Seven times seven

SHED Seven still have a Taste for it after more than a decade together. Newly signed to the independent Taste label after the debacle of their unhappy liaison with Artful, the York band are as durable as Duracell, with a tour, single and live album this month and the next studio album all but written and ready for recording for September release. Their seventh album, could it possibly be called Shed Seventh?

Wait and see. In the meantime, making a marketing tool of the Seven in their name, the Sheds kick off their 7x7 stint at The Monarch club in London on Sunday: a seven-night stand that will be followed by the seven-day only release of the single Why Can't I Be You? on May 12.

A three-night run of shows at their old stamping ground of Fibbers may break with the mathematics but does form part of a seven-town tour after the London residency. Those home-turf dates from May 15 to 17 have sold out - so too the London week - and have been added to the musical melting pot otherwise known as the month-long York Live Music Festival, albeit without consultation.

Lead singer Rick Witter can see the merits of a music month in his home city.

"I was perturbed at first to see us lumped in with the festival because it was a York council thing rather than our own initiative, but then I thought anything that's going to promote music in and around York is a great idea. Looking at it in perspective, it can only help - but we would prefer to set something up ourselves and ask other bands to be involved, instead of just becoming involved with something already running."

Don't rule out that happening at a later date.

After all, the Fibbers block-booking has long been in the pipeline. First mooted as a Christmas week of special shows a couple of years ago, it finally comes to fruition this month. The Sheds will be playing York for the first time since their Barbican Centre fund-raiser for York City Supporters Trust on March 22 last year, while Rick will be back on the Fibbers stage he last graced with an impromptu set with guitarist Joe Johnson when supporting his brother Anton's band.

"The support act had pulled out at 6.30, so me and Joe stepped in," recalls Rick. "All my old Sainsbury's colleagues were taking the mick, and my old mates were chucking things at us!"

Rick has long moved on from those shelf-stacking days. He turned 30 last November, he has three children - Alfie, Duke, and Elkie - with school matters on his mind and he prefers Radio Two to Radio One these days.

That preference is not rooted in Radio One's policy of ignoring Shed Seven's singles since their split from Polydor. Their 14th hit, Cry For Help, the Step Inside Your EP, and now Why Can't I Be You? have all failed to make the play lists, and it seems the maligned Sheds' ever unfashionable, parochial image will continue to count against them.

"It's the hair, isn't?!" says Rick, without prompting. Indeed it is. Witness the single's review in new rock monthly Bang. "Shed Seven survive despite their limited imagination and grudge-bearing hairdressers," it reads.

There's more. "A messily ambitious structure is the cross their perky Why Can't I Be You? must bear, but it keeps on running, valiantly ignoring the fact that someone's tied its shoelaces together," Bang bangs on.

"Messily ambitious?" questions Rick. "I'd say it's the most normal three-minute pop song you could do: verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle bit, verse, chorus, ending! My one criticism is that it's in-yer-face; too friendly. I do think that a lot of the stuff on the next album is a lot deeper, a lot more thought out, so I'm more excited about that than the single, but then our comeback singles, like She Left Me On Friday, have always been in-yer-face."

In yer face maybe, but not, alas, in yer ear on the radio. The Sheds are denied the oxygen of national radio publicity - Radio One says The Sheds are more Radio Two; Radio Two say they are more Radio Six; Radio Six says they are more Radio Two - and even an acoustic session on Janice Long's graveyard-shift on Radio Two has been stopped without explanation.

"I think it's going to take a hit single to prove these stations wrong, but it's Catch 22. You can't go forward without these people's help - and you almost feel like a puppet without being a Darius, so you can't win," says Rick.

"We're slowly turning into a cult band and I'm happy with that: we're fortunate to have a big loyal fan base, and without them we're nothing."

With the 99 pence price of the single, its three formats (two CDs and vinyl) and short shelf life, that firmament of fans could yet catapult Why Can't I Be You? into the Top 40. "You can get three formats for under £3; I'd call that a bargain... and I'm willing to sign anybody's," says Rick.

