It’s a Wednesday night and we are off to the wonderful Fulford Arms for three of York’s younger bands, each of which will put on a decent performance for a well-attended audience.

Review and photos by Stuart Duthie

First up is Sweeping Statement. Singer Monty announces he has a cold. Well, if that dulled the performance you wouldn’t have noticed.

You don’t go to see Sweeping Statement because you want to hear every ranting and raving of their front man. You go because you want 30 minutes of fast paced, punk-infused, visceral energy, all reflected in his tense and contorted stage presence, something so mad yet sane compared to the goings on in the wider world.

Like the fallout from the current wars, it spreads into the audience by some kind of osmosis. The moshing starts and the world is somehow a better place. It might sound crazy, unplanned, and unrehearsed but you just need to listen to the band to know it’s not. It’s well practised and all underpinned by their drummer who drives a frantic yet well-executed rhythm.

Damage Control followed on and it became apparent that Sweeping Statement, as fast and furious as they were, was the more laid back warm up act (if laid back is in any way appropriate a term).

Andrew on bass with Sweeping Statement becomes Sergeant Steel in a Jekyll and Hyde transformation, taking vocal duties on most songs. In doing so Damage Control further accelerate the tempo with their brand of speed metal with echoes of 1970s and early ‘80s rock (perhaps a bit of Iron Maiden in there for Desert Drifter.) There was some sharing of vocal duties between all three, with the drummer taking on Desert Drifter and donning a pirate hat for Walk the Plank.

So, as it happened, headliners Vagabond were the lighter band of the evening, but they hit the stage with explosive intent. Judging by the proliferation of Vagabond t-shirts in the audience, their fans had come out in support of them on this Wednesday evening.

I have seen them a few times and can see they are continuing to grow in their own confidence with the set now comprising mainly of their own songs.

If you haven’t seen them before they sit in the pop punk and nu-metal genres, so think Green Day and Limp Bizkit (whose Break Stuff has become their closing song) and you won’t be too far off track. Expect high energy and lots of jumping around.

These guys can play too. Behind the scenes, each member holds high grades (7+) for the instruments they play in the band as well as ones they don’t.

Known to throw t-shirts or Freddo chocolates into the crowd, tonight we had a different type of giveaway. During Imaginary Girlfriend, guitarist Olly brought out an inflatable sex doll who then engaged in some crowd surfing and flirtation (the doll, not Olly). It was last seen departing the venue with one of their fans.

Tonight, they debuted another new song, Fade Away, which suggested we might start to see a slightly different, perhaps more mature emphasis within Vagabond’s repertoire.

Their fans are a lively a bunch as the band themselves and clearly enjoyed the music and rituals of their set which are now becoming a bit of a tradition.

So, with sex dolls, singalongs, and new songs there was only one thing left for the audience to demand an encore, what else but Limp Bizkit? One that the fans knew was coming and one of those traditions that they all join in with.

Sweeping Statement, Damage Control, and Vagabond played at The Fulford Arms, York on Wednesday 1 April 2026.