I arrived for the final leg of Reverend & Makers’s mini-tour undeniably excited. The next day (February 13th), Jon McClure and his band would be stepping out in front of thousands of fans at the MEN arena, supporting Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. Stark contrast then to the intimate, sweaty confines of Fibbers, the venue they first played in 2006, whilst still relatively unknown.
The lineup has since changed, now a five-piece including new bassist Joe Carnall, formerly of fellow Sheffield band Milburn. But what has remained a constant in the years R&TM have been playing is front man McClure’s passionate rapport with the audience.
So it was with no surpise that he immediately got the audience on side as soon as he walked on stage, shouting “York, let me see your hands” as the band launched into their opening song, crowd favourite ‘Open Your Window’.
His trademark menacing stares and beckoning gestures, with their ability to provoke an audience reaction was felt so strongly in such a tiny space where the front row of the crowd is about an inch from the stage. “It’s nice to be back in Yorkshire”, he says, as some drunk shouts something incomprehensible at him in between songs.
As well as the show providing a much needed warm up for a band who have had a hiatus in the last couple of years, another reason for this gig was to showcase songs from their new album, conveniently titled @Reverend_Makers (their Twitter username, understandable given McClure’s love of the microblogging website).
The new tracks fitted effortlessly into the set as they switched from classics such as ‘The State of Things’ and ‘No Soap (in a dirty war)’ to, in McClure’s words, “some absolute bangers” from @Reverend_Makers, none more so than future single, guitar and synth heavy ‘Bassline’, which is avaialable for free download off their Facebook site and has already been played by Zane Lowe on Radio 1.
Other newbies ‘Coming out of the Shadows’, ‘Warts n’ All and ‘Noisy Neighbour’ (the latter a song written by McClure, pissed off at the loud students living next door to him) went down well and he seemd genuinely happy with the reception they got. 
Unsurprisingly, ‘He Said He Loved Me’ and ‘Heavyweight Champion of the World’ got the crowd going mental, responding to McClure’s cries of “York, come on, bounce!” Chants of “Reverend, Reverend” were a testament to how well-liked McClure is among his fans and everyone wanted an encore after the closing number, brass-laden ‘Silence is Talking’ (McClure introducing the song with “Tell Rizzle Kicks to get down with their f**king trumpets”).
They got their wish as McClure walked off stage with his accoustic guitar, through the audience, high fiving everyone as he went outside onto the street and over the road, where he stood on a bench and gave an impromptu one-man show. He does this a lot of the time, but it was fantastic nontheless, as he laughed and joked with the crowd, the vast majority of whom had since followed him out the Fibbers doors.
Everyone sang along to ‘Miss Brown’ (off first album The State of Things) before he embarked on a number of songs including the Specials’ 1960’s classic ‘A Message to you Rudy’. Finally, he lead the crowd into a second rendition of the night of ‘Heavyweight Champion of the World’ which I’m sure could have been heard on the other side of the city.
As he walked back indoors the crowd dispersed, distant drunken sounding shouts of “I could’ve been a contender” echoing long into the night. It was a brilliant and intimate gig and their new album could well be the best yet. And with their UK arena tour with Gallagher well underway at the time of writing, the future is very much bright.