The Clause

Every year, Independent Venue Week celebrates the lifeblood music venues of the UK, and also the people that own, run and work in them. With help from Arts Council England, and with Lottery funding, more than 200 independent venues take part. This year's Independent Venue Week officially starts today, Monday January 28th and runs until Sunday February 4th, but Birmingham outfit The Clause teamed up with local bands to play seven dates, starting last Thursday at The Victoria in Lincoln, and finishing at The Brook in Southampton on Saturday, February 3rd.

Norwich's Waterfront Studio was the setting for night four of the tour, and we knew something wasn't quite right when The Clause lead singer Pierce Macca croaked an apology to us before even the first song of the set had started. A throat virus had got a hold on him, and after three shows this week his voice was almost gone. They had come very close to cancelling the gig, but did not want to let down the fans. OK, you make your excuses, standard disclaimer, etc, etc, but what happened next was nothing short of heroic as the band launched into their set with the upbeat optimism of 'Time of Our Lives' (taken from their Forever Young EP) and soldiered on through an eight song set that concluded with their two best known songs – 'Sixteen' the cheeky pop song about smoking ciggies, blagging ID and school uniform, and 'In My Element', with its stonking guitar riff that ranks alongside The Stone Roses' 'Fools Gold' and Ocean Colour Scene's 'Riverboat Song'.

The sound wasn't brilliant – reverb and echo was cranked up to help cover for the cracks in Macca's vocals, but for sheer guts and dedication you had to admire this performance from The Clause. To cut four songs from the full set in order to put on a show was a fair price to pay, and the band have promised to return to the city and put on a full show as soon as possible. They will have made plenty of friends tonight at The Waterfront Studio, and I am sure many will be back for the band's next visit.