I was excited to read today that the Comsat Angels are playing at the Sheffield Academy on April 26th. It'll be their first gig in 14 years. The Comsats are, in my opinion, one of the finest bands to come out of Sheffield. Their first three albums are brilliant and they'll be playing material from those albums. Any other Comsat Angels fans out there?

Oh yes. They are hugely under-rated and I also rate them as one of Sheffield's finest groups. I even played with them for a brief spell!

Oh yes. They are hugely under-rated and I also rate them as one of Sheffield's finest groups. I even played with them for a brief spell!

Are you the same Nortonlees who played with Don Valley and the Rotherhides ?

Oh yes. They are hugely under-rated and I also rate them as one of Sheffield's finest groups. I even played with them for a brief spell!

Cool! When did you play with them? I've never seem them live before so am very excited at this opportunity.

Time to confess that I'm not a Sheffielder. I live in London but studied in Sheffield between 1994 - '97. During that period I believe Steve Fellows worked in a record shop (Townshend?) somewhere in the city centre. A friend of mine knew Steve and introduced me to him in 1996. I was presenting a show on the Sheffield community station Forge FM and Steve agreed to an interview. I spoke to him for about half an hour and he was fascinating. I love their music and as you say they deserve a lot more recognition.

Great songs, great playing.

Several times I've heard TV's Mark Kermode refer to them e.g. "Me and Simon Armitage like nothing better in an evening than to sit around the fire discussing Horror Films and the Comsat Angels" or "Mik is my favourite drummer ever"

And they're such a clean band as well; never once do you hear a tale of rock and roll excess involving the Comsat Angels leaving a rehearsal room dirty or checking out of a hotel without having dusted and hoovered up their rooms first.

And they're such a clean band as well; never once do you hear a tale of rock and roll excess involving the Comsat Angels leaving a rehearsal room dirty or checking out of a hotel without having dusted and hoovered up their rooms first.

Ay they empty their own bins alright.

Anyone know how reunion rehearsals are coming on? What line up will be playing - they've had several bass players and second guitarists?

Also will they play Europe again? I'd like an excuse to go to Amsterdam!

Very exciting to hear this. Never saw them at the time so pleased to get another chance.

http://o2academysheffield.co.uk/eventdetails.php?showid=8203

editorial will appear there in next few days... ta muchly

I Hope there`re be much more Comsats-activity in the future.Very nice that they`ll be playing only material from WFAM, SNM and Fiction.The best albums they have made.I want to see them in Germany too.

Are you the same Nortonlees who played with Don Valley and the Rotherhides ?

Almost. That's double-bassist extraordinaire Jim O'Shea. I do his website, (nortonlees.com) as it happens. Not to be confused with another of my sites, nortonlees.org.uk ;)

Although I've followed them from their earliest days at the Broadfield and George IV, I was only in the band briefly in the mid 80s as 2nd touring guitarist. I did get to play on one track that finally got released by Cherry Red.

It's all part of this...and Mark Kermode is introducing the band!

www.sensoria.org.uk

Did they get their name from the short story of the same name by the late author Jim Ballard?

Did they get their name from the short story of the same name by the late author Jim Ballard?

Yes, they did.

I'm so looking forward to seeing the Comsats on Sunday!

Well it's the final few days before the Comsats and it seems people are flying in from Australia, Spain, US, France to name but a few...... promises to be a bit of a gathering..

a great gig, even if we didn't get Monkey Pilot

(as an aside, the marvellous bar staff in the academy tried to charge us different prices for the same two drinks each of the four times we went to the bar -£5.80, £5.95, £6.50 and £7.45!! We did tell them to sod off at the £7.45)

((as another aside -

Almost. That's double-bassist extraordinaire Jim O'Shea. I do his website, (nortonlees.com) as it happens. Not to be confused with another of my sites, nortonlees.org.uk ;)

aah, tis a small world sheffield. i saw Red and Kelvin on friday night...))

Excellent gig I thought. Great playing, perfect sound. I think the band enjoyed it too and were pleased to see a good turnout.

Have to agree with the comments above. The Comsats were superb. I came up from London to see them and it was well worth the journey.

They pulled in a large crowd which seemed to surprise Steve Fellows. It was great to hear so many songs from the first three albums. For me the highlights were a fantastic performance of "Dark Parade", a storming "Missing In Action" a nice bit of jazzy improvisation on "Ju Ju Money" and the first ever performance of "Pictures". I'm reckoning that many of these tracks haven't been performed since the early 80's.

I hung around after the show and had a good chat with keyboard player Andy Peake. Very nice guy. Also got to meet Mark Kermode who introduced the band. I hear that the Comsats may be playing some more dates in October. Would be great if this is the start of a revival for the band.

yes, a great gig, great crowd too. my only regret was they didn't play the song that got me in to them back in the day - 'red planet'