LIVE: Prides - Heaven, London 12.02.15

There could be no better venue for a night out with Glaswegian trio Prides than under the arches in London’s own Heaven, the world’s most famous gay club. If the name fits…

And what a night it was. Supporters Model Aeroplanes were a nice little taster of things to come, a Scottish indie-pop fourpiece delivering a Bombay Bicycle Club-meets-The 1975 sounding set, which had the crowd dancing from beginning to end.

Excitement levels were at a high for synth-popping main attraction Prides who, having only released an EP and a handful of singles so far, are already causing a commotion across the UK. The band smashed their performance at the closing ceremony of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and their 2014 Seeds You Sow EP is going down a treat. It’s easy to see why, as Stuart, Callum and Lewis bound onto the stage to Aladdin’s ‘Prince Ali’ (your guess is as good as mine) and in true Glaswegian style, get the night kicked off by introducing their set with a big fat F-bomb.

Racing through their hits, the packed out crowd went crazy for new single ‘Higher Love’, with its almost video game-like backing track and pounding chorus, the deliciously synthy ‘I Should Know You Better’ and ‘Out Of The Blue’, a foot-stamping number that had every fist in the house pumping. All the while jumping around the stage and sharing jokes with each other, what’s refreshing about Prides is their upbeat energy whilst delivering tracks that actually contain some pretty thoughtful lyrics on love, life and relationships.

But the real highlight was the encore, with the band’s nine-minute nonstop pop mixtape covering some of their favourite songs of last year, including hits from The 1975, Jessie Ware, Taylor Swift, Ella Henderson, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Iggy Azalea and more, with their own little twist. Finishing off the night with a bang, and an explosion of glitter tape and balloons, was roof-raising guitar driven anthem ‘Messiah’, a firm fan favourite.

If there’s one band you see this year, make it Prides and you certainly won’t be disappointed.