Suffolk’s The Cheek took the stage tonight at the Roundhouse, opening for indie favourites The Corteeners, to the usual opening-band obstacles of a lukewarm initial reception and a half-full house, but took everything in their stride to produce a notably memorable supporting performance.
The Cheek handily have the sort of big, fun choruses in their set that you don’t have to have heard before to sing along to, which proves a decisive factor in winning over the growing crowd. With undeniable swagger frontman Rory Cottam bounded about the place belting out britpop-tinged anthems one after the other and courting the audience with his foppish charisma.
Recent singles ‘You Let Me Go’ and ‘Just One Night’ scored particularly well but beyond the quality of anthem on offer, The Cheek looked the part onstage, never dwarfed by the occasion or the venue. In short, this is a band with presence.
The sound is excellent too, for which the organisers deserve credit; countless are the opening bands’ sets rendered inaudible by insufficient soundchecks, but you could hear Cottam’s every word and every note of the occasional short-and-sweet guitar solos.
Whether or not they ever strike it lucky like their Morrisey-approved headliners tonight, one fact will remain irrefutable; The Cheek are a terrific band.
