Green Jelly/The Convalescence/Sour Tusk –
Corporation, Sheffield, Sunday 11th May, 2025
What a way to greet the crowd. Some proper Rock! Sour Tusk started as soon as we were walking in. They captured a rock and metal excitement from the start with some of the more mobile of us running in wearing their Sour Tusk T-shirts. This helped with the whole atmosphere and went straight into the rock vibe from the get-go. Fantastic!
The guitarist, Jake Johnson is excellent. What a great sound and boy he can really shred. Some nice riffing from him. It was a pleasure to watch his hands move. My eyes looked above to the man towering over me, he is a very intimidating sight on a high stage, backing the singer and powerful playing on that bass – Mr. Neil Charlesworth.
 Sour Tusk - 13 |  Sour Tusk - 12 |
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 Sour Tusk - 11 |  Sour Tusk - 10 |
 Sour Tusk - 9 |  Sour Tusk - 8 |
 Sour Tusk - 7 |  Sour Tusk - 6 |
 Sour Tusk - 5 |  Sour Tusk - 4 |
 Sour Tusk - 2 |  Sour Tusk - 1 |
 Sour Tusk - 3 |
Love the singing from all of them but the main singer has a good rock voice, not overly powerful but a good clarity. My daft brain couldn't work out where the main singer was! I could hear him so where is he? It is the bare footed, ball of hair on the drums – the man going by the name of Nic Rudd. It's hard enough drumming and keeping the band flowing without adding singing. He has a cool Rock voice.
Then the worst moment for me as it is my marmite song, was the ever popular Tina Turner classic, 'Proud Mary' . The crowd love the music and lapped it up. What a great set!
Then next up are The Convalescence which sees the musical style go from Rock to Black Metal!
Out walk these scary looking men, wet blood and body paint. Their songs digging deep into your soul. A scream trying to get out.
Their screams echoing what you have rising up from your gut to the stage. A huge, dreadlocked singer. Looking extremely foreboding stood above me. But the Guitarist, bald headed and black eyes was a genuinely scary sight.
The overwhelming urge on my part was to stand in awe. The people at the side of me are totally caught up in the moment swinging their head and hair to the sound. But I couldn't take my eyes off the guitarist. The movement of the two front men was hypnotic. They just didn't stop, from one side of the stage to the other.
 The Convalescence - 1 |  The Convalescence - 10 |
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 The Convalescence - 9 |  The Convalescence - 8 |
 The Convalescence - 7 |  The Convalescence - 5 |
 The Convalescence - 6 |  The Convalescence - 3 |
 The Convalescence - 2 |  The Convalescence - 4 |
The drummer is hitting hard as is the guitarist who is owning that stage playing some very deep sounds, I am watching him play and wondering if the blood is from his hard working fingers. Hard to believe there are only three up there. Feels like a lot more because of the movement, they just never stopped moving. using every inch of that stage. The singer is stood above me again his scary black eyes, scanning the room as if for prey. Screaming out more growls that dig into your psyche.
I don't fully understand this genre but I am slowly getting it. I watch the crowd and let the music in. The crowd, they are living and loving every beat and every growl, it is from their feelings that they cannot express. The band are their voice. I have seen a few of bands from this genre but these guys are stupidly good. From the bass and the beat, to the performance and the way they hold the crowd.
They threw body parts out with blood still wet! It left me wanting more theatre, more gore and drama to go with the music. I was told after they couldn't bring their set of dead bodies due to cost issues. Such a Pity as it would have added so much more to the performance. A massive contrast to Sour Tusk but an even bigger contrast to what was to come!
 The Convalescence - 20 |  The Convalescence - 19 |
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 The Convalescence - 18 |  The Convalescence - 17 |
 The Convalescence - 16 |  The Convalescence - 15 |
 The Convalescence - 14 |  The Convalescence - 13 |
 The Convalescence - 12 |  The Convalescence - 11 |
I met Bill Manspeaker (of Green Jelly) outside. He is definitely a larger than life character "I will do an interview with you if you unload the van!" Well that is too good an opportunity to pass. So I am struggling without my walking stick to carry Sponge Bob and Thomas the Tank Engine masks for a worthwhile interview.
I met a lot of band members and tried to get the names of the band but apparently they have a lot of members and picked up a new member in Blackpool that they don't actually know who is who! What a crazy and bizarre start.
