The Killers

Balado

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The Killers

The Killers might hail from one of the USA's most quintessentially American cities (Las Vegas), but their debut album Hot Fuss displays an Anglophilic streak that is an ocean wide. Steeped in the back-catalogue of The Smiths and Pulp, with broad 80s synth sweeps cloaking each tale of fraught metrosexual romance, this band clearly rate the swoon over the swagger. Still, this is almost entirely an upbeat record, one made for the packed club than the smoky VIP room; in particular "On Top", "Somebody Told Me" and "Mr Brightside" are tremendous examples of breathless indie-pop that gallop along like a lovestuck heartbeat with frontman Brandon Flowers gasping for breath on the claustrophobic disco floor. This is, inarguably, what the Killers do best. Even when they deviate from form they’ve got a few neat ideas - see the gospel choir that echoes back Flowers' repeated exclamation "I've got soul/ But I'm not a soldier" on "All These Things I've Done", or the self-consciously epic "Indie Rock'n'Roll", delivered by the Killers with all the fireworks and gusto of a curtain-closing Broadway showtune.»

Franz Ferdinand

Franz Fact #1: Both Alex and Paul were once members of The Yummy Fur, although Alex does not feature on any of their recorded material.
Franz Fact #2: Alex once worked in the 13th Note in Glasgow.
Franz Fact #3: He was also in a band called The Karelia, who were "the only band in the world to sound like the Monochrome Set (sometimes)". Check out the photo in an old Jockrock review (tip: he's the one on the left on the top-right pic).

Official Biog:

Some time around the end of 2001, Bob was sitting in Alex's kitchen. Alex had just been given a bass by his friend Mick, on the condition that he did 'something useful' with it.

"Do you want to learn to play the bass then, Bob?"
"No, I'm an artist, not a musician."
"It's the same thing."
"OK then."

So Bob learned the bass and they planned a band. It had to be something big. Bob wanted it to be on the level of Field Marshall Haig's tears that fell as he counted the statistics of the men he had sent over the top. Alex wanted to make music that girls could dance to.

Alex met Nick in Jo and Celias' kitchen. Nick was dressed like a young Adam Ant and was stealing Alex's Vodka. They were about to batter each others brains in when Alex asked if he could play drums. Nick lied and said that he could. They agreed to meet up in Nick's South Side mansion.

Nick could hit the drums, but not in any particularly coherent order. He was a classical pianist and double bassist and had come to Glasgow because a friend in Munich had said it was a laugh. Although he couldn't drum, he liked the idea of music for girls to dance to, and they found that they could write songs together.

Paul was the best drummer in Glasgow, but nobody wanted to hear drums, now that 808s had been discovered. Paul had pawned his kit, but liked the idea of playing the guitar, so started coming down to Nick's South Side mansion. One day he and Nick swapped over, on the condition that Paul still got to sing and didn't have to use rack toms, as they stopped the audience getting a decent view of him.

Girl Art was an exhibition organised by a group of students at GSA. They heard the plan for music that girls could dance to, so asked the boys to play their first gig. It was in Celia's bedroom which was lit by neon. At least 80 people watched and most of them danced.

Nick and Alex decided that they needed somewhere bigger than Nick's South Side mansion to play music in. Hunting for property, they went for a walk along the disused railway line that crosses over Paddy's market and the Clyde. They discovered two things: that the line wasn't disused after all and a huge abandoned art-deco warehouse overlooking the Clyde. They tracked down the landlord, persuaded him to give them the keys to the 6th floor, christened it the Chateau and made it their home.

The Chateau was a wonderful home. After evicting the pigeons and fixing the windows, they found a sympathetic electrician who managed to wire the building in a way that left the electricity board innocent of the knowledge that they were supplying the power. At one point in its long history, the warehouse had stored sports equipment. Franz Ferdinand held a Sports and Leisure night: rowing machines strapped to trolleys were raced, vibra-belts wobbled, weights were lifted and rifles were shot from the saddle of a rocking horse.

The Chateau is in a part of Glasgow that used to be called the Gorbals. At one point it was associated with violence, vermin and poverty. None of these exist in Glasgow today. The second Chateau event was a little grander. On the Fifth floor, Robb Mitchell and Switchspace gathered together a collection of artists to put on an exhibition. On the sixth floor, Ferdinand brought together some of the best music Glasgow has produced: Uncle John and Whitelock, Park Attack and Scatter. Lighting was in the form of banks of sunbeds that had been found on one of the other floors. They were wired to flicker on and off randomly as the bands played. Early evening, people started to arrive. Then more people. Then more people. The bands played and the lights flickered. Wine flowed and everyone danced. It felt liberating. Then the police arrived. They seemed terrified. There were only a few of them and they were panicking. Very soon another couple of vanloads arrived. It was like a scene from a speakeasy in prohibition-era Chicago. As the cops were racing up one staircase, crates of booze were flying down the other. Somehow, Al Kapranos took the brunt of the wrath. Possibly because of the phonetics of the name, possibly because he was the only one who didn't run away. He was arrested, but the charges of running an illegal bar and contravening various health and safety, fire hazard and noise abatement legislation were dropped. When he was chatting to the cops over a cup of tea down at the cells, everyone friends again, they said that they had been looking for the place for a month. They had been driving round the block, trying to find a way in to where the noise was coming from. It seemed that they were just happy to be confused no longer.

The Chateau was now marked territory and could no longer be used as a centre of noise. Franz Ferdinand played shows in other places. Lucy McKenzie, a Glasgow artist, held nights in her Flourish Studios. These were similar to the Chateau, but a little quieter. Stereo, a bar with a rare and supportive attitude was also a haunt. The Chateau was never abandoned, but another place, equally as magnificent was found.

On Tobago Street there is a Victorian courtroom and gaol. When McCarthy discovered it, it had been abandoned for over 30 years. It was ideal. The perversity of breaking the law in what was a bastion of the legal system appealed greatly. It has that air of brooding opulence and inarguable authority that 19th century West of Scotland municipal buildings command. The ceilings are higher than church and are mounted in omnipotent plasterwork. They were entered in awe and fear. After thirty years of Glasgow elements, some of the harshness had been softened, however. The plaster had cracked. Rain ran down some of the internal walls. The cell doors swung open. It was perfect.

