Culture 3 min read By Mason Emerson
The Cribs Announce Wakefield Homecoming Show for 20th Anniversary of ‘Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever’
The Cribs will mark 20 years of their 2007 album with a hometown show at Tileyard North in Wakefield, joined by ¡Forward, Russia!, who will play their debut album in full.
The Cribs have announced a special homecoming concert celebrating the 20th anniversary of their acclaimed 2007 album «Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever». The show is set for Tileyard North in Wakefield on Friday, August 20, and will feature the Jarman brothers performing the record in its entirety. Yorkshire art-rock band ¡Forward, Russia! will join as special guests, playing their own 2007 debut album «Give Me A Wall» in full.
The gig makes The Cribs the first confirmed headliners for the 2027 edition of the Live At Tileyard North series. For the band, the location carries particular significance: the site is where they rehearsed in the early 2000s, just a short distance from their childhood home. Promoter Toby Womack of Futuresound Events said the booking represents the first hometown show for The Cribs in more than a decade. «We couldn’t think of a better way to launch our second edition than with The Cribs’ first hometown show in over 10 years, this will be incredibly special», Womack said.
Released in 2007, «Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever» was produced by Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos and includes tracks such as «Moving Pictures», «I’m a Realist» and «Our Bovine Public». The album was praised on release for its raw energy and pop sensibility, and it landed at Number Nine on NME’s Albums of the Year list for 2007. A review at the time described it as the «sexiest dirty pop record of the year», noting that the band had delivered songs filled with «angst, confusion and lashings of amp fuzz» rather than packaging them for the mainstream.
The anniversary show follows a period of renewed attention for The Cribs’ early catalogue. In 2022, the band reissued their first three albums — 2004’s «The Cribs», 2005’s «The New Fellas» and «Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever» — and all three re-entered the UK charts. Ryan Jarman said at the time that the reissues were prompted by the vinyl having been out of print for years, and that the chart success came as a surprise. «We didn’t expect anything like this, but it’s amazing», he said. «We really appreciate it because it means that people still care about the records.»
Tickets for the Wakefield show go on general sale on Friday, October 23, at 10am BST, with a pre-sale beginning Wednesday, October 21, at the same time. The concert forms part of the Live At Tileyard North series, which Womack said will return in 2027 after a warm reception in 2026. The pairing of The Cribs and ¡Forward, Russia! places two defining acts of the mid-2000s British indie scene on the same bill, each revisiting a debut-era record that helped shape their reputations.
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