![\"Yard](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Yard-Act.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nSir Elton John has always championed up-and-coming artists. The music legend\u2019s patronage of stars including Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa is well known. But socially conscious, bitingly witty, Leeds-based indie sprechgesang (spoken singing) band Yard Act? Well, it turns out Elton loves them too, to the extent that he offered his services to the group as a musician for hire in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018You\u2019ve hired me as a session player. I\u2019ll do whatever you want,\u2019\u201d says Yard Act frontman James Smith of the day when the superstar visited their studio. At one point, Smith found himself telling the Rocket Man that his piano playing \u201cwasn\u2019t the right vibe\u201d. Elton took the direction well. \u201cYeah, he loved it. He said that it was amazing. He was, like, \u2018I\u2019ve been doing this for so long, I\u2019ve never wanted to stop learning. I don\u2019t know how your band does what you do, but I want to learn.\u2019\u201d Yard Act bassist Ryan Needham says that despite the initial jaw-drop moment of seeing him \u2014 \u201cIt was Elton John, dripping in Prada\u201d \u2014 the musician \u201cwasn\u2019t a daunting presence\u201d at all. The fruits of their joint labour can be heard on a version of the track 100% Endurance.<\/p>\n
Elton\u2019s got solid taste: Yard Act are one of Britain\u2019s most exciting bands. They sprung from the ashes of lockdown with tracks such as Fixer Upper, about a myopic second-home owner called Graham. Their Mercury-nominated debut album The Overload was a collection of startling post-punk funk that sat somewhere between The Fall, Gang of Four, Pulp and Ian Dury. It was stuffed with character sketches and tales of crumbling, stagnant Britain, regaled in Smith\u2019s bone-dry delivery. But the tag of post-punk poster boys riled them, so Yard Act\u2019s second album \u2014 2024\u2019s assured Where\u2019s My Utopia? \u2014 embraced disco, baggy and electronica music. Their imminent third album, You\u2019re Gonna Need a Little Music, is a different beast yet again. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s our best work\u2026 I would point people to this album,\u201d says Needham when I put him on the spot and ask him to describe the record for Standard readers. He, Smith and I are sitting in the air-conditioned rooftop bar of a central London hotel as the capital melts outside in the summer\u2019s second heatwave. Naturally, Smith and Needham\u2019s vintage shades remain on throughout our chat. A mezze platter sits on the table in front of us and Smith sips a spicy alcohol-free cocktail called a Mockarita Del Diablo, which should be the name of a Yard Act song. The pair are at the pivot point where the artistic process of making a record as a tight unit turns into the practical process of promoting it and flinging the metaphorical doors open, a process that Needham says can be \u201ctricky to navigate\u201d. No complaints here. <\/p>\n
Album review: You\u2019re Gonna Need a Little Music<\/p>\n
\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n
Wow, this is something else, the third album by this Leeds group that combines the spiky storytelling wit of first album Arctic Monkeys with the restless nutcase verve of Warmduscher and with a new expansive flair of Pulp. Indeed, frontman James Smith comes on like Jarvis meets Baxter Dury on speed, the scabrous hero we all need right now. Somehow Yard Act can shift from the epic punk-metal state-of-a-divided-nation track Empty Pledges, to the poppy glory of New Beginnings; it\u2019s hard to remember a band managing this as effectively since The Fall where Mark E Smith would occasionally smash into the charts just to annoy everyone and show people he could \u2014 it\u2019s just he\u2019s not usually bothered. Yard Act \u2014 best group in the country now. Martin Robinson<\/p>\n
Out July 17<\/p>\n
You\u2019re Gonna Need a Little Music opens with the crepuscular Empty Pledges, which shares the creeping menace of Massive Attack\u2019s Angel, and features the tense and dark lead single Redeemer. Smith describes Redeemer\u2019s release as a deliberate \u201cspanner-in-the-works move\u201d, chosen because it was the \u201cexact opposite\u201d of Where\u2019s My Utopia\u2019s upbeat lead single Dream Job (he initially wanted to do a Led Zeppelin and not release any singles at all, something he quickly realised wouldn\u2019t fly). Lyrically, the album finds Smith less certain and more careworn than before. \u201cBy now you\u2019re either with us or you\u2019re not\/ So you can sit down, shut up and listen\u2026 or switch this shit off,\u201d Smith says on Empty Pledges. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m more comfortable with admitting that I\u2019m not really sure of myself\u2026 I don\u2019t really trust people who think they know it all\u201d<\/p>\n
James Smith<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yard Act<\/p>\n
.<\/p>\n
Between offering me an olive and sip of his Mockarita, Smith explains that he\u2019s \u201cgetting more comfortable with admitting that I\u2019m not really sure of myself\u2026 I don\u2019t really trust people who think they know it all.\u201d In other words, life isn\u2019t cut and dry. It is, to quote 10cc, a minestrone. Or in this case a mezze platter. <\/p>\n
