This week, 6 Music Festival has returned for their second consecutive Manchester edition. Previously having toured the country, the festival has found a permanent home here, promising a weekend of assorted music across multiple venues. Kicking the proceedings off this Thursday were Young Fathers, Hak Baker, and Sherelle at Victoria Warehouse.
Sherelle opened up the night with 30 minutes of clamorous jungle. This comes shortly after her White Hotel show last month which had a waitlist twice the size of the club’s capacity. An opening DJ set as the crowd filters in is a tricky spot on a line-up, but Sherelle handled it with ease.
Sherelle rose to prominence after a successful Boiler Room set five years ago and recently took the reins of a Saturday lunch slot on 6 Music. She set an appropriate mood for the evening, characterised by both euphoria and noisiness. She even managed to get the crowd of 6 music dads shuffling to her beats and encouraged a healthy dose of nostalgia by shouting out the Haçienda.
Following Sherelle, Hak Baker kept up the energy. Baker began to inflect the evening with a distinctly political tone that only further intensified throughout. Baker introduced the song ‘Brick in the Wall’ by describing it as being “about standing for something,” and further elaborated his specific reflections on gentrification with ‘Wrong Side of the Town’. Combining punk rock stylings with a healthy dose of reggae and grime he quickly won over the audience’s approval.
Despite some minor technical issues with his guitar, Baker’s main issue was simply avoiding the BBC broadcast’s pre-watershed censorship. A Manchester-exclusive cover of ‘I Wanna Be Adored’ provided a pleasant surprise, with a bass tone that quite literally rocked the house. As he walked off stage he thanked the audience with a hearty call of “lov’ly jubbly”. Despite high demand for an encore he sorrowfully declined due to time constraints.
As preparation for Youth Fathers began, the stage was slowly populated by an extensive crowd of around 30 chorists. Tonight marks a special show for Young Fathers as they are joined by the local Moss Side and Hulme NIA Community Choir. Led by Nicole Battick, the local community choir were a 6 Music Festival exclusive, but one that is very much in keeping with the values of Young Fathers.
The NIA Choir is a part of the NIA Centre, a theatre-turned-community centre in Hulme. It not only hosted the first radio broadcast of The Beatles, but also became the first African and Caribbean-led theatre in Europe, acting as a hub for activity, community, and even a performance by Nina Simone in 1991.
The importance of community has equally been a recurrent feature of Young Fathers’ work, especially for latest album Heavy Heavy which incorporated gang vocals, cacophonous drums, and layered production. “See what happens when we come together,” the band announced, just before departing the stage.
After opening with ‘Shoot Me Down’, the band launched into a high-energy sequence of back catalogue songs. 2013 single ‘Queen is Dead’ was of particular note, with the live rendition adopting a suitably eerie quality when put in a modern context.
‘Get Up’, taken from Mercury Prize-winning album DEAD further raised the crowd’s energy. Despite the macabre lyrics of “beautiful corpse, beautiful, how you lie so still” the crowd nonetheless danced along to its anthemic chorus of “get up and have a party.” The song encapsulated Young Fathers’ ability to conjoin joy and self-reflection, with lyrics paradoxically suitable for both celebration and political commentary. In a New York Times interview, band member Kayus Bankole described their latest record as seeking to “appreciate what we have: the arguments, the fallouts, the joy, the happy moments” and these mixed emotions translate from album to stage.
As the evening progressed greater emphasis shifted towards Heavy Heavy including singles ‘Rice’, ‘Tell Somebody’, and ‘Drum’. An extended rendition of ‘I Saw’ closed the main show, followed by an encore of ‘Toy’.
Young Fathers let the music speak for itself, and there was little in the way of stage banter. The only direct address to the audience was when the band stopped to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. This comes off the back of an announcement of their forthcoming collaboration with Massive Attack and Fontaines D.C. in aid of Doctors Without Borders and was met with the largest applause of the night.
The night was one of Black British triumph, but it also recognised the continuous struggle both nationally and abroad. The night included artists unafraid to make explicit political commentary including Sherelle’s recent Move/003 exhibition which addressed the cost of living and the London rental market and Hak Baker’s songs like ‘Windrush Baby’ detailing migrant experiences. Young Fathers provided an answer, calling for the need for camaraderie and community in the face of adversity. The result is an exultant but reflective opening for 6 Music Festival.
