I’m not sure if the band feature on a children’s TV programme or if it’s simply that families have seen them at festivals, but there were a lot of children at this gig. It was good to see, so I vacated the front of the stage so the kids could enjoy the music.

Support act Mr Vast, a light-hearted act featuring a lot of wigs, was a bit hit and miss. I suspect he had cleaned up his usual routine for the children. He mostly missed the spot, but he did manage to raise the odd chuckle from me. It was something different and that’s not a bad thing.

HENGE are from another planet. They had landed their spaceship around Club 85 and for an hour or so, took us on a trip through the cosmos to their home planet. It turns out the stars on Club 85’s ceiling accurately map the stars on their planet.

As we travelled to the new planet. HENGE, played their unique mixture of dance music baselines, with psych and space rock. The kids loved seeing these aliens play their favourite songs. Maybe the set was a little bit too long for the youngest, but the majority enjoyed the whole set.

Sadly, the usual pissed self-centred Hitchinites that seem to often attend Club 85 gigs, decided the kids shouldn’t be at the front and moved them out of the way so that they could show them how not to act at gigs, constantly trying to interrupt the band and trying to get selfies with the band. While Club 85 doesn’t get the violent coked-up lads, there’s still a disruptive crowd that I don’t experience at other venues.

Luckily they didn’t spoil my gig. The weird mix of music a show was really good fun. The kids enjoyment only added to the experience. It was great to see the band give the kids some of their time after gig. If they’re playing a festival tent somewhere. Make sure you catch them.

The Subways returned to touring at Club 85 to celebrate 15 years of their album ‘Young for Eternity’. This was a warmup gig before they head out on the road and it felt like a bit of a party with lots of smiles, lots of talking to the audience and just generally a really nice atmosphere.

Playing the album in full and in order. The Subways played some lesser played songs such as She Sun along with the 3 minute album versions of fan favourite Rock and Roll Queen.

Support was from Salvation Jayne

Set List:

• I Want To Hear What You Have Got to Say
• Holiday
• Rock and Roll Queen (Album edit)
• Mary
• Young For Eternith
• Lines of Light
• Oh Yeah
• City Pavement
• No Goodbyes
• With You
• She Sun
• Somewhere
• At 1am
• We Don’t Need Money To Have A Good Time
• Girls and Boys
• This Is The Club
• Just Like Jude
• Audience choice: Turnaround? Celebrity? Shake! Shake!
• Clock
• I Won’t Let You Down
• Incantation
• Rock and Roll Queen (Live version)

Support was local band Rain the Cult who were playing their last gig as everyone was heading to University.