Before they started the performance, the band had to inflate so many props. From Chipmonks to a green Oogie Boogie looking thing! I caught Bill inflating balls and rings. No roadies - just them! Finally the performance sort of started. Well we had 20 minutes of Talking and getting some volunteers.
Finally some music! The Green Jelly/Jello Theme Song. I went side stage to the volunteers behind a curtain, what I was faced with was the stuff of nightmares! More scarier than anything The Covalescence could do on stage. It was dark a red light casting a light on several large masks!
 Green Jelly 1 |  Green Jelly 12 |
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 Green Jelly 11 |  Green Jelly 10 |
 Green Jelly 9 |  Green Jelly 7 |
 Green Jelly 5 |  Green Jelly 3 |
 Green Jelly 4 |  Green Jelly 2 |
The volunteers walked out with an assortment of scary masks. Lots of 'Pool Noodles' were thrown into the crowd as well as many swimming rings, inflatable balls and plastic ball pit balls!! I have never seen or been part of such absolute chaos in my life. I was laughing and asking myself, 'What the hell is going on?'. That's when I was hit on the back of my head by a 5ft Chipmonk!
Blasting out 'Carnage Rules' and 'Anarchy in Bedrock', Bill doesn't sing as so much as shouts out his lyrics, he had two others rapping along side him and singing their own rap songs at the end! He is a punk rocker and sings like one, the Guitarists Chris and Al are brilliant musicians as is the man on the drums who's name I never got. He was nearly impossible to see because of giant chipmunks but gave a fantastic steady performance in the face of total anarchy and chaos.
Bill describes his band as the punk puppet master. So in light of that I will say that this man is a genius, pure and simply put because he is the puppet master not the band! He stood half in a chair in an inside-out black T-shirt and black shorts, although he soon took the shorts off to see him wearing black underpants!
All the band members and the crowd were dressed in outfits, fancy dress, masks or just a simple inflatable around their neck, everybody in the audience had a pool noodle. Band members went into the crowd to be worshipped by pool noodles on command of the puppet master. With Bill shouting instructions and singing 'Old McDonald Had A Farm.' Fully grown adults of all ages doing the Animal sounds. Then he commanded the crowd to run in a circle singing 'Ring-a Ring-a Roses! Yes, you did not read that wrong.
 Green Jelly 13 |  Green Jelly 23 |
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 Green Jelly 22 |  Green Jelly 21 |
 Green Jelly 19 |  Green Jelly 18 |
 Green Jelly 17 |  Green Jelly 16 |
 Green Jelly 15 |  Green Jelly 14 |
So Bill, nearly sensibly dressed with everybody in the place are the lunatics with crazy masks and pool noodles. He is the puppet master, he controlled everything with a lot of power, everybody was in the palm of his hand. I have never witnessed control like it.
The audience lapped it up, a chance to be a child and pure silliness could not be passed up. I was shouted up on stage. I simply could not get to Singer, Lazy D because of all the inflatables, pool noodles and two random people from the Audience who were just happy to stand there, one with a crazy mask and the other looking bemused at the chaos of the crowd.
More random men were made by Bill to come up on stage as pigs and another change his head to the Wolf! Any Green Jelly fan knows what is coming... Three little pigs were sent into the crowd. Then the song! But it wasn't sung the traditional way, lots of talking and breaks to increase the madness and sending the wolf in to the mix! The punk rock heaviness getting the crazy looking crowd reliving their youth. Pandemonium and pantomime rocked the excellent Corporation in Sheffield.
The singing isn't the best but it doesn't matter. The music is heavy and hectic but that's the way it should be. The songs are wrong but familiar and the crowd are just loving every minute of being young again.
 Green Jelly 25 |  Green Jelly 36 |
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 Green Jelly 35 |  Green Jelly 34 |
 Green Jelly 33 |  Green Jelly 32 |
 Green Jelly 31 |  Green Jelly 30 |
 Green Jelly 29 |  Green Jelly 28 |
 Green Jelly 27 |  Green Jelly 26 |
Was it a good concert? Music wise it was nice and heavy with a large splattering of punk but the atmosphere and experience of witnessing genius made it the best gig I have been too. It was an absolute must for anyone who wants to have a fabulous night out.
Leave your boring side at the door though.
By Dale Holford