It was decided that the gaol and courtroom was also the Chateau. Anything can be the Chateau, if it seems right. It is even suspected that there are parts of the Capithole that could be the Chateau too. For the next night, the building was split. Robb Mitchell filled the cells with artists. Franz Ferdinand presided over the courtroom. They booked train tickets and brought the Country Teasers North. They built a stage from scaffolding and borrowed bits of sound system from anyone vaguely sympathetic across the city. On the night, it was colder in the building than outside, but people arrived. Then more people. Then more people. Braziers burned in the courtyard and the bands burned in the courtroom. Wine flowed and everyone danced. Eventually the police arrived.

Tobago street is one of the city's rougher streets. It is populated mainly by scrapped cars and hookers. This time, the police were much friendlier. They didn't want to arrest anyone and gave four warnings before shutting the power down.

By this point it had been noticed that there were faces in the audience that definitely belonged South of the border. Somehow London had seeped in to Glasgow. This wasn't a bad thing and Franz Ferdinand decided to visit the Capithole. They played a few shows and decided that they liked it. As a city, London is bigger than Glasgow and has more people that want to put out records. Franz Ferdinand spoke to several of these people. Some of them were truly astonishing mavericks who have changed the world with their work. Some were wankers, shoving too much coke up their noses, while letting shite fall from their mouths. Eventually, they met Laurence Bell, firmly in the former category. He runs the Domino Record Company. A last great independent. When he asked them to sign, they were so touched they could say nothing but yes.

Franz Ferdinand currently live in the courtroom of the Chateau, where they write and record.»

Snow Patrol

Snow Patrol started life when Gary Lightbody (guitar, vocals) and Mark McClelland (bass, backing vocals) met at Dundee University, and discovered that they had lived a few streets from each other in their native Belfast - and of course a shared desire to make some delicately crafted guitar noise. With the help of Belle & Sebastian's Richard Colburn on drums until Jonny Quinn could travel from Belfast to join the band full-time, the band (then called Polarbear until legal issues later forced the change) were snapped up by Jeepster on the strength of the ultra-rare single 'Starfighter Pilot', released through Electric Honey records, the label which also has the super-ultra-rare 'Tigermilk' by B&S to its name.

After releasing the critically ignored debut album Songs For Polar Bears at the turn of the century, Snow Patrol went on to release what should have been their breakthrough album When It's All Over We Still Have To Clear Up in 2001, and even though the radio exposure clicked into place this time around, Jeepster's advertising budget was poor.

Relations between Jeepster and the Patrol soon soured before they parted company, Jeepster folding soon after. Snow Patrol retreated back to Belfast to write and record third album Final Straw off their own backs, before securing a major deal with Fiction/Polydor. Having worked with Iain Archer as something of a fourth member on the second album, they instead recruited Belfast boy Nathan Connolly from local act Fuel for what was to follow.

They still needed some luck though, and it came one morning when their friend Radio 1 DJ Colin Murray chased Jo "The World's Most Mainstream Hippy" Whiley down the road one day in the summer of 2003 clutching a copy of 'Run'. Even though 'Spitting Games' was the forthcoming single, the radio play it received was negligible, and before long 'Run' hit both the airwaves and the charts.. and then everywhere else.

Sensing the indie-kids wanted Coldplay instead of Rock Music, the record label set about releasing all the slow tracks from the zillion-selling Final Straw, earning them some kind of reputation as indie bedwetters. As the gruelling tour schedule wound down, Mark was unceremoniously kicked out of the band one night without discussion (he alledges) for reasons which have remained top secret, and Paul from Terra Diablo joined as his replacement immediately. They also welcomed on board long-standing but, until then, unofficial fifth member Tom for keyboards and electronic wizardy.

Fourth album Eyes Open was released May 2006.

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Bloc Party

Original DiS biog:

Bloc Party (they were formerly listed on these pages under the name Union) are a four piece from London who peddle a fine line of taut riffology, sounding not unlike that ever-popular New York five piece duelling with Fugazi in an art rock-shaped blender. With tunes to boot. Dynamic, wirey entertainment.

Think: Gang Of Four, The Cure, The Strokes and all that schtick. They are fab.

Bloc Party are:

Kele Okereke - vocals, guitar
Russell Lissack - guitar, floppy hair
Gordon Moakes - bass and backing vocals
Matt Tong - drums, ties

After much A&R battling, they signed to Wichita in the UK for their record deal, and EMI for their publishing. They are also signed to Vice in the USA.

NEW DiS biog:

We first stumbled across Bloc Party when they played under the name The Angel Range as the first-on at Camden’s Dublin Castle at the tail end of 2002. We don’t actually remember much of it back then. They weren’t all that.

In fact, when DiS properly ‘stumbled across’ Bloc Party they were, for some unfathomable but thankfully short-lived reason, called Diet. They’d emailed and asked if they could send a demo and where it should be sent to. An unusually on-form DiS journo said “I’ll have that”. By the time the demo (on a plain CDR without even a track-listing to its name) reached us they’d changed the name to Union. It was, to use a journalistic cliché, like someone had fed The Strokes some very good amphetamines and introduced them to The Cure. It made us go ping! and then some. The tracks were This Is Not A Competition and The Answer. It got reviewed, and there was some rejoicing. “We’ve been offered gigs and everything,” Kele later said. Come mid-2003 and there was a second demo. Union and their friends Redjetson sat their arses in DiS’ new Stoke Newington abode and set about posting their CDs in packages together to various ‘industry’ folk. “Right messy bastards, they were,” one witness was heard to comment.

