A Matter Of Time has made their old fans rejoice, made new followers fall in love and made headlines for getting to the top of the charts.
I don’t understand the saying you should never meet your heroes.
Maybe they’ll disappoint you. Let you down. Not be as glamourous or cool as you hoped or imagined them to be. They'd wobble in front of you, perched on the pedestal you had erected them onto.
I met a few of my heroes back in the day. Friday afternoon. HMV. West End of Princes Street. There was a meet and greet for Shed Seven who had just released their latest album A Maximum High.
Along with my wee sister I stood patiently waiting to get my CD to get signed. Finally it was my turn. For those who know me and have observed my superpower of making an idiot in front of people far more famous than myself, this was where it started.
The band felt tipped their signatures and I got to speak to singer Ricker Witter. The exchange went something like this.
Me: “Alright.”
Rick: “Alright.”
Me: “You guys doing Glastonbury?”
Rick: “No, we’re doing a thing at Irvine Beach.”
Awkward silence and a ground-swallowing pause later and I was away. Clutching my signed copy of the album and a shattered ego.
For the sake of clarity, Witter did or said nothing to make it difficult I just didn't know how to act in front of him . Also, the person in front of me was talking to the band about long-forgotten Scottish West Coast indie band - one who should have been massive- Whiteout, so I knew I wasn’t going to be as interesting as they had been.
The thing is I’ve always had a soft spot for them, embarrassing celebrity exchanges and everything.
When all is said and done and we look back on their impact on the British music scene in the last thirty years it'll be far more valuable than many give them credit for. It's often like a boxing match, David v Goliath. The Sheds are often the underdog facing up to the unanimous favourite. And while the record books won’t show them as being victorious, they’re more than capable of delivering a worldy of a knockout.
Shed Seven have anthems but they were never regarded as being on the same level of quality as Noel Gallagher. Let’s be honest, who has. Yet ‘Going Got Gold and ‘Chasing Rainbows' are up there. And they were never taken as serious as other acts of the time like The Verve or The Charlatans.
In the early 2000 they faced the American Invasion of the likes of The Stokes and Kings of Leon. They broke up and returned with a tour and a well received Greatest Hits album.
Their last album was back in 2017. They’re hardly the most prolific of acts which doesn’t matter when you have their quality and the skill to either make you dance or punch the air in ecstasy. But it was A Matter Of Time seven years later that made their old fans rejoice, made new followers fall in love with them and made headlines for getting to the top of the charts.
There’s no denying they’ve got 2024 off to a dream start. A number one album, their first ever. The longest time between a band releasing a debut album and making it to the top spot. The lads done do anything by half. The fact that it’s called A Matter Of Time is serendipity in all its glory.
It deserves to be top of the charts too. ‘Let’s Rock’ is a superb way to block while. ‘Talk of the Town’ is a blistering return to form, it's upbeat and gives us a bit of hope, something we all need just now.
They’ve done a run of well received album release shows to promote A Matter Of Time and there’s a couple of big gigs in Leeds and York later in in the summer. You know there’s going to be a demand for a full blown UK tour with fans spanning generations coming along for the ride and the experience.
If I did meet Rick now I wouldn’t be as flustered. I’d praise him and the band for the longevity of their career. I’d give him a thumbs up for the fact they kept going when they’d be written off by many. And I’d also bestow him with my opinion that the song 'A Maximum High' is as good, if not better than Oasis' ‘Champagne Supernova.’ Which it is.
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