Nostalgic for the Haçienda night club? Perfect: Working Men’s Club transforms La Route du Rock into a Mancunian club by playing Fear Fear, their new album.

Working’s Men Club is a quartet from the Manchester area. Its leader? Sydney Minsky-Sargeant. Around him? Giulia Bonometti, Jake Bogacki and Liam Ogburn. Their style? A frankly groovy post-punk.

Working Men’s Club plays the balancing act between nostalgia and the air of time. The music of Sydney Minsky-Sargeant and his acolytes indeed reminds of Joy Division or The Smiths, thus reviving the fevered memory of the Haçienda. In spite of all these Mancunian influences, the small band manages to impose its own style, confirming that tracks such as “Teeth” were indeed created in an England struggling with the Brexit.

At the time of our first meeting (during the 2020 edition of La Route du Rock Hiver) Working Men’s Club had just released the EP Blood and had already opened for The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Fat White Family. Two and a half years later, the four Brits have put on some muscle by releasing two albums: Working Men’s Club (2020) and Fear Fear (2022). We discover all this live on the main stage of the Route du Rock!