In the meantime, Kele had read with interest about a new band called Franz Ferdinand. They sounded like they were into the same sort of things as Union, so he went to one of their gigs. Spotting Radio One/6 Music DJ Steve Lamacq in the crowd, he handed him a CD. One was also thrust into the hands of Franz. Lamacq played the track She’s Hearing Voices on his Radio 1 show, declaring the song “genius” and inviting them to record a live session. At this point, the music industry’s ears began to pick up. By September, the band had discovered another Union in east London, so changed their name to Bloc Party – based on housing block parties (minus the ‘k’, just for aesthetic reasons) rather than anything to do with the Eastern Bloc – and got invited to play Franz’s now-legendary ‘warehouse’ gig at the Electrowerkz in London’s Angel, as part of the Domino label’s anniversary celebrations. Around this time they were also whoring themselves out to any venue that would have them, sometimes playing several London gigs in a week. That year they were to play no less than five times for DiS and DiS promotions offshoot Last Band Standing, including a hastily arranged gig at Brixton Windmill with Twisted Charm which saw them play to 12 people and barely covering the £40 they needed for the taxi in which the drums were carried. In December that year they played the Barfly with Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies and Reagan (now called Fans Of Kate), where they were seen for the first time by Simon White, the one-time Menswe@r guitarist (ask your big brother) who is now Bloc Party’s manager, at which he rejoices.

2004 is when things really did go crazy. The A&R men pounced on them and deals were offered left, right and centre. Before anything was signed they put out She’s Hearing Voices on 7” on Trash Aesthetics, the label run by a couple of young chaps called Rob and Tim (the latter had promoted the first ever Angel Range gig at the Verge in Kentish Town). After that came another one-off single for Moshi Moshi, entitled Banquet, which some people had the nerve to compare to The Police. The accompanying video was a low-budget b&w affair in which Kele looked utterly paranoid. Shoved on the road to learn their craft, they played a few dates with Graham Coxon. There was rejoicing at this. After all, he is God.

The band signed their publishing to The Man (aka EMI) but their record deal came from the cool, creative indie label Wichita. And there was more rejoicing. The first fruit for Wichita was the single Little Thoughts, a live favourite, at which point the hype for the band was creeping up to fever pitch. It hit the Top 40. And there was more rejoicing. It was followed up the frantic guitar duelling of Helicopter - its name chosen purely because Kele liked the word and not because XTC had a song of the same name – which became their first Top 30 hit. And, you guessed it, we all did rejoice just that little bit harder. Their ‘proper’ TV debut came not long after on BBC2’s almost-legendary ‘Later…’, which saw them guest alongside Interpol and Elton John amongst others. A truly bizarre moment. They played Helicopter and another live fave, the equally frantic Like Eating Glass.

At time of writing, their Paul Epworth-produced debut album Silent Alarm was due for release – copies having already been leaked onto the internet. There’s no doubt that 2005 is the year Bloc Party become absolutely massive. Brixton Windmill to Brixton Academy in the space of a 18 months is pretty good going.

by adie nunn, january 2005»

Blur

Blur are...

• Damon Albarn - vocals, guitar, keyboards
• Alex James - bass
• Dave Rowntree - drums
• Graham Coxon - guitar (left 2003)

The leading lights of the Britpop era that weren't Oasis, Blur began their career with the lightweight baggy pop album Leisure in 1991, before pre-empting the nationalism of Britpop with Modern Life Is Rubbish in 1993. The phenominally successful albums Parklife (1994) and The Great Escape (1995) followed, before the band decided to dramatically change course. Blur (1997) and 13 (1999) were heavily influenced by US lo-fi rock and both continued their chart-topping tally. Arguments between Albarn and Coxon led to the latter departing before the release of the long-awaited Think Tank in 2003, with many believing the band will finally split up in its wake. Tom Edwards

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Keane

"... somewhere between a scuffed Coldplay and a frankly bewildered Beautiful South," according to Steve Lamacq.

Biog half-inched from their website....

Vocals: Tom Chaplin, 24
Piano: Tim Rice-Oxley, 27
Drums: Richard Hughes, 28

When Keane finish a day at their rehearsal studio, they fling open their studio doors and find that dozens of cows have appeared, as if by some bovine twist on Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Welcome to Battle: a small, happy-go-lucky Sussex village. Not much has happened here since 1066, and even then Battle's only claim to fame was cruelly taken away. You can't call something the Battle Of Battle, they said, because that would sound stupid. So the honour went to Hastings, leaving generations of Battle residents to sit and wait patiently for something else to call their own. And now they have it: Keane, three men whose beguilingly beautiful music will put not just a sleepy Sussex village but the entire country back on the global music map.

This time last year Keane were utterly unknown, but if you're thinking that the recent frenzy of press and media coverage - and a deal with music goliath Universal Island - seems to have come overnight, prepare to think again.

The story begins back at the tail end of the last century, at a Hastings secondary school. Tim Rice-Oxley and Richard Hughes, both in the same year, are firm friends but new boy Tom Chaplin, a couple of years younger, soon gets chatting about their mutual love of music: he's just bought Michael Jackson's 'Bad', and Tim's still listening to Tears For Fears' 'Songs From The Big Chair'. Nowadays Tom laughs at the suggestion that Tim and Richard were the cool older boys, but he admits to being chuffed when Tim became his "piano guru" for after-school lessons. When Tim and Richard formed their own band with other friends, Tom spent the best part of two years waiting impatiently for an invitation. And when the day came - in 1997 - he was over the moon. "I have since decided that Tim and Richard actually joined my band," Tom laughs. "They just didn't realise."

The three band members would eventually call themselves Keane, after a kind old local lady who'd look after Tom when he was young, but when Tom cleared off to South Africa on his gap year, the pace slowed to a near standstill. Thing is, while Tom was spreading his love around the underprivileged kids of Africa, Richard and Tim were still hard at work on their music. When Richard went to collect Tom from the airport twelve months later, his first words were, "We've got a gig in ten days". The boys still have their setlist from that gig at the Hope & Anchor. Friends loved it at the time, though in light of more recent gigs everyone has admitted it was, in Tom's own words, "a pile of shit". Tom also recalls that the sound engineer told him he had the loudest voice he'd ever heard. He's still not sure whether that was intended as a compliment.

Having now decided that they would Take It Quite Seriously, the band took their equipment and Tom's loud voice out to France for three months, messing around in a studio with analogue synths and some songs Tim had been working on - some of which will eventually see the light of day on Keane's debut album. The tracks were heavily programmed, with synths all over the place and even, sometimes, drum machines where real skins should have been, simply because there hadn't been room in the studio for a proper drum kit. "You can't get better than real drums," points out Richard, the drummer. "After a couple of months we realised that we'd lost sight of what we wanted to do. The electronics went. And once we'd cleared out all the clutter, it sounded perfect.."

