Sandra's Wedding
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My well-thought-out finale to 28 bands in 28 days has suddenly been thrown into turmoil. Having set aside the last two days of my new music feature for a singer/songwriter from New Zealand and a rock 'n' roll combo from Finland, I happened to notice, late last night, that an outfit by the name of SANDRA'S WEDDING had started to follow me on twitter. Of course, I reciprocated and was immediately taken aback by the outrageous claim in their Twitter profile (courtesy of a review by Radio York), that the band was 'a cross between The Beautiful South and The Smiths'. Could it possibly be true? I held my breath, followed the links, and played the first song, This Heart, from 2017's Northern Powerhouse album.it was love at first listen!
As I worked my way through the album, it became apparent that there was an ace lyricist at work here - anyone rhyming Fray Bentos with asbestos in the middle of a pop song called Death by Hanging is top drawer in my book - and that I urgently needed to discover just who the mystery wordsmith was. It also dawned on me that it would be a dereliction of duty not to include Sandra's Wedding in 28 bands. I certainly couldn't scratch either of my last two acts (hey, I'm not wasting the hard work I've put in), so I'm just going to pretend that it's a leap year and that February has 29 days this year and therefore 29 bands!
The wedding singer (and songwriter), by the way, is Joe Hodgson and he is backed by Jonny Hughes, guitar, Tom Hill, bass and Luke Harrison on drums. The band hails from Goole and describe their debut album as featuring 'sepia-tinged songs focusing on love, loss and life in a Northern town'. They credit The Byrds, Randy Newman, ABBA, and, it should go without saying, The Smiths and The Beautiful South among their many influences!
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