GIG REVIEWS

Hundred Reasons
@ Leeds Cockpit
20.01.08
www.vanguard-online.co.uk

 Originally intended to coincide with the release of their fourth album ‘Quick the Word, Sharp the Action’ in October of 2007, the tour had to be rescheduled to January due to Colin Doran, the lead singer, being diagnosed with nodes on his vocal chords and receiving a ‘speaking ban’ from his doctor. This, however, does not seem to have dampened any spirits and appears to have only increased the fans’ expectations and anticipations of the Hundred Reasons live experience.

Despite great support from Flood of Red and From Autumn to Ashes they fail to suppress the fans’ appetite and the band emerges on stage to raucous chants of ‘Reasons! Reasons!” Exactly the response they need after a year of turmoil and upheaval. As if the departure of guitarist Paul Townsend (replaced by Ben ‘Royal’ Doyle), Colin’s vocal nodes and the birth of bassist Andy Gilmour’s baby (which meant that he had to skip the tour and was replaced by Curtis Mead) were not enough, the band are also now without a record label after V2, was recently bought by Universal and now exists in name alone, not that you would know, given their performance. Andy Bews, Colin Doran, Ben Doyle, Andy Gilmour (or rather, for the duration of the tour – Curtis Mead) and Larry Hibbitt have come through laughing and tighter than ever.

Songs old and new are interspersed and mixed throughout the show. They open with Break the Glass from recent album ‘Quick the Word, Sharp the Action’ and continue to mix old and new from all 4 studio albums – If I Could from 2002’s ‘Ideas Above Our Station’, What You Get from 2004’s ‘Shatterproof Is Not a Challenge’, Feed the Fire from 2006’s Kill Your Own are but a few of the tracks played. The audience, a clear mix of long-term fans and new recruits, are frenetic – bouncing to the beat of their heavier tracks, dancing to the rhythm of the more subdued, even invading the stage on occasion. In typical Hundred Reasons style, the band find this amusing, even when someone gets on stage and strokes Ben’s shoes, with Colin leaping into the crowd himself.

The standout tracks are still those from their debut album. The roar of the crowd as Colin tells them that they’re “gonna take it down a level” is in anticipation of the crowd pleaser Falter. The microphone is turned to the audience for the chorus who sing on cue without hesitation. The encore comprises of Broken Hands, Out of Time and debut album track Silver.

Whilst currently unsigned and with any future releases subsequently on hold, the support for Hundred Reasons remains steadfast. As the lyrics from No Way Back suggest, Hundred Reasons seem ‘invincible’.

Becci Crowther