It may have been a cold night in January, but the Bedford music fans were out in full force to catch TTSSFU (aka Tasmin Nicole Stephens) at Esquires on Saturday (17 January).
TTSSFU, an artist from Wigan, has recently been invading the BBC 6Music playlist and Spotify algorithms everywhere, and last weekend she brought her shoegaze indie sounds to Bedford Esquires.
Opening up proceedings on the night were Kate Gore and the Screamers, a local up-and-coming gothic rock band.
The five-piece delivered a set full of confident stage presence and character, combined with strong vocals and musicianship. Their set included tracks such as “My Vicious Man” and “Hearts Incarcerated”, which was interestingly written about having a crush on someone in prison.
The band may have stated their songs are not about “screaming in joy, but screaming in tears,” but in time, I’m sure fans will be screaming their name.
Ugly Ozo (aka Jess Baker) were up next, returning to Esquires having previously played Ceremony 5, the now legendary yearly day event that brings the best of new music to Bedford, in June 2025.
The Isle of Wight artist released their debut EP “stargirl” last October; however, they are already looking to the future and treated the audience to several new songs from their upcoming EP.
The tracks, which were “inspired by an ex-boyfriend”, were so fresh that some of them had never even been played to a live audience before.
Sugary sweet vocals and indie pop sounds warmed up the crowd nicely, and some might say closing track “Cherry” was the cherry on top of the set.
Finally, it was time for TTSSFU to take to the stage, and the band were dressed smartly for the occasion with TTSSFU’s supporting band members all wearing a shirt and tie.
Fittingly for a Saturday night, the band came on stage to “Saturday Night” by Whigfield, but that was the only cheesy pop song of the night.
“Bedford, where’s Bedford?”
The set started with “Sick” from TTSSFU’s “Blown” EP, a song that seemingly starts quiet but the intensity levels slowly creep up until it escalates to a minute of crashing guitar sounds at the end.
This was followed by the catchy track “Call U Back” and the recent single “Upstairs”, which was delivered with a smile.
Despite TTSSFU admitting early on in the set that she didn’t know where Bedford was before coming here (she’s not the only one; Metallica’s Lars Ulrich once questioned “Bedford, where’s Bedford?” and that hilarious sound bite opens the Bedfordian band Don Broco’s track “Pretty”), the audience welcomed her warmly to our town.
A highlight of the set was “Baggage”, which is a track TTSSFU told the crowd is about “having a big fat crush on Julian Casablancas,” and was followed by her track “Forever”, which she introduced with surprising honesty as sounding “exactly like the song we just played.”
Towards the end of the set, TTSSFU put her guitar down, jumped off stage and got into the crowd for her track “Studio 54”, getting everyone moving. Finally, the set closed with “I Hope You Die”, and after delivering her final scream, TTSSFU walked off stage to rapturous applause and cheers.
Despite this being TTSSFU’s first time in Bedford, she clearly won over the crowd, and I’m sure punters would love to see her back here sometime in the future.