What about using the title of a Cure hit from 1987 (even if the Sheds have added a question mark)? "We're just trying to con all the Cure fans, aren't we! No, truthfully, it's just a line that came into my head subconsciously, so I'm not stealing it," says Rick. "The title is just a statement and, anyway, look at how many songs are called The Power Of Love."

A concert version of Why Can't I Be You? is among the 17 tracks that amount to a live greatest hits album on Where Have You Been Tonight? Live. Recorded last December at Shepherd's Bush in London - by drummer Alan Leach, no less, with mixing by celebrated producer John Cornfield - the album will be out on May 29. Again it has a budget price, £9.99, with a suitably tongue-in-cheek pastiche of a bootleg sleeve to boot.

"I think this album and May tour is basically saying goodbye to all these songs," says Rick. "Certainly when we come back after recording the next album, we'll be doing a lot of new stuff on the autumn tour, so this is a thank you to the fans for everything so far.

"We've done this record because we're renowned as a strong live band, there was no reason not to do it as everyone else has done live albums, and we knew we were going to create a great atmosphere on it. At some points you can hardly hear me for the crowd, and that's brilliant!"

A DVD of The Sheds' December show at the Glasgow Barrowlands is being prepared by the Secret production company, but a release date is yet to be confirmed. In the meantime, Shed Seven can be experienced live, up close and personal at Fibbers.

"There are those who say 'Why do Fibbers? It's beneath you', but it's intimate, it's hot and it's sweaty. A proper gig," says Rick. "And... when I leave the gig, I'm home in five minutes!"

Shed Seven play Fibbers, York, on May 15 to 17. Sold out.

Highlights from the first week of York Live Music Festival...

Friday, May 2

James Gilchrist (tenor) and Anna Tilbrook (forte piano): A Celebration of Schubert and Schumann Lieder, National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret's Church, Walmgate, York.

7.30pm: Whitmore + Spankboy + Mixtwitch + Graveltrap, Fibbers, The Stonebow, York.

7.30pm: Die Fledermaus, York Theatre Royal, St Leonard's Place, York.

Saturday

10.30am: A Celebration of Lieder, National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret's Church, Walmgate, York. Coffee at 10.30am, Martinee in Goethe's Musenhof at 11am, Schumann at 1pm, Ornamentation in early Lieder at 3pm, Schubert at 4pm, tea and coffee at 5.30pm and Schubert at 6.30pm.

7.30pm: Ariadne on Naxos, York Theatre Royal, St Leonard's Place, York.

Sunday

4pm-6pm and 7pm: Acoustic Workshop with Tim O'Connor followed by Tim O'Connor and guests, City Screen, Coney Street, York.

7.30pm: Regurgitator + Pillow Talk + Electric Eel Shock + AKP, Fibbers, The Stonebow, York.

7.30pm: Uyghur Music from the Kashgar Region (Xinjiang, China), National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret's Church, off Walmgate, York.

Monday

7.30pm: The James Taylor Quartet, Fibbers, The Stonebow, York.

9pm: The Stringdazzlers, The Last Drop Inn, Colliergate, York.

Tuesday

7.30pm: Alexandra Dariescu (piano), National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret's Church, off Walmgate, York.

9pm: Open Session, The Last Drop Inn, Colliergate, York.

Wednesday

8pm: Noriko Kawai, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York.

Thursday

Spring Festival Music and Myth. Tel: 01904 432439.

7pm: Guitfest, The Guildhall, St Helen's Square, York.

7.30pm: The Jamm, Fibbers, The Stonebow, York.

7.30pm: Cabaret, York Theatre Royal, St Leonard's Place, York.

8pm: Emily Slade, Black Swan Folk Club, Black Swan, Peasholme Green, York.

Friday

Spring Festival Music and Myth. Tel: 01904 432439.

7.30pm: Hi-On Maiden + The Finger Puppets, Fibbers, The Stonebow, York. Iron Maiden tribute.

7.30pm: Cabaret, York Theatre Royal, St Leonard's Place, York.

8pm: Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Spring Festival, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York.

8pm: Strung Out Semi Finals, Harker's Bar, St Helen's Square, York.

Updated: 11:09 Friday, May 02, 2003