<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe line-up is stacked, with ten artists playing on the day. Opening up proceedings with their Goth art-rock was Velvetine. Their set included moody, echoey vocals and soaring guitars, which nicely warmed up the early arrivals to the event.<\/p>\n
Vincent\u2019s Last Summer was next on the lineup. The band, who claimed to be from Manchester, and the year 2008, delivered an incredibly energetic set, and I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if they had several shots of espresso before coming on stage.<\/p>\n
An interesting moment of their set was when they held up a red telephone and advised the crowd that if it rang, it would \u201cbring news from the outside world.\u201d <\/p>\n\nVelvetine at Ceremony 5.5 at Esquires. Image: Kane Howie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n2008 calling Vincent\u2019s Last Summer at Ceremony 5.5 at Esquires. Image: Kane Howie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\nSure enough, the phone rang, and what followed was clips of the BBC News theme, and news announcements including that Manchester United won the 2008 Champions League, and the winner of the X Factor was Alexandra Burke; a slightly bizarre, but entertaining moment of their set.<\/p>\n
Audience member Chris told me he thought the band \u201csounded like The Dare singing for The Wombats,\u201d which is an amusing, but also accurate observation.<\/p>\n
Spanish Horses, whose guitarist is the son of Pulp\u2019s Jarvis Cocker, were the first band of the day to take to the main stage. This was the first show of their tour, and their set covered a variety of genres.<\/p>\n
First starting off with swirling guitar sounds, the set took a slower pace mid-set, but then picked up again with some country and western-esque sounds.<\/p>\n
A highlight of their set was the track \u201cGreenway\u201d, which involved a change of vocalist and harmonica, resulting in a bluesy rock sound which had me jigging.<\/p>\n\nSpanish Horses at Ceremony 5.5 at Esquires. Image: Kane Howie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSuited and booted \u2013 Common Goldfish at Ceremony 5.5 at Esquires. Image: Kane Howie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\nBack in Room 2 were the interestingly named Common Goldfish, who were all decked out in suits and ties, which the band explained was because they were \u201con a business trip to Bedford.\u201d<\/p>\n
Highlights of the set included the track \u201cCarried Away\u201d, whose tropical sounds brought funky vibes to the venue, and \u201cLow Lights and Throwback Tunes\u201d which was great for a little boogie.<\/p>\n
The band thanked the crowd for supporting grassroots music, noting, \u201cwithout grassroots music, you don\u2019t have music,\u201d which was a great reminder during Independent Venue Week.<\/p>\n
The band ended their set stating, \u201cthanks for watching our presentation,\u201d concluding their successful business trip, which proved they are not common (or a goldfish!).<\/p>\n
Next, I quickly dashed upstairs to catch Saint Clair. I was most impressed with the band\u2019s vocals, with the lead singer sounding like a cross between Liam Gallagher and Thom Yorke.<\/p>\n
This may sound like a strange combination, but it helped contribute to their anthemic rock sound that reminded me of Stereophonics and Nirvana.<\/p>\n
Punchbag bought their rave pop fun to Esquires, with energy levels rivalling those of Vincent\u2019s Last Summer.<\/p>\n\nPunchbag at Ceremony 5.5 at Esquires. Image: Kane Howie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSaint Clair at Ceremony 5.5 at Esquires. Image: Kane Howie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\nLead singer Clara bounced around the stage like a human pogo stick, delivering their tracks, including \u201cI Love This\u201d and \u201cYou Used To Be So Sexy,\u201d and left me amazed that Clara wasn\u2019t out of breath at all during their set.<\/p>\n
It was the South London sibling duo\u2019s first time in Bedford, but they quickly won over the crowd, and by the last track, \u201cLive Laugh Love,\u201d Clara got into the crowd and had everyone bouncing around her with their arms in the air.<\/p>\n
On the Main Stage, Formal Sppeedwear got hips moving with their sparkly, swirling synth sounds.<\/p>\n
The set featured funky guitars, and the heavy vocal effects were reminiscent of Talking Heads. Their sound reminded me of perhaps the type of music featured on an 80\u2019s movie, and definitely wouldn\u2019t have been out of place on the Donnie Darko soundtrack.<\/p>\n
Back downstairs were Sounds Mint, who heroically took the job of Room 2 headliners after another band pulled out at the last minute.<\/p>\n
