Last weekend played host to the brilliant Tramlines festival in the heart of Sheffield. Showcasing emerging music and a few big favourites across numerous stages, Tramlines is a little gem and given the state of the festival economy this year, the fact that it remains free is a testament to its greatness. One of the highlights was Fear of Men who graced the New Music Stage. Chris Craddock reports on the gig and grabs the band for a quick chat which you can hear below.

“Sheffield city centre was the perfect place for the mid-afternoon crowd to sit back and relax to the hauntingly melodic joy that is Fear of Men. With the perfect combination of sunshine and breeze, the band took to the New Music Stage and within minutes they were showing why they were one of the bands to watch at Tramlines Festival.

They certainly wasted no time for cracking out their fantastic single ‘Ritual Confession’ which was the ideal song for the weather. I’d call their sound the archetypical sway-dancing music and with the heat that’s exactly what I wanted to do. And with the sun out, the band’s blissful and sweet pop hooks really caught the mood of the day.

So in between gently bopping along to these wonderfully addictive guitar tunes with Jess’ tantalisingly wispy vocals over the top, it was often easy to forget the band’s stage presence. Now Fear of Men aren’t a band to scream at the crowd to get them going. In fact, Jess’ first words to the crowd were “Can we turn that guitar down?” then “… oh Hello!” But this endearing, cute charm matched their music and everyone lucky enough to turn up was in store for a real treat.

Then there was Alex. In all my years of seeing cool bassists play, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one looking so chilled out and laid back as Alex with her bowler hat and huge shades on. Between that fantastic nonchalant look and Jess’ stunningly beautiful guitar, there was something for the eyes as well as the ears.”

Check out more from Fear of Men at their amazingtunes.com profile.