When the band returned to the UK they'd start making trips up to London, soundtracked on the van stereo by cheap cassettes picked up in Battle's myriad second-hand shops, and members' personal favourites - Paul Simon, Pet Shop Boys, The Smiths, and "old people's music" (Tom's description) like Jim Reeves. It was a difficult time for the band Tim and Tom shared a flat in Stoke Newington and tried to get money together for rehearsal time - very bohemian, says Tim; very skint, clarifies Tom. Richard took a job as a secretary at the BBC (Tom insists that he went into the office in drag), while Tom worked at a publishing company in a role whose chief responsibility was "carrying boxes".

Suddenly, things began to look up. After signing with BMG Publishing in the middle stages of 2002, Keane decided that they need to get out there and play live because, Tim says, "that's what you're supposed to do". They booked in two acoustic gigs, one at the Betsey Trotwood, another at the 12 Bar Club. Fierce Panda mini-mogul Simon Williams caught the 12 Bar gig, and asked Keane to put out a single on his label.

They chose 'Everybody's Changing', a sweeping, majestic ode to feeling utterly lost when everyone else seems to know the score, which was recorded for zero pence. "The recording session was a little rough and ready - the song was literally made in a room in someone's house," Tom laughs. "And we had to go round to a different house to mix it, because the speakers broke." It would be difficult to find origins more desperately indie, yet 'Everybody's Changing' sounded like a Number One chart hit before you even got to the chorus, and it immediately began turning heads. Steve Lamacq decided that it was one of the best singles in Fierce Panda's entire history - not bad for a label which housed early releases from Coldplay, Idlewild and Supergrass. He declared that Keane were "somewhere between a scuffed Coldplay and a frankly bewildered Beautiful South", hammering the single on his show and eventually calling the band in for a session on BBC 6Music. (Tom still insists that Richard used his time at the BBC to hypnotise Lamacq, though this is not actually true.) Xfm were on the case, too, with Clare Sturgess requesting a session from the band, while a Sunday Times profile noted that Keane were responsible for "three and a half minutes of pure pop loveliness". NME wrote that 'Everybody's Changing' was "indisputably mighty" and compared Keane with 'Kid A'-era Radiohead covering Aha.

What all these people spotted - and what the rest of the world will shortly find out for themselves - is that despite the reference points, Keane's music really isn't like anything else that's out there right now. "Our songs have universal themes and are emotional," Tim nods. "People want emotion. But that seems like quite a rare thing these days. I don't think there are many bands who are making music which actually means anything. There's nothing to identify with." For each of Keane's three members, being able to express themselves through their music is a godsend. "Like a lot of people, we've gone into making music because we're not terribly brilliant at expressing things," Tim explains. "None of us are your bog-standard, confident, outgoing rockstar types." Nor, however, are they clichéd images of the tortured, angst-ridden rock outcast. "Instead of yelling about how emotional we are, it's more a case of, 'Come in. Let's have a chat. Tell us all about it. I'll put the kettle on'. "

Things, at last, were beginning to gather pace. Keane's first UK tour saw Tom, Richard and Tim performing at venues up and down the country to audiences of between five and 300 people. They didn't look like many other bands - there was no guitarist, a factor which might send some purists screaming into the hills but Richard says really wasn't a conscious decision - "if we'd had one more member we'd have been a quartet, if we'd had one less we'd have been a duo". As the live shows gathered momentum, Tom grew into a stage persona every bit as unique as Keane's music. He's not that big in real life, but put him on a stage and he'll fill it. "It's a mesmerising experience," Tom smiles. "One minute I'm getting on stage, the next I realise half an hour has passed and the gig's over." Why the feeling of being at home? "I'm the only one standing up," he reasons, but it's not quite that. "It just feels natural," he concludes - and when you see Keane on stage, you'll agree.

By the time spring 2003 rolled around, the boys were out on the road again, and labels were already putting offers on the table. "All we were after was the opportunity to make the right record with the right people," Tom shrugs - which is where Island stepped in. "We've never wanted to be a small, cult band," Tom adds. "We want to get our music heard by as many people as we possibly can, because that's why we're making it."

Throw in a startling appearance in the New Bands tent at the Reading and Leeds Carling Weekend, and we're right up to date. The boys' second single for Fierce Panda - and their last before officially entering the fold at Island - is another epic, skewed tale of confusion and love, with Tom's vocal gymnastics once again defying belief. And, once again, it sounds like all the bands who've ever meant anything to anyone, but at the same time it only sounds like Keane.

"People often say that they wish they'd been around in the 60s," Tom says. "But we're happy just where we are. We love rock's back catalogue, and now we've got a chance to add to it. After all, tunes never go out of fashion."

September 2003»

Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails is Trent Reznor, essentially. Band members have chopped and changed over the years.

Official website

Selected discography:
Pretty Hate Machine LP, 1989
The Downward Spiral LP, 1994
The Fragile double LP, 1999
With Teeth LP, 2005
Year Zero LP, 2007

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Yeah Yeah Yeahs are...

• Karen O - vocals
• Nick Zinner - guitar
• Brian Chase - drums

Indie-punk with the feminine touch, all the way from the big apple.

Photo by Sonia Melot»

Kings of Leon

Jared Followill - bass
Matthew Followill - lead guitar
Nathan Followill - drums/vocals
Caleb Followill - guitar/vocals

This is not some weird Duran Duran-style coincidence - yes, they are related. Three brothers and one cousin from Tennessee.»

Razorlight

Photo by Su Goodacre. Bio from their website.

London's most passionate and wired underground rock'n'roll band.

Formed in the summer of 2002 around 22 year old frontman/singer/writer Johnny Borrell, they existed for two months without a name, until one night at a Warholian squat party in a derelict factory in the East End, their singer found himself speaking in tongues. Improvising lyrics at the end of the set, Johnny was passed down words from the watchful muses above, and out of his mouth came the sound... rezorright... raisaaarite....razorlight. Now they had a name they could proceed to blow away every run of the mill garage rock band, with a set of serrated, transatlantic, poetic songs played with white knuckle intensity and delivered by a singer with total, natural charisma.

