Indie four-piece Rosellas topped the bill at Heartbreakers and showed why they are capturing the attention of fans across the country.
Support came from Portsmouth’s The Straights and Southampton’s entertaining six-piece The Black Bear Killing Spree, playing what they said was only their sixth gig.
Rosellas at Heartbreakers (Image: Rhona Murphy)
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Songs from the headliners’ latest EPs Every Beautiful Night and Shadow Dancing, including standout singles Better Love and Beautiful Lonely, dominated their early setlist, before epic numbers Damaged and Common Ground, with its unescapable opening riff, wrapped things up.
Their music is a modern take of some of the great sounds of the North like Stone Roses and New Order, although tonight lead singer-guitarist Drew Selby was solo on vocals, not an easy task with such melodic songs.
This gig was testament to the dedication of independent musicians hitting the road to get their sound heard beyond their hometowns, while the commitment of music fans attending these early-career gigs and supporting what the lead singer called “underground music” also did not go unnoticed.
Southampton’s The Black Bear Killing Spree supporting Rosellas at Heartbreakers (Image: Rhona Murphy)
In its own way, appearing in front of one hundred fans in Southampton seemed to mean just as much to frontman Drew, guitarist Euan Mail, bassist Ollie Appleby and drummer Mark Zanker, as playing to more than five hundred people at home in Manchester a week earlier.
No strangers to the South Coast, the band were last here two years ago and have also supported Starsailor at The Brook and appeared at The Isle of Wight Festival.
For fans of guitar music, this month also sees The Joiners host Basingstoke-born The Skinner Brothers on May 26 and Joe Carnell of Sheffield band Millburn on May 31, while Papillon on Commercial Road has 90s stars Boo Radleys on May 9 and Dodgy on May 22, and Playing The Field festival at Eastleigh’s Silverlake Stadium has headliners Razorlight and The Fratellis on May 23.