One of the bands whose Instagram posts always give me a buzz is young energetic West Yorkshire four piece The Slates. This is a band living their best life, enjoying creating music, loving making people happy and seeing just how far they can take it. The Slates strike me as a band with really no boundaries or fears about what they might achieve. We are in “the real deal” territory with The Slates.

With new single Hello Don’t You Know, the Slates rather recreate that happy go lucky loose freedom of those frenzied social media posts. Hello Don’t You Know is deliciously raucous, deliciously rhythmic and as free as a dandelion seed floating in the sunny summer breeze. Unlike The Slates I’m nowhere near seventeen, but this music makes me feel time-machine close to it.

It’s probably a mad analogy so roll with it, but the Slates here remind me a little of the 1960’s band Small Faces. The Small Faces were famous chirpy cockneys, who had a real distinguished London East End style. Here I kind of get that same sense of a bluesy, gutsy irrepressible vibe, only distinctly and proudly championing a West Yorkshire world.

Unfortunately as my beloved has recently bust her ankle in a serious wheelchair way, I’m currently off grid when it comes to gigs, and one I would have loved to have gone to was Skylights, The Rah’s and The Slates in Leeds recently. The online images of the crowd going off to Hello Don’t You Know is delicious. I’ve been in the thick of these moshes enough times to know when one is genuinely special. The Slates have produced an anthem for the summer, from its almost “There She Goes” style opener to its loose and free chanted raw bluesy ending, and its beat, no its atom splitting riff line. Totally memorable this song.

The Slates have already proven they are no flash in the pan with an exceptionally solid series of songs released over the past 12 months or so. Live too, this band are total top class, and they have been very deservedly picking up some coveted huge support slots. Catch these guys soon.

Chris R