Night after long night they'd been holed up in a rat-plagued low-boho rehearsal studio on the east edge of town, shaping the scribbled visions of urchin-savant Johnny into grooved, twitching, adrenalised guitar pieces and making occasional live foreys to support The Von Bondies or The Libertines. Finally they could play shows where the converts in the crowd could happily shout 'You are the bollocks!' without adding, in frustration 'What's your band called?'. A name is nothing and everything but in this case the razorlight in question might also be the clear, sharp light of exposure which lets you see if there's spirit in what's before you.Rrazorlight have spirit like the Caspian Sea has oil.

There was never even a plan to form a band. The plan was to avoid forming a band, but then the songs that were taking shape in Johnny's battered notebook - scribbled on bus rides, in bars, in the dead of night, while assaulted by the big city, by febrile girls, and by fake culture - dictated that a glimmering noise had to be arranged around the words. So it was that through the summer of 2002, Johnny sought out three young lovers of sinuous street noise - Carl Dalemo (bass), Bjorn Agren (guitar) and Christian Smith (drums). Agren bumped into Johnny at a Queens Of The Stoneage gig and his angular, driving guitar style proved to be the perfect foil for the singer. And Agren had a Swedish mate, Carl, who was already famous for being thrown out of venues around London and for being the quintessential Adonis of punk bass. With Johnny's longstanding friend Christian on drums, they had a unit of perfectly complimentary dysfunction and uniquely interlocked musicality.

By late summer Razorlight were sending precious antique amps to their death in basement gigs and support slots around London. In early November they followed The White Stripes into the renowned analogue haven studio, Toerag, to record three songs over three days. The resulting trio - 'Rip It Up', 'Rock'n'Roll Lies' and 'In The City' emerged as a scorching advertisement for the band and started to pull in serious label interest. They sent one CD to one DJ - John Kennedy at XFM, who immediately began playing the songs. From San Francisco corporate record label offices (listening on line) to the dormitaries of London boarding schools for girls (listening in bed) people began to realise that something very special was going on.

If there is an edge to Razorlight's music and lyrics it owes a lot to Johnny's meandering, hole-in-my-shoe path, prior to setting up the group.Two years ago he was to be found hanging around at Libertines gigs, looking like a young Mick Jones from The Clash, clutching a novel by William Faulkner and a large but tatty book of scrawled, semi complete midnight-eyed lyrics and poems. For over a year he studied the great blues players and American folk artists from Leadbelly onwards, playing small gigs across London and living a life of contemporary skid row reality. For that year his stage clothes amounted to a tee shirt and one pair of jeans, gradually splitting and ripping to the point of rags. These are still (usually) his stagewear. For a while he lived in the boiler room above The Verge in Kentish town. Turning up at a gig would often depend on whether he could jump the turnstiles at the nearest tube. One night he lost his entire book of lyrics in a bet gone wrong. It had always been Johnny's contention that you had to know the basics of rock'n'roll before you could move ahead with your own style and having put in the time with the music of the old greats he knew he had to arrange his own set of parameters. Razorlight are the brilliant realisation of that need to move on into something sharp and sexy and immediate. You could spend a week trying to pin down what's exposed in the Razorlight beam. Something London, something New York. A kind of serrated romance. A ghost of a writer here and a guitar player there. Something beaten up, that won't give in. But all you really have to know is that Razorlight have the best songs and the best spirit in any town. They are a bet, gone right.»

Lily Allen

Singing and songwriting daughter of actor Keith Allen, Lily Allen hit the headlines in the summer of 2006 when her debut single, 'Smile', raced to number one. Her first long-player, Alright, Still, reached number two in the album chart.

Regularly outspoken and often amusing, Allen's remarks regarding celebrity culture and her alleged pop peers are always worthy of attentions.

Website
MySpace

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Regina Spektor

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Jason Mraz

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TV On The Radio

TV On The Radio are erstwhile Brooklyn boys David Sitek, Tunde Adebimpe, Kyp Malone, Gerard Smith and Jaleel Bunton.

Founding member Sitek - who has produced albums for US cool set names the Liars and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs - met singer and lyricist Adebimpe in 2000 when the two became neighbours in a Brooklyn apartment building and they were soon performing as an improvisational two-piece.

Their ranks were swelled by the arrival of guitarist Malone (also sweet falsetto harmony vocals), bassist Smith and drummer Bunton.

Their debut EP, 'Young Liars' was released on cult indie label Touch & Go, in summer 2003, which has been followed by first album, 'Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes', which is released via 4AD in the UK, and T&G again in the US.»

Katy Perry

The American Lily Allen? Probs.

MySpace

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The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta is (2007):

Omar Rodríguez-López
Cedric Bixler-Zavala
Isaiah "Ikey" Owens
Juan Alderete
Thomas Pridgen
Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez
Adrián Terrazas-González
Paul Hinojos

Official website: here
MySpace: here

The Mars Volta grew from the band De Facto, which featured Cedric and Omar during, and after, their time with acclaimed punk act At The Drive-In. Moving from Texas to Long Beach, California, the band's sound evolved and their first release, the Tremulant EP, was released via GSL in 2002.

Studio LPs:
De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003)
Frances The Mute (2005)
Amputechture (2006)
The Bedlam in Goliath (2008)

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Mogwai

Mogwai are...

• Stuart Braithwaite - vocals, guitar
• John Cummings - guitar
• Dominic Aitchison - bass
• Barry Burns - keyboards
• Martin Bulloch - drums
• Brendan O'Hare - keyboards (left 1998)

Drawing influences from a whole range of remarkably similar post-rock bands, Mogwai have slowly become one of the biggest underground bands of the last ten years. Critically adored, they manage geniunely heart achingly beautiful songs and also have the ability to make ears bleed (often at the same time).

Album discography:

Young Team (1997)
Come On Die Young (1999)
Rock Action (2001)
Happy Songs For Happy People (2003)
Mr Beast (2006)
Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (soundtrack, 2006)

Mogwai have also released a number of extended-play singles and a BBC sessions compilation.

Watch 'Travel Is Dangerous' from Mr Beast:

Watch 'Friend of the Night' from Mr Beast

Watch 'Hunted By A Freak' from Happy Songs...

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The Ting Tings

"The Ting Tings sound like Beth Ditto slipping into an elasticated polka-dot number and bumping one of the Pipettes off stage mid-handclap."

