LETS GET LOUD! MATILDA SHAKES TAKE ON SIDNEY AND MATILDA

LIVE REVIEW | MATILDA SHAKES w/ Taylor Liam Jackson & The Shutters | SIDNEY AND MATILDA, SHEFFIELD | 10th October 2025 by Isobel O’Mahony

With summer, and therefore festival season, over and out, it’s time for everyone to take to our beloved indoor venues. Sheffield isn’t just full of great bands, but great stages too, and on Friday night local lads Matilda Shakes took on Sidney and Matilda with ease. Having previously sold out a show at the deeply missed Leadmill, the band were at home under the lights and made the audience itself feel like part of the family.

With South Yorkshire up-and-comers N.S.O. unfortunately pulling out day of due to illness, Matlock singer songwriter Taylor Liam Jackson filled in with just an acoustic guitar and a strong voice. One of the tracks was written when he was just ten years old after getting broken up with, and it’s up there with one of the most moving tracks I’ve heard about a primary school heartbreak. Jackson was confident, talented and humble for the audience before him and I hope to see him on a few more stages in the future.

Local band The Shutters followed, a bass-heavy and brilliantly toned, indie rock three-piece. Their stuff was solid and fast, a strong sound that definitely deserved a bigger crowd. Not to mention the drummer’s insane fringe that did in no way stop him from inhaling the set. Again, a brilliant Sheffield group whose voice should carry them to some good venues.

Matilda Shakes grabbed ahold of Sidney and Matilda at quarter to ten and they let the crowd have it the whole set. It was a warm opening, to a clearly loyal fanbase, with frontman James Hallam shouting, “Our mission is to keep you up all fucking night!” Their new track “Light It Up” was strong and loud, giving a stark sense of who the band is. “Up All Night” had an early-Kasabian swing to it, closely followed by a “Club Foot” cover, which is always a crowd pleaser.

Whilst the crowd could’ve been a little crazier earlier in the show, the addition of local boy Josh in “Heebie Jeebies” got the room going. People will forever root for that 2010 indie sound. The band’s guitarist was fast and fab, their drummer on the verge of mental, and the band as a whole just worked. Towards the end of the gig, frontman James revealed they had taken a little break from the game of music for mental health reasons. He said: “This for us, is our release.”

Matilda Shakes are using their standing rising musicians in the Sheffield scene to push other artists forward. Lending the stage to the unique sounds from Taylor Liam Jackson and The Shutters, as well as bringing up a fan to play with them, showed us that they don’t only do music well, they care about the community. Matilda Shakes are building a fanbase on joy, family and a love of great noise, and aren’t those the ingredients of a good artist?