Meet Me Round The Back: Last-Minute Changes, First-Time Bands and Grassroots Spirit at Dubrek 

There is something particularly fitting about a grassroots gig being rescued at the last minute by a group of musicians simply deciding to muck in and make it happen.

On 31 July, Vile Style Projects brought Meet Me Round The Back to Dubrek Studios, a free-entry night built around rock and roll, blues and garage rock, with enough left turns along the way to keep things interesting. Run by Tragedy and Shannon, Vile Style Projects has put supporting Derby’s grassroots scene at the heart of what it does, removing the barrier of a ticket price while giving local and emerging artists another stage to play on.

This particular night nearly had a sizeable hole in it.

Burning Circus were originally due to headline, but internal conflict meant the band were unable to perform. Rather than simply accepting a shortened bill, a few familiar faces pulled together and came up with something considerably more interesting.

With around 48 hours to make it work, Tragedy joined Gavin from Burning Circus and Hayden, guitarist and frontman of The Riversouls, to form a one-off blues rock trio appropriately called The Bloos. The Riversouls stepped up to headline, Maxxie remained sandwiched between the two, and Meet Me Round The Back had itself a full bill again.

The Bloos

For a band that had existed for roughly two days, The Bloos had absolutely no business sounding as together as they did.

Walking bass lines and marching drums provided the foundations, while Hayden’s smooth blues guitar wandered freely over the top. With Tragedy, one half of the team putting the night on, taking up bass duties, there was an enjoyable feeling that this was exactly what a grassroots show should occasionally be: musicians jumping in wherever they are needed and seeing what happens.

A substantial amount of the performance was improvised, but rather than sounding unfinished, it gave the set an authenticity that suited the music. It was loose without being sloppy, moving between smooth blues passages and moments where everything became considerably more chaotic.

Hayden’s vocals followed much the same path. At times they were restrained and almost spoken, before suddenly breaking into gritty, soulful wails. His guitar playing was equally expressive, with some seriously impressive blues solos emerging from what was effectively the band’s first ever rehearsal period and first ever gig rolled into one.

There was no attempt to disguise the spontaneous nature of The Bloos. That was the appeal. Three musicians had been thrown together because a gap needed filling, and instead of merely getting through it, they produced something that felt surprisingly natural.

Whether The Bloos ever exist again is almost beside the point. For one night, they did exactly what they needed to do.

Maxxie

If The Bloos brought the improvisation, Maxxie brought the curveball.

Coming from a musical theatre background, this was her first performance at a gig of this nature, and her set immediately pushed Meet Me Round The Back beyond being a straightforward blues and garage rock night.

Performing primarily covers, Maxxie moved between rock, jazz and musical theatre, held together by a voice capable of switching from delicate and controlled to powerful, theatrical and aggressive.

Green Day’s “Brain Stew” gave her the opportunity to lean into the attitude behind her voice, while David Bowie’s “Life on Mars?” suited its theatrical side. A softer piano arrangement of The Beatles’ “Blackbird” showed another end of the spectrum entirely.

Then came “Man or Muppet”.

It turns out Maxxie’s talents also extend to puppetry, so naturally the set included a performance of the song with an actual puppet. On a bill assembled around blues and garage rock, it was exactly the kind of unexpected moment that makes a small independent gig more memorable.

There is often a temptation for grassroots bills to keep everything stylistically neat, but Maxxie’s set demonstrated why a bit of variety can work. It was different enough to reset the room without feeling completely detached from the DIY character of the night.

For somebody stepping into this type of gig environment for the first time, she certainly didn’t approach it cautiously.

The Riversouls

With Burning Circus unable to play, The Riversouls moved into the headline slot and brought the night back towards its blues and garage rock foundations.

Built around a firm rhythm section, jangly guitars and plenty of groove, there is an immediate movement to The Riversouls’ sound. Even at their coolest and most restrained, the songs feel designed to get bodies moving.

Hayden was back on stage after opening the evening with The Bloos, this time able to show what he does within his regular band. His lead guitar work remained a major part of the sound, switching between jangling lines and bigger, shredding moments, while his occasional vocals carried the same grit and power heard earlier in the evening.

There is a conversational quality to the vocals that works particularly well against the band’s rhythm section. The Riversouls rarely feel like they are trying too hard to manufacture energy. They play with a relaxed, cool demeanour and allow the groove to do much of the work for them.

That doesn’t mean they can’t get loud.

Some songs arrive with genuinely bombastic energy, while others pull everything back into the sort of swaying, lighter-in-the-air territory that gives the set room to breathe. Elsewhere, flashes of 90s indie rock creep through the blues and garage foundations, adding another layer without pulling them away from their core sound.

It made them a fitting replacement at the top of the bill, particularly on a night where adaptability had become part of the story.

Keeping the night alive

Meet Me Round The Back could easily have become a compromised version of the night Vile Style Projects originally planned. Instead, the last-minute reshuffle arguably became one of its most interesting features.

A headline band dropped out, musicians from different projects came together, a completely new band was created in around 48 hours, another artist stepped up to headline and the gig carried on.

That is grassroots music in its most practical form.

There are plenty of conversations about supporting local music scenes, but sometimes it is considerably less complicated than that. Put on shows. Give artists somewhere to play. Keep them accessible. Turn up. And when something goes wrong, help each other make sure the show still happens.

With free entry and a bill moving from improvised blues rock through musical theatre, Bowie and puppetry before landing on jangly garage rock, Meet Me Round The Back was never going to be the most conventional night at Dubrek.

It was considerably more fun because of it.

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