O2 Forum Kentish Town, London, UK (05 Aug 2017)
Star Shaped Festival

The theme from Cheers pours from the speakers whilst Jon Stewart (guitar) and Andy Maclure (drums) take their positions on the stage. Louise Wener emerges from stage left to take her place at the microphone. Turning to face a London crowd for the first time in almost two decades, she stands still and says nothing; she just looks at the crowd and smiles a gloriously toothy grin and the audience, in turn, explodes with delight. Just her appearance back on a stage gets a much bigger response than any of the afternoon’s other acts have received for anything. It’s lovely…the heightened mood makes it almost a picture perfect moment. She stretches out the opening bars of ‘Pyrotechnician’ in an almost playful fashion and everyone seems fit to burst. With the thrashing opening bars of the main melody, it’s literally only a second before the crowd erupts into a mass of bouncing and lurching bodies and the tune itself comes across with an angular style and confidence. Wener is in great voice and it’s great to watch Jon adding various guitar textures to this great tune. As one of the more overlooked tracks from the debut album (1995’s ‘Smart’), it makes a perfect set opener. Moving through a ferociously taut ‘Dress Like Your Mother’ and ‘Delicious’ without missing a step, the band falls into a hugely confident stride, almost as if they’ve never been away. From a great vantage point from near the back of the ground floor, it’s entertaining to see an audience that’s not only swept along with the moment, but truly unified.

(excerpt)

While the future of the band remains uncertain, this gig has been amazing. It’s great to have Sleeper back, even if only for a while.

O2 Forum Kentish Town, London, UK (05 Aug 2017)
Star Shaped Festival

Walking onto stage to the Cheers TV show theme song Where Everybody Knows Your Name, the crowd warming up their vocal chords for the hour ahead, the four piece open with debut album close Pyrotechnician, the opening lyrics “Throw me your matches ‘cos I like to burn stuff” spurring fans to throw matches towards the stage before the song takes flight, propelling the crowd to start their relentless pogoing.

“Hello Star Shaped London people, you look gorgeous!” Wener yells. “It’s been a long time and you haven’t changed a bit” she continues, a little tongue in cheek. “You look delicious” she smirks, introducing 1994 single Delicious. The hits continue thick and fast, The It Girl’s opener Lie Detector following on seamlessly from the hit album’s lead single What Do I Do Know?

Statuesque rolls into 1995 single Vegas (my personal favourite) and the crowd are visibly more engaged, be that due to the music or the copious amounts of beer consumed – which has already taken its toll on a few, one particularly legless fifty-something being carried out of a side door.

“Are you drunk enough for A tonic yet?” the 51-year-old frontwoman asks, teasing the group’s cover of Blondie hit Atomic before diving into disco tune Nice Guy Eddie, Wener making her signature shapes on stage as though she’d never been away, let alone taking a break of almost two decades.

One of the few bands to make it onto the cult soundtrack of the even more cult 1996 film Trainspotting, their cover of Blondie classic Atomic from the film airs next ahead of Smart single Inbetweener and the first of only two cuts from third studio album Pleased To Meet You, She’s A Good Girl. A three-song encore concluding with biggest hit Sale Of The Century sees Sleeper depart the stage.