“The novelty of a post lockdown music environment is new for everyone. We're starting to enjoy music again”

In a small town in Wiltshire, something magical is happening. A band is playing a gig! And not just any old band – it’s Squid, whose new album Bright Green Field is arguably the best debut of 2021. Guitarists Louis Borlase and Anton Pearson tell TG how “lucky” and “emotional” they feel to be playing live again, and explain the band’s improvisational ethos: “It’s about putting adventure over precision.”

- Jonny Scaramanga

It is May 26th, 2021, and your fearless TG reporters are in a pub. For an Actual Gig! We could do some maudlin reflection on how that became a newsworthy state of affairs, but we’re too hyped about seeing live music. It’s been long enough that we’d be happy to see a covers band plod through Mustang Sally, so the fact we’re seeing Squid, one of the most exciting new bands anywhere, is borderline euphoric.

Squid’s return to live performance is this tour of spaces and places that aren’t normally on the gigging circuit, and in some cases aren’t normally even music venues. Tonight they’re at The Old Road Tavern in Chippenham, Wiltshire. Its name may not be up there with The Marquee or The Cavern, but guitarist and sometimes vocalist Louis Borlase tells us the band are thrilled to play there. Chippenham is drummer/vocalist Ollie Judge’s hometown, and the pub gave Squid free use of its music space for writing and rehearsing their just-released debut album, Bright Green Field. As the band takes to the stage that night, keyboardist Arthur Leadbetter will announce, with absolute sincerity, “This venue means the world to us.”