Vehicle

Mabgate Bleach

Support: elwell and The Cindys

Over the Quarry Hill ring road footbridge and far away – you’ll find Mabgate. For many, mentioning the name induces a fearful gasp – a once industrial hub now a wretched hive of scum and villainy. However, if you can navigate your way through the alleged sea of hypodermic needles and hordes of muggers, you’ll find yourself sanctuary at Mabgate Bleach. A rehearsal space by day and gig venue by night, Mabgate Bleach’s notoriety has remained relatively below radar since opening in 2017. Its small community of inhouse bands usually dominate their gig listings. However, in recent years, the venue has also hosted an array of international talent with cult-followings including Levitation Room, Slift and Prison Affair. 

It is Friday night and a roasting mid-summer’s eve. There is free communal watermelon on offer and cans of Schöfferhoffer aplenty. Glastonbury fever is in the air and, upon consideration, many of the attendees tonight have likely played the festival, never mind attended it. The courtyard is a hotbed (quite literally) of familiar Leeds musicians – some well-decorated in accolades and others mere rookies recently acquainted through the Mabgate Bleach roster.

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Opening the bill tonight are The Cindys, a new folk-rock from Bristol. Despite only playing their first show in March, the five-piece are sharp and have generated enough noise to secure prestigious support slots for Chris Cohen and Black Midi’s Cameron Picton. Donning a tweed suit jacket that would make Jarvis Cocker envious, Finlay Burrows is the stage centrepiece of The Cindys. For the closing track of their set, he picks up an acoustic guitar and leads the band into a mesmerising folk-pop number that wouldn’t feel out of place on Love’s ‘Forever Changes’. The band also features celebrated solo artist Naima Bock (previously of Goat Girl), whose blissfully melancholic vocals haunt each track in turn.

Ultimately, The Cindys’ light the room on fire both metaphorically and literally, as the venue’s temperature somewhat spirals over the course of their set. However, once acclimatised and slightly inebriated, I begin to find the sweating mildly therapeutic as Mabgate Bleach doubled up as a DIY sauna. Nonetheless, I have doubts that the rest of the crowd shared in my solace. Despite tonight’s show selling out, there is now a revolving belt of people between the venue and courtyard, with a chunk of the crowd remaining outside at all times desperately grappling for breeze. Fortunately, owing to Mabgate’s intimate gig space, the atmosphere inside never comes close to feeling lacklustre. 

Secondary support duties were taken up by elwell. This is the new solo project and moniker for Spike Elwell (Normal Village, SKVMB). 

Whilst the music is tonally minimalist, the clean guitar sound allows for strong flashes of slacker rock and midwest emo to bleed through the riffs. Spike’s style has evolved through osmosis, by immersing himself amongst great music and talented peers in recent years. But, ultimately, elwell is the culmination of hard graft. Spike has been honing his craft as a writer and performer since his early-teens. This performance is a representation of his journey to date, and the new tracks are raw and honest. One notably self-reflective chorus exclaims “I thought I was one-to-watch”. He certainly is now. 

As Vehicle take to the stage for their headline slot, they are stoic, composed and authentically so. In appearance, they find a balance between Die Hard henchmen and 1950s greasers. Yet not once do they come across as posers – they’re rockers by definition. 

With that being said, pop sensibilities are core to Vehicle’s music.

This is no clearer than in the opening chord of Vehicle’s set. ‘2000 Telephones’ is how it feels to chew five gum. Danny Sockett’s guitar tone is bright and, when laced with a pinch of overdrive, a recipe for a flawless opener. The same tone also strikes gold on ‘I Don’t Like the Old Man (Upstairs)’ which could soundtrack a stallion chase in a classic Western if it also featured castanets. On other tracks, the stylistic influences fall on a spectrum somewhere between Country and early 60s Garage Rock.

Michael Cable (vocals) has also refined his kitchen-sick lyricism for this project. There are plenty of pop culture references but notably less Vic Reeves’ surrealism than in his previous band Perspex, where asbestos, tarmac and Elvis could be mentioned in the same song. His words are now more accessible and painfully relatable – “the detail was immaculate, but every time I try and talk about it I forget” capturing the perils of an introvert.

Nonetheless, whilst Vehicle’s inspiration draws from a rich plethora of genres, the band remain quintessentially Leeds. Cable, Sockett, Clowes and Devlin are increasingly prominent figures within the Leeds music scene. Their love for the city is clear, as Cable pays his respects during the set to the local shop ‘Supa Saver’ who suffered a recent fire but quickly resurrected the business, now just with lightly smoked and ash-coated Toffee Crisps. 

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Vehicle’s debut LP ‘Widespread Vehicle’ is out now on Esco Romanesco Records

elwell’s self-released debut EP ‘Go Faster’ is also out now. 

Words by Magnus Pike. 

First Picture from the band. 

Second Picture by Dan Commons (@dan.commons13).