TASTES LIKE TRACK SONOMA. TRAMLINES FRINGE 2026.

July 2026. Sheffield.

The boys wanted to visit Dad with me, so we all popped down Saturday after a night of fringe fun.

Tramlines “proper” is Sheffield’s equivalent of Latitude (ugh), without the pashminas and laughing gas and dangerous proximity to Southwold.

3 days (no camping) of heritage (ugh) bands living off their 2000s hit. Can you distinguish The Vaccines from The Courteneers from The Blossoms ? Mrs RM could hear the Kaiser Chiefs from a mile away that night.

If you want to know why the Rutland Arms is SO good, here’s their banned music list from last week.

Mind you, that line-up looks positively youthful compared to Rebellion next weekend;

If one photo sums up the punters at Tramlines, it’s the beanie hat vendors along Middlewood Road on the way to Hillsborough Park.

Oasis T-shirt count : 372.

I met Matt in Kelham for the free fringe gigs on a glorious evening in our never-ending summer* of ’26.

The Shakespeare (never noticed this view of the furnaces before) is your reliable start point to escape the nostalgia circuit.

Stepover are a “loud band from Manchester“, the sort of band that makes you wonder if it’s time to start wearing those ear plugs you wore for Prolapse again. But ears grow back, don’t they ?

All original material, though with a definite nod to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” near the end. Doesn’t everything have a nod to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” though ?

A pint of Liquid Light tasted like Track Sonoma. But doesn’t everything etc. etc.

Matt arrived for the last song (Northern trains late again) and we wandered through Kelham Island to Alder, where the bands have proper names that don’t start with “The“.

“Are they not doing Bass any more, Dad ?” asks Matt.

He goes Lowenbrau,

I stay safe with keg Sonoma, which allows me to answer this question on the Blue Moon forum later.

Elwell’s bio says “4 piece band from Leeds, including members of Scum, Speaking in Tongues, Clit Spit, Cage Girl and Clabber“. Why always Leeds ?

I go home after their spiky, energetic set.

Matt meets up with James and stays till 1:30am, by which time the kebab shops have closed. He is starving the next morning.

*slight downside, the drought, but there’s always beer when the water runs out

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

10 thoughts on “TASTES LIKE TRACK SONOMA. TRAMLINES FRINGE 2026.”

  1. Thanks for the hint about showering in beer when there’s no more water. Making a cup of tea with beer is going to be a challenge, but it’s got to be better than giving up cars and planes and AI data centres, or, revolutionary thought this, building reservoirs in case it ever rains again. 🤔

    I was with a friend in Leeds this week and he tried Track Sonoma in the Brew Society near the station, finding it a bit too sweet. Mind you, I always thought it was too sweet and fruity.

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    1. We shower in milk, Will.

      The chap on Blue Moon clearly imagines I have a clue about beer. I did try Sonoma on cask and keg at their Taproom and the temperature difference was startling, and turnover rules, but people will always assume it’s tweaking the recipe.

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  2. Sonoma seems expensive for a 3.8% beer or is that because it is keg. Also surprised to see Fat boy Slim and Queen on the forbidden list. Not that I recognise many of the other names.

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  3. Thank heavens that the kebab shop wasn’t closed for Mrs E and I on our way back from the vegetarian restaurant that our second eldest had booked for us a few years ago. I have never devoured anything with such urgency.

    Fortunately he’s given up antisocial behaviour now.

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  5. Of course Rebellion is like that, it’s a nostalgia fest for those rapidly approaching extreme middle age (or 70, whichever arrives first). When I saw the punk all dayer headlined by the Sex Pistols in Glasgow last year, the most noticeable thing about the audience was the amount of collapsible chairs.

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