Graft pays off for The Recreation

THE RECREATION

ROYTON indie prospects The Recreation continue to put the graft in on the Oldham and Manchester music scene, and all that hard work appears to be starting to pay off.

It's three years since the current Recreation line-up ­- front-man and guitarist Owen Baldwin, lead guitarist Tom Atkinson, drummer George Porter and bassist Sam Sumner ­- came together, and the word is now clearly getting out.

Venue

The lads took the bold step of putting on and promoting their own city centre gig recently, and the crowd that packed into the hugely respected Aatma venue lapped it up.

Baldwin said: "Hands down, it was the best gig we've ever played.

"For the first few gigs there was no-one there, then it might have been 10 people stood at the bar, but the Aatma gig was just awesome. I think we sold around 200 tickets. It's 150 capacity, but there's couch's and things there, so there was at least 180 inside the place.

"You can see on some of the YouTube videos, the crowd was just mental.

"We don't have anything like mosh-pits at our gigs, but honestly, it was mental, with people on each other's shoulders and stuff.

"It just drives you to play better and bigger tunes."

Buzz

Following the overwhelming success of that show, the Rec are now moving on to the larger Gulliver's venue on Oldham Street in the city's Northern Quarter, on Friday, September 8.

Already there's a buzz about that gig, which will again will be highlighted by mega cheap advance tickets and terrific support from M60, Changers Youth and the Seamonsters.

Sticks man Porter said: "It's definitely going to be rammed again. It's just getting bigger isn't it?

"We just felt that if we keep doing Aatma too many times it could become a bit stale.

"We did fancy a change, so we've chosen Gulliver's and hopefully we will get more people down.

Showcases
"It's not quite the same when you're on normal showcases because the people in the audience might not have come to see you, but you actually put the gig on yourselves and hire out the venue like we do, then you just know that's ours."

The Rec are proud to be part of the undoubtedly ever-growing Manchester live music scene.

Although the lads don't necessarily stick too close to any other band, they are always welcome at any city gig and are becoming more and more popular.

"When you play at some of these bars and venues now it's just so good," added Baldwin.

"There's always lots of other bands there, so it is great to see all the other people who are there just because they're into the music.

Straps

"The scene is proper healthy at the moment."

Porter agrees that his band do finally seem to be truly hitting their straps now and all the hours in the rehearsal room is reaping some reward.

He said: "When we first recorded 'You' I think we knew there was going to be something in this for us.

"That tune did go places and it's spiralled from there really.

"We started to get more attention online and stuff, and we do work hard on constantly bringing new tunes into the set.

"We'll just keep grafting and sticking at it, and who knows what might happen?"

Having recently played gigs in Leeds, Rochdale, Sheffield, Manchester and Derby, the Rec return closer to home in July to play a fund-raiser in Thornham and a small festival at the Hopwood Arms in Middleton.

More details are on the band's Facebook page.

The lads are also returning to the studio very shortly to record new tune 'Hotel' and 're-do' older track 'The Gateway'.