Terrorvision Use The Magic To Raise The Bar

If the name The Bar Stool Preachers sounded unusual, it all began to make sense when witnessing this distinctive band in concert. The six piece looked like a gang having a party on stage where the audience was invited to join in. Their influences are diverse; Choose My Friends was a mix of punk and metal, while their signature tune, The Bar Stool Preachers, came across as a ska music number that wouldn’t have sounded out of place at a Madness gig.

By the end of the set, the audience had been shaken, stiffened, and spirited, and the bar had been raised in an experience that was electrifying.

Thirty years ago, Bradford’s Terrorvision arrived on the music scene with their debut album, Formaldehyde, and went on to have success on the tail end of the BritPop movement.

Dressed stylishly in black and pink, the band were given a homecoming welcome at St George’s Hall in Bradford to celebrate their tricenary. The set list read like some of the best pop/rock songs to come out of Yorkshire, with Alice What’s The Matter, Tequila, and Perseverance aptly demonstrating the point.

The band has not released any new material for over ten years, albeit apart from a few Christmas songs; there is a danger that they might become a nostalgia act, though admittedly they do have a strong back catalogue.

The added brass section worked well, particularly on Best Friend, a song that comes with a laid-back jazz middle eight section.

As the Carly Simon track Nobody Does It Better was heard over the PA as the band exited the stage, it could not have been a finer description to describe tonight’s concert.