘what a great gig that was’.

“With cultish bands like us and James, everyone is there for the same reason: to sing their hearts out and to recall that particular time when they were growing up singing those songs. Like it’s a given that we’ll finish each gig with Chasing Rainbows; as soon as I say ‘thanks for coming’, the crowd know it’s time for Chasing Rainbows and it becomes a celebration together.

We’ll go off and ten minutes later, they’ll still be there singing that song. It’s like a communion of voices and that’s the biggest buzz you can get.”

The Sheds’ enjoyment of still performing the likes of Going For Gold and Disco Down is infectious. “We genuinely love playing live and it’s like a great big ball of love that keeps on rolling,” says Rick.

He instinctively knows what question is coming next. “You’ll be asking if we’re going to write any new songs, won’t you? It gets a little frustrating for me because I’m the band spokesman and I’d like us to write new stuff, but it just isn’t possible at the moment because everyone is so busy with other things, and there’s no point doing it without full commitment,” he says.

“But I would love us to try something, even if we just tried. Maybe I should just start writing something myself... but artistry isn’t like a tap; you can’t just turn on the tap, and you do wonder if it’s still there, but whenever we meet up, we jam and I come up with melodies. I have a notebook where I’m constantly writing down ideas.”

• Shed Seven tour tickets are on sale at gigsandtours.com and on 0844 811 0051.

 

Did you know?

Shed Seven performed on BBC1’s Top Of The Pops no fewer than ten times.