ONE hand clapping? It doesn't make sense, does it?

Think on. If one hand is clapping, where is the other? In 2003, it was being twisted by Taste Music - such an ironic name - who demanded a Top Ten single before releasing what should have been Shed Seven's fifth studio album. The label insisted there wasn't a hit among the demos recorded in York. Wrong! Listening to them at last - finally extracted from Taste's grasp for a 1,000-edition DIY print run - the stymied Sheds had every reason to curse. They had rough-cut diamonds in waiting here, the lyrics taking on poignancy in the light of the band's demise.

No One Wants To Know You When You're Down And Out, their preferred choice of single, had become a defiant anthem by their exit. Better still is Some People, wherein Rick Witter hollers: "Some people tell me I'm heading for a fall, some people know nothing at all". These stirring band-of the-people sentiments are matched by the boisterous I Got Music, while Jekyll And Hyde, Alarm Bells and Wake Up Dead kick as hard as Blackburn Rovers.

The Sixties' jangling pop of Country Pub (Stay Til The Morning) is pure York sunshine, its smile only surpassed by drummer Alan Leach's Ringo moment, the lovely and daft hidden extra Lovesongland. Guitar bands are back in vogue but the Sheds are back in the shed. It doesn't make sense, does it?

Updated: 09:18 Thursday, April 21, 2005