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Of Montreal

Of Montreal hail from Athens, Georgia. They've released five long-players in the States and built a strong following through extensive coast to coast touring and their close links with the Elephant 6 collective.

Their new album, Aldhils Arboretum, is available through the Track and Field Organisation and will be the band's first official UK release.

There are few bands whose music is as unabashedly happy as Of Montreal. Their songs soar and weave with energy and goodwill, daring listeners to walk away without a smile on their face. Listening to Of Montreal recalls the sweet aural psychedelia of Syd Barrett or Robyn Hitchcock.

Of Montreal's music floats and spins. Most of Kevin Barnes' songs are bittersweet paeans to heartbreak. Even the band's name commemorates a love gone wrong (he met a girl from Montreal, they fell in love, and she broke his heart, so he started a band and named it after her hometown). But heartbreak be damned! Everything is OK when you're listening to Of Montreal.»

Doves

• Jimi Goodwin - vocals, bass, guitar
• Jez Williams - guitar, keyboards
• Andy Williams - drums

Andy and Jez Williams met Jimi Goodwin when they were 15. They started playing together 10 years ago but, as Jimi notes, "We were wagging school and jamming way before that". As Sub Sub (graduates of a Hacienda-inspired Manchester clubland explosion of the late eighties) the band scored some dance inflected hits which kind of painted them into a corner. The number three single 'Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use)' was released on New Order manager Rob Gretton's label. "We kind of lost our way for a few years", admits Jez.

The last recordings as Sub Sub, featuring guest vocalists Bernard Sumner from New Order and Tricky, and tracks like the expansive and decidedly un-disco 'Firesuite' all but demanded a name change mindful of a rockier and more experimental direction. And if 'Ain't No Love' was a right turn for the hell of it, then 1998's 'Cedar EP' saw them back on course - displaying intentions and influences they had carried with them most of their lives. Three EPs lovingly packaged and released on their own Casino label ('Cedar EP' October '98, 'Sea Song' May '99 and 'Here It Comes' October '99) garnered a raft of glowing reviews. Doves signed to Heavenly Recordings and consolidated with the eerie 'The Cedar Room' in March 2000.

Lost Souls, a debut LP released at the same time, was a genuine thing of beauty, wrought from hard bitten experience. Nobody could have planned for the attention it brought them. "Do we plan things? No!!" says Jimi. Since then they have toured and talked and toured some more. Unafraid of hard graft, they made time to record wherever and whenever. The Last Broacast (2002), a record which realises all expectations, is the unbelievably assured result. These are early days but, save a new LP from a miraculously resurrected Jimi Hendrix, we are talking about a record that clearly deserves early reservation in those end of year lists. "We hope people will hear more optimism in there than last time. We can only write about what happens and what has happened has been good so some of that is starting to shine through in the writing," says Andy.

Biography from Heavenly100 Website»

Manic Street Preachers

• James Dean Bradfield - vocals, guitar
• Sean Moore - drums
• Nicky Wire - bass
• Richey James - guitar (left 1995)

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Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds have released over ten studio albums between now and their 1984 debut From Her To Eternity. They are hugely well-respected in the post-punk/indie rock fraternities and have several members have contributed work to bands such as The Birthday Party, Crime And The City Solution and Vanity Set.

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Lady GaGa

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Pet Shop Boys

Antique electro-pop duo.

Photo courtesy of Emma Porter.»

M83

M83 is Anthony Gonzalez.

MySpace

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Maximo Park

Northeastern indie-rockers with a dash of artiness, poetry and synth in their wired, poppy sound.

Paul Smith (vocals)
Duncan Lloyd (guitar)
Archis Tiku (bass guitar)
Lukas Wooller (keyboards)
Tom English (drums)

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The Streets

The Streets are one man, Brummie Mike Skinner. The Streets combine smooth garage grooves with devastatingly real and vivid lyrics. Talent.»

James Morrison

"An extraordinarily soulful voice" says The Evening Standard. But that's a right shit 'paper.

If your mother likes Morrison, kill her. She'll be grateful, really.

MySpace

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Starsailor

Starsailor are...

• James Walsh - vocals, guitar
• Barry Westhead - keyboards
• James Stelfox - bass
• Ben Byrne - drums

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Elbow

• Guy Garvey - vocals
• Mark Potter - guitar
• Craig Potter - keyboards
• Peter Turner - bass
• Richard Jupp - drums

Elbow met ten years ago at sixth-form college in Bury, a little north of Manchester. Outsiders in a run-down, narrow-minded town, they bonded over U2, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan and Red Hot Chili Peppers, eventually forming a band called Soft. For a while they played what Pete calls "chilled funk" and were, it's generally agreed, "shit". Relocating to Manchester itself - most of the band getting work at local underground venue The Roadhouse - they changed their name to Elbow ("the most sensuous word in the world," according to a nurse in Dennis Potter's television-series, The Singing Detective) and began to evolve a new sound, wherein driving organ, star-kissed guitars, Guy Garvey's fallen-angel vocals and tough grooves were merged into (sometimes eight-minute long!) songs. After a patient battle with the industry- they were inexplicably dropped by Universal in 1997, before being re-signed to indie label Uglyman- they released their debut album Asleep in the Back in 2001, which earned them a Mercury Prize nomination. Since then there has been 2002's Cast of Thousands and 2005's Leaders of the Free World, both seminal records which have sealed their reputation has the thinking man's Coldplay. They remain highly involved in Manchester's music scene, producing songs for I Am Kloot and (Brummie Manc wannabes) Editors.

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Jane's Addiction

One of the finest, and most idiosyncratic, bands of the last twenty years, and the first 'alternative' rock band, Jane’s Addiction formed in Los Angeles in 1986 and initially released a live album (recorded at the Roxy in LA) in 1987 as 'XXX', or 'Jane's Addiction', before signing to Warner Brothers and releasing two studio albums : 'Nothings Shocking'(1988), and 'Ritual De Lo Habitual'(1990).