But You\u2019re Gonna Need a Little Music buoys as well as broods. Over the Barrel and New Beginnings sound joyous. Of the stylistic evolution, Smith says he gets \u201cunnerved when people think they\u2019ve got me pegged\u201d (there\u2019s a pattern here). The first two albums gave Yard Act \u201cquite a big playground\u201d to operate in, says Needham, who has a theory based on Blur\u2019s Parklife: it\u2019s only on a band\u2019s third album that they outgrow their influences and become their own thing. \u201cWe finally stopped looking left and right,\u201d he explains. Sonically broad, You\u2019re Gonna Need a Little Music is richly produced by former Beck, St Vincent and Nine Inch Nails collaborator Justin Meldal-Johnsen. It was recorded half in Leeds and half in Los Angeles (which may explain its darkness and light) and is the first record the four-piece have recorded in a studio together (guitarist Sam Shipstone and drummer Jay Russell complete the band). The previous albums were done via laptop and sound files. <\/p>\n
The American Meldal-Johnsen is a long-established fan of goth music so loved being in Leeds, which spawned the scene via bands like The Sisters of Mercy and The Rose of Avalanche. Meldal-Johnsen visited a goth club, but chickened out of knocking on the front door of Sisters frontman Andrew Eldritch\u2019s house. \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t do it,\u201d says Smith, admiring the fact that even musical veterans get nervous about meeting their heroes.<\/p>\n
With all their shape-shifting, Yard Act sound like a band who are deliberately wilful. They\u2019re not. They just don\u2019t fit in with the clippable, easily categorisable direction in which culture has headed. They are unashamedly musicians\u2019 musicians. A vignette from the past. When Smith and Needham first met at a house party in around 2013, they had a 4am debate about which was better \u2014 Captain Beefheart\u2019s Trout Mask Replica (Smith) or the albums of The Longpigs (Needham). \u201cThere was an iPod dock. That sets the scene,\u201d says Smith. Back to today, the problem is that so much of popular culture relies on content that \u201cgrabs [people] within three seconds\u201d, says Smith. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m suspect of it. It\u2019s icing out a lot of interesting perspectives and a lot of interesting art because it\u2019s not immediate. A slogan carries a lot faster than putting your hands up and spending 45 minutes saying, \u2018I\u2019m more confused about the world than I\u2019ve ever been. I\u2019ve got no answers, I\u2019ve got questions,\u2019\u201d the singer explains. Yard Act will square this circle by \u201cplaying the long game\u201d and having faith that \u201cif you believe in what you do, it will grow and resonate with the audience,\u201d says Smith. <\/p>\n
![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/James-Smith-of-Yard-Act.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
James Smith of Yard Act<\/p>\n
Getty Images for Paramount+<\/p>\n
Still, Yard Act enjoy poking people. They all still live in Leeds, apart from Shipstone who lives in nearby Bradford (\u201cWe\u2019re slowly falling apart at the seams,\u201d jokes Smith). A few years ago the band told a London crowd that they were kicking off the tour in the capital to \u201cpractise for the more important cities\u201d. Just a bit of fun, says Smith. \u201cSome of our best shows have been in London\u2026 It\u2019s an amazing city. But you have to pay your dues and you give it a kick,\u201d he says. Needham compares such statements to comedians who deliberately alienate their audiences at the start of their act before winning them back. Yard Act play a 15-date UK tour in November, this time ending in London. By the time they reach Brixton Academy, they should be well warmed up.<\/p>\n
Yard Act\u2019s current level of fame is manageable, even enjoyable, says Smith. \u201cI was in Asda the other day. I felt this tap on my shoulder, I turned around and this guy held up his phone and he was listening to Where\u2019s My Utopia? doing his shop. He didn\u2019t say anything. He just nodded and walked off. And I was, like, \u2018That\u2019s amazing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
If fame levels ratchet up with the fantastic You\u2019re Gonna Need a Little Music, then Yard Act will just have to learn to deal with it. Learning\u2019s important. Just ask Elton.<\/p>\n
Small Car \u2014 Marvin Pontiac<\/p>\n
\u201cThe jump-off for the title track of our new album. They\u2019re both road songs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tom\u2019s Diner \u2014 Suzanne Vega <\/p>\n
\u201cAn observational song \u2014 in Janey Said, I wanted to present a man who isn\u2019t noticing anything but himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Intruder \u2014 Peter Gabriel<\/p>\n
\u201cThe groove heavily influenced how we approached Redeemer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Elton John has always championed up-and-coming artists. The music legend\u2019s patronage of stars including Ed Sheeran and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,7465,96,14809,231460,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-696394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-elton-john","tag-entertainment","tag-music-interviews","tag-sir-elton-john","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}