If there’s one band on Brighton’s music scene who deserve to be playing Concorde 2, it’s Normanton Street. They’re prolific, gifted and persistent – tireless even. They’ve been around for a long time, but have recently shifted up a gear, playing the States, touring in Europe, and now making the leap up to Brighton’s holy grail of venues. They’ve put in the hours of graft, and are now seeing the upshot as their songwriting, repeatedly tested and refined, comes into its own, while they themselves emerge as experienced and confident performers.

As a live hip-hop band, they build songs on minimal and raw foundations that can be as simple as a jarring bassline or a couple of rusty chords, set to a wide and bold 4/4 on the drums. There’s plenty of space for instrumental play-arounds and lyrical jams from the two frontmen, Ned and Nicholson, who switch between bass and guitar. Both rap over the soul vocals of counterpoint singer Phoebe Freya, the former favouring speed and rhyme-patterns, the latter space and flow-change.

Normanton Street have their own unique style which is born from all four members stamping their personality on the band, making it a group that brings together several diverse musical influences. For this show, they’d also added a new element by bringing on two backing singers.

They only deepen the sense of character about the band by adding their own visual and performative style as well, which is understated, but daring and exclusive. Ultimately they are now comfortable in a style they’ve built from the ground up, which gives each performance impact, and makes them deeply memorable.

Although they suffered some sound issues at the beginning of their set, these were quickly fixed and they played through most of their repertoire, covering material from both their EPs to a crowd that clearly knew every song. Among their followers, some songs are already classics: think ‘New Dawn’, where Phoebe Freya can cut loose, ‘Take Time’, with an interlude for drummer Nico, or new song ‘VIBES’, which was an instant hit.

The highlight of their set came as they were being hurried off-stage, when they called on Brighton’s emerging rap talent. Bobbie Johnson, Mrisi, Hatter and Phonetic – especially Phonetic – all delivered huge verses on the band’s final song ‘Angelene (Remix)’. Featuring their contemporaries from the scene like this is representative of one of Normanton Street’s many strengths: they’re an active part of the local musical community, both contributing to it and drawing from it. They readily help out other bands on the circuit, and have built up a creative circle though their promotions with QM Recs. This allowed them to put together a concert that featured the cream of Brighton’s hip-hop scene, and was opened by three phenomenal bands, One Eyed Jacks, Lebeaux and J-Felix.

One of the nice things about Normanton Street is the relative lack of ego. They’re a strong band, and they do know it – but that doesn’t stop them from appreciating all the talent around them in Brighton, which helps to ensure that their events are musically satisfying all the way through: you don’t need to avoid the supports in the smoking area at a Normanton Street gig. The jump to Concorde was a big one, but it was made at the right time and the band pulled it off. They may not have filled out the venue, but they packed the room with more than enough talent, plus dedicated fans, to make it feel like they had.
Ben Noble

Website: normantonstreet.com
Facebook: facebook.com/normantonstreetofficial
Twitter: twitter.com/NormantonStreet