The original lineup was :
Perry Farrell, an eccentric local singer/artist, Dave Navarro, a guitarist fresh from the gothy side of the punk/metal scene, Eric Avery, a bass player harking from the reggae/dub contingent of the California punk world and the very young, very keen Steven Perkins on drums and percussion. Farrell is reputed to have worked closely with the young drummer, pointing him in the direction of the Santarian tribal rhythms that were to become his, and the bands trademark, as he competed with Jimmy Chamberlin from the 'Pumpkins, to lift the crown of 'the best rock drummer in the world' from the place where Stewart Copeland had dropped it. Together with Dave Navarro's cathartic soaring lead/delicately textured/ultra heavy guitar playing and Eric Avery's superb use of space, counterpoint, rhythm and melody for his bass parts, they formed the backdrop to Perry's multi layered technicolour vocal that switched from the most ethereal of breaths to the blare of a klaxxon. Jane's Addiction managed to create a jammed out musical chemistry that was, and is still, unsurpassed.

Live, they were legendary, a journey and also an unstoppable force of nature. Always outsiders feeling more alienated by the minute by the conservative US entertainment industry, and by their own label, their anger built up, as did their drug use,and the spirit of fun and irreverance that threaded through their earlier shows made way for the intense power, rage and beauty of the 'Ritual..' live shows. The adrenaline rush of this death or glory phase was always going to have an end, and eventually Jane's Addiction burned out and imploded, splitting in 1992 after protracted infighting, including a notorious onstage punch-up between Farrell and Navarro during the first Lollapalooza Festival Tour.

Perry Farrell, after creating the Lollapalooza touring Festival/Fair/Circus in the first place (with the aid of Jane's Addiction's tour manager,Ted Gardner) went on to be it's creative director for a number of years and, with Steven Perkins (who also featured on Nine Inch Nails 'Downward Spiral') formed Porno For Pyros in 1992, with Peter Stefano and Martyn LeNoble from Thelonius Monster. PFP released two studio albums, 'Porno for Pyros(1993), and 'Good God's Urge'(1996).Both bore more than a passing resemblance to the 'lighter' side of Jane's Addiction. PFP headlined the Reading Festival in 1993.
Dave Navarro and Eric Avery went on to form 'Deconstruction', releasing a self titled solo album in 1994, before Navarro went on to join The Red Hot Chili Peppers, recording one album with them ,'One Hot Minute', and playing on Alanis Morissette's hit album, 'Jagged Little Pill', with Flea (who had previously guested, with Angelo Moore from Fishbone as the horn section on 'Nothing's Shocking'.
In 1997 there was a brief reformation tour, featuring Farrell, Navarro and Perkins, and Flea on bass, with Warner Brothers simultaneously releasing a live/outtakes album, 'Kettlewhistle'

Jane's Addiction recently reformed and did some gigs, including a show in the UK. The current line up features original members Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro and Stephen Perkins and new bass player Chris Chaney (formerly with Alanis Morissette and Rob Zombie). A new album is due on 22nd July 2003 to be titled 'Strays, released on Capitol, followed by touring.»

Camera Obscura

Band members names - role in the band:
Tracyanne Campbell: Vocals & guitar
John Henderson: Vocals & percussion
Gavin Dunbar: Bass
Kenny McKeeve: Guitar
Lee Thomson: Drums
Carey Lander: Keyboards

Brief Band History:
Park & Ride (Single) March 1998
Your Sound (Single) Decemebr 1998
Rare UK Bird (Mini-album) December 1999 (Japan)
Eighties Fan (Single) June 2001
Biggest Bluest Hi Fi (album)

Favourite Albums:
Tracyanne: Blondie - Parallel Lines
Belle and Sebastian - Tigermilk

John: The Smiths - The Smiths
Felt - Ignite the Seven Cannons

Gavin: New Order - Power, Corruption and Lies
The Pastels - Mobile Safari

Kenny: The Beatles - White Album
Eric Mathews - It's Heavy in Here

Lee: Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Lou Reed - Transformer

Lindsay: Subway Sect - We Oppose All Rock and Roll
Dusty Springfield - In Memphis

Contact Details:
cameraobscura@hotmail.com

Future plans:
We have our second album coming out in the spring, it will be preceded by a single, we shall be doing a UK tour when the album comes out and some european dates as well.

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The Game

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Paolo Nutini

Singer songwriter in the major label stylee.»

Crystal Castles

Punky Gameboy bitXcore from FASHIONABLE Canada.

www.myspace.com/crystalcastles»

Pendulum

Pendulum are:

• Paul Harding
• Gareth McGrillen
• Rob Swire

Pendulum are one of the biggest selling, and most well known drum 'n' bass bands of all time. The band hail from Perth, Australia, and have released two albums to date.»

Patrick Wolf

Having been born in County Cork, grown up in London and travelled across Europe in an orchestra, eleven-year-old Patrick Wolf was something of an eccentric, escaping from school troubles on a stolen four-track with viola in hand.

After running from home as a young'un to reside in a run-down lodging on the Richmond riverside, he soon garnered the attentions of Fat Cat Records, who provided Wolf with given an Atari and mixing desk to start recording songs 'properly'.

He found the writings of Angela Carter and the music of Joni Mitchell to be a great inspiration - the way that Mitchell brought the folk narrative and intimacy into pop electricity and the way Carter took fairytales and brought out all the symbols of wolves and ghosts to express her own emotions.

These influences can take Wolf's music in bizarre musical directions, as he fuses dark and haunting tracks alongside childlike rhythmic verse.

Following the critical acclaim that came with Wind In The Wires and debut release Lycanthropy, The Magic Position follows a similarly twisted pop sensibility.»

Simian Mobile Disco

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Tiga

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The View

Young Scots, whose 2006 single 'Wasted Little DJs' caught the attention of a few industry bigwigs and took over MTV2. Let's find out if they have staying power.

MySpace
Website

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Felix Da Housecat

Felix Da Housecat, (real name Felix Stallings, Jr.) rose meteorically to fame with his 2001 album 'Kittenz and Thee Glitz'. His sleazy electro pop sound, massively influenced by the house movement of the 80's, spawned a synth dance music revival. 2003's follow up album 'Devin Dazzle and the Neon Fever' saw collaborations with James Murphy (of LCD Soundsystem and DFA) and an all-girl group known as The Neon Fever. In his own words "Devin Dazzle is a character fascinated by the nightlife. Every time he sees neon lights he gets the fever."»

