Independent Venue Week 2025: Ibibio Sound Machine round off the week in Hebden Bridge
I can still remember the first time I set foot in The Trades Club. It was early 2016, and the surrounding town of Hebden Bridge had been devastated by floods the month prior. Raising funds to help the local community, the venue hosted a record fair, which I went along to as an awkward 13-year-old harbouring early onset vinyl addiction. At that time, my gig-going experience was largely limited to big arena shows, but walking into the club came with a kind of visionary power; I knew that some of my greatest memories would be forged in small rooms like this, watching live music.
There was a palpable sense of excitement in me that day. As I sat down on the train to Hebden Bridge nearly a decade later, heading to catch a sold-out show by Ibibio Sound Machine, I wish I could pretend that the same feeling of excitement washed over me. In reality, I was absolutely knackered. Independent Venue Week is an incredible yet incredibly tiring seven days, particularly for a music journalist. Only the night before, I was up until the early hours of the morning watching local heroes Adult DVD play a late-night set at Belgrave Music Hall in Leeds, immediately after catching Lydia Lunch across the road at Headrow House.
To put it lightly, I was in need of a sudden burst of energy – something that has never really been my forte. Luckily, the band I was traipsing through the Pennines to see is capable of generating energy in the most geriatric of rooms. Originally formed back in 2013, Ibibio Sound Machine have been blending elements of electronica, funk, and Afrobeat for well over a decade at this point. Their most recent record, Pull The Rope, is a masterclass in crafting music that is both infectiously energetic and capable of putting across emotive political messages.
If the upturned collar of my jacket was anything to go by, it was a bitterly cold Sunday evening in Hebden Bridge, a far cry from the sun-soaked lands of southern Nigeria, where Ibibio Sound Machine has its cultural roots. Seemingly, the band had brought some of that heat with them, as a wall of heat greeted me upon entering the packed-out Trades Club. People from all walks of life and all different demographics had gathered to celebrate both the euphoric tones of Ibibio Sound Machine, and the community cornerstone that is The Trades Club.
Not long after I entered this typically friendly Hebden crowd, seven figures emerged onto the stage, launching into ‘Electricity’, the title track of their 2022 album. Immediately, all feelings of fatigue exited my body as if vocalist Eno Williams had performed a mass exorcism over the crowd. Her captivating vocals cut through the room instantly, and the beaming smile on her face suggested we were in for a fun evening. Being quite a melodramatic person, I was overcome with a feeling of being at home, ‘This is where live music lives,’ I thought.
Over the course of the next hour or so, Williams and the gang elevated the crowd in Hebden from energetic to utterly euphoric. Call and response became a regular feature of the night, and within only a few tracks the entrie room was moving in unison to the infectious beats layed out by the Afro-funk collective.
Every individual member of the band was adept in showcasing the extent of their talents, but the brass section was an obvious highlight. Nothing excites a Yorkshire audience quite like the presence of brass, and Ibibio’s trio of horns managed to cut through the room with apparent ease. Whoever was working as the sound engineer at the venue that night, I salute you; the sound was as close to perfect as I have ever encountered at a concert.
A notable highlight within the set came when the group launched into ‘Fire’ from Pull The Rope. Perfectly encapsulating the energy and inherent electronic-funk sound of the London-based collective, the song was particularly well-received by the crowd, helped along by a stunning vocal performance by Williams. In fact, throughout the entire show, Williams’ vocals never dropped in quality for even a second. Every line, every note, and every beat was delivered with the poise and sheer talent that has come to be expected of Ibibio Sound Machine, but to hear it in the flesh was quite something.
By the time the band came to the end of their main set, the audience at The Trades Club was practically overcome with Afro-funk euphoria. I cannot think of any other recent gig in which the chants for ‘one more song’ have been so genuine and universal; even the band themselves seemed pretty taken aback by their reception in the Calder Valley.
I don’t know whether it was the quality of the band, the excitement of Independent Venue Week, or the general atmosphere of Hebden Bridge, but there was a notably wholesome feeling within the crowd. If only for an hour, Ibibio Sound Machine managed to unite all of these different people under one roof with an adoration for dancing, Afrobeat, and, above all else, the power of live music. In truth, the band could have played for another three hours, and nobody would have complained; the entire room was under the complete control of Eno Williams.
Of course, it had to end eventually. Ibibio Sound Machine concluded their electrifying set with an encore of ‘Pull The Rope’ and sent their legions of now quite sweaty followers back out into the night. So, as I stepped out into the inviting chill of the Pennines, I found myself consumed by the energy I had so desperately been searching for earlier in the evening.
All in all, that band’s sold-out set at The Trades Club was the perfect way to round off another incredible Independent Venue Week, and it was an excellent reminder of the power that these unsuspecting rooms hold. Whether providing space for a groundbreaking Afro-funk outfit to get people dancing or for a 13-year-old to buy a battered single by The Specials, these cornerstones of culture and community are essential, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.