The indie punk band delivered a lively set, where the lead singer Kelvin, advised the crowd, \u201cif you want to get a body like mine, drink five pints of Guinness a day\u201d and praised the \u201cfit people of Bedford.\u201d<\/p>\n
The set featured tracks from their upcoming \u201cMilk It\u201d mixtape, and the track \u201cWhat\u2019s Good (In the Hood) which invoked a sing-along of its catchy chorus.<\/p>\n\nSounds Mint at Ceremony 5.5 at Esquires. Image: Kane Howie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nNo it\u2019s not a typo: Formal Sppeedwear at Ceremony 5.5 at Esquires. Image: Kane Howie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\nThe band performed an excellent set; you\u2019d never have known the set list was only prepared five minutes before stage time.<\/p>\n
Adult DVD, a rapidly rising band from Leeds who are currently generating lots of buzz, bought their post-punk rave to the Esquires main stage.<\/p>\n
The room was packed, and the crowd was non-stop moshing to tracks such as the recent BBC 6Music playlisted track \u201cReal Tree Lee\u201d and glitchy-sounding \u201cDo Something.\u201d<\/p>\n
A highlight of the set was the closing track \u201cBill Murray\u201d, a slightly bonkers track that not only features cow bell but also repeated chants of \u201cBill Murray\u201d and \u201cTom Hanks\u201d, with references to both actors\u2019 filmography.<\/p>\n
Speaking to audience members after the show, this was definitely one of the crowd\u2019s favourite sets of the day.<\/p>\nAdult DVD at Ceremony 5.5 at Esquires. Image: Kane Howie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFinally, it was time for the final act of the day, Man\/Woman\/Chainsaw. <\/p>\n
The group previously headlined Room 2 in April 2025, and now they are back headlining the main stage. <\/p>\n
When the band came on stage with both guitars and a violin it may have had audience members wondering whether to join the orchestra pit or mosh pit, but as soon as the music starts its clear mosh pit is the correct answer.<\/p>\n
A highlight of the set included \u201cWhat Lucy Found There\u201d, which featured layered sounds and insane guitar riffs \u2013 the music was so loud I could feel the vibrations in my skull! <\/p>\n
Latest single \u201cOnly Girl\u201d also went down a treat, featuring some of the most ferocious violin playing I\u2019m sure the Esquires\u2019 stage has ever seen. The band\u2019s set grew more and more fierce as it progressed, and by the time the closing track \u201cOde to Clio\u201d had finished, I felt exhausted.<\/p>\n
The band\u2019s performance proved themselves as worthy headliners for a day of excellent music.<\/p>\n
Overall, this was another great success for all at Esquires. Now it\u2019s time to get your ticket booked for Ceremony 6<\/a> (whilst tickets are still available), which is taking place on 6 June. <\/p>\nYou never know, you might end up finding your new favourite band!<\/p>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.bedfordindependent.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Man\/Woman\/Chainsaw headlining at Ceremony 5.5 at Esquires. Image: Kane Howie It\u2019s the end of a long month (nobody likes January) and it\u2019s Independent Venue Week, so to celebrate, Esquires hosted Ceremony 5.5 \u2013 a \u201cmini\u201d version of their new music all-day event, Ceremony on Saturday (31 January). These events are legendary for bringing the absolute […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2263123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[339857,424639,438372,438373,438374,424641,438375,438376,408770,438377,438378,438379,438380],"class_list":["post-2263122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-adult-dvd","tag-bedford-esquires","tag-ceremony-5-5","tag-common-goldfish","tag-formal-sppeedwear","tag-good-news","tag-man-woman-chainsaw","tag-punchbag","tag-saint-clair","tag-sounds-mint","tag-spanish-horses","tag-velvetine","tag-vincents-last-summer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Review-Esquires-new-music-all-dayer-is-the-place-to-find.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2263122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2263124,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263122\/revisions\/2263124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2263123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2263122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2263122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2263122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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