Speakeasy Vol 1 – Buckinghamshire New University, High Wycombe

A new venue and a new town, almost, for me. I haven’t been to High Wycombe for maybe 40 years, since my parents used to come here by train to visit friends who lived in Marlow (that was a hell of a long journey from Romford when you’re only 10).

But this was a fantastic day-and-a-half event put together by the team behind the Speakeasy fanzine. A mix of some 90s bands you might have heard of, some you might not, and some more contemporary artists who fit the bill well.

The venue itself was the SU bar and there were two rooms – the main room had fantastic sound, but the volume was sadly ear-splitting in the smaller room. The larger room had a cordoned off area close to the stage – which wasn’t a VIP area at all, but we still sat in it for each of the acts we saw there, which was a nice touch!

The highlight for me once again was Thousand Yard Stare, my 12th TYS gig (and my 10th in the 6 1/2 years since they decided to give it all another go). My Life Story went further up my top ten too – it was the 14th time I saw them.

But the 90s bands I hadn’t seen before were a pleasant surprise too. I caught the end of Triple Blind’s set which sounded great – and I caught The Kynd and The Real People for the first time too and they were both must-sees. The Institutes weren’t around in the 90s but their recent debut album is highly recommended.

Sadly no points for Space whose guitarist took to the stage with a very large “fuck woke” message on his shirt. I’m all for freedom of speech – but visibly showing you don’t care about people who want to fight social injustice is just a bit of a fash look that I don’t really care for. It’s all the more weird that you’d do that in a crowd which is more likely to be woke than fans of Nigel Farage – and in a band from Liverpool too. Some people just have no idea, do they?

Triple Blind