Calvin Harris

MySpace

"This is music that wants to get people dancing again. Calvin Harris is making his mark on 2007 in fine style... His music sparkles with highgloss, glitz and glamour like a disco ball catching the light."

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The Specials

Despite only existing as a band (defacto line up) for three years, The Specials remain one of the most important and influential acts of their period.

Forming in 1977 as the Coventry Automatics it took until late 1978 for the band to finally settle on a name, a musical direction, a line up (consisting: Roddy Byers - guitar, John Bradbury - drums, Terry Hall - vocals, Lynval Golding - guitar, Horace Panter - bass, Jerry Dammers - keyboards, Neville Staples - vocals) and most importantly an attitude and an image.

The 2-Tone image and ethos was primarily concocted by Jerry Dammers who, drawing influence from original Jamaican Rude boys such as Walt Jabsco, created the familiar 2-Tone check and look which accompanied a lot of their releases and indeed a lot of similarly influenced bands since then. After releasing their debut single ‘Gangsters’ (UK #6) themselves through a distribution deal with Rough Trade the band and the label were finally signed to Chrysalis with the option to release other acts material through the 2-Tone brand (Including The Selecter, Madness and The Beat).

Their debut album (The Specials, UK #7) was hastily released, produced by Elvis Costello, it was predominantly a recording of their live show and kick-started a long period of fervent touring which saw the madness and chaos surrounding 2-Tone and The Specials spiral out of control with many scenes of racist/anti-racist violence, mass stage invasions and support acts dropping off and on due to these pressures.

Despite the constant touring the band found time to record and release a second album (More Specials, UK #5) which showed a marked change in direction from their ‘Ska-Punk’ sound, inspired by Jerry Dammers’ interest in Lounge music and Muzac it fuses an odd combination of styles, but was however well received by fans and critics alike.

By this point the cracks in the Specials were beginning to show, the pressures of constant worldwide touring were taking their toll, coupled with Jerry Dammers insistence on a certain style and attitude to the band members conduct forced the band into a six month break to revitalise and write songs.

The only songs to ever surface out of this period were the tracks that formed the single release ‘Ghost Town’, the result of tense and stressful recording sessions with most band members believing it to be too odd and strange, it was finally released in June 1981. Remaining at Number 1 for three weeks it became the anthem and backdrop to the nationwide riots that blighted the summer of 1981, with Jerry Dammers proclaiming it the “culmination of all that the Specials stood for”. Shortly after this The Specials split with the band members splintering into several new groups – Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Neville Staples became the Fun Boy Three, Roddy Byers started the Tear Jerkers, John Bradbury formed the JB all-stars and Jerry Dammers and Horace Panter remained to form The Special A.K.A who remained on 2-Tone but were far less successful bar the anthemic ‘Nelson Mandela’ single.

The Specials were one of the few bands who remained true to themselves despite their successes, which possibly helped contribute to their eventual downfall. The pressures of the real world of the music business restricting them from developing and exposing the new talent they wanted to through the 2-Tone label.

by chris chinchilla, jan 2005»

Foals

MySpace

Combining poly-rhythmic Casio guitars, pulsing analogue synth, aching vocal melodies and chopping drum-lines, Foals create organic agitated dance-pop with a tangible air of achieving the impossible. This is accessible techno for kids who hate techno but love guitars.

The band is:

Yannis Philippakis
Jack Bevan
Jimmy Smith
Edwin Congreave
Walter Gervers

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Eagles Of Death Metal

Josh Homme et al play swampy stoner rock.

WEBSITE!»

The Maccabees

Orlando Weeks - Vocals
Hugo White - Guitar
Felix White - Guitar/Vocals
Rupert Jarvis - Bass
Robert Dylan Thomas - Drums

MySpace page

Official biography:

In every British band, there is a little bit of Britain. From the revolutionary sounds of The Clash, to the observations of The Streets, and the character sketches of The Kinks, the musical legacy of this country is rich in bands that somehow couldn’t help be as much about where they’re from, as about where they’re at.

The Maccabees are a young band making big strides towards becoming part of this grand tradition. A decidedly English guitar pop band, whose worldview has been formed by influences as disparate as the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, television cricket coverage and growing up in south London, this is a group with a unique slant on things, and who are eager to share it.

“I think there’s a fine line between ‘British’ and ‘laddish’,” says 22-year-old singer Orlando Weeks. “I don’t think we’re about that – all beer, and the cross of St George, but I do think there’s something quintessentially English about our music.”

That much has already become evident from the group’s releases so far. Their first independently-released single 'X-Ray' was a characterful relationship tale. Their second, the live favourite 'Latchmere', was a reminiscence of going swimming at the titular Battersea leisure centre. Essentially, the band’s strongest material is grounded in experiences particular to its members – just as several band members first met at school, or while playing football, their songs are themselves written about subjects close to home.

“I like to write about things I know about – you’re much less likely to come a cropper if you do that,” says Orlando. “It’s good to face the facts of your life. So maybe you don’t have prostitutes living down the road, or crack houses. I don’t know about that – but I know about 'Latchmere'.”

It’s this kind of self-deprecating, but quietly-confident attitude that one might see as being central to the way that The Maccabees do things. Formed in 2003, when Orlando began rehearsing in his bedroom with drummer Robert Thomas, bass player Rupert Jarvis and guitar-playing brothers Hugo and Felix White, the band have always worked pragmatically with the resources at their disposal.

Having started to play live almost straight away (“When we first started we were like a folk band,” remembers Hugo, “we just played really basically and slowly.”), in the two and a half years since, The Maccabees have got better and better the more they’ve done. From the off, their live show has attempted to develop the kind of rapport with an audience they had once seen The Libertines achieve. Their music, meanwhile, has developed into a nervy and tuneful noise of its own.

Perhaps you’ve already heard it. A band who excel in making succinct pop statements, The Maccabees’ sound is built on the fast but fascinatingly intricate guitar of the White brothers, but it’s their ability with a pop hook that truly marks them out. The Maccabees can do their own version of balladry, but it’s in the call-and-response interaction between Orlando and backing vocalist Felix that you’ll find on songs like 'Lego' and 'X-Ray' that you’ll hear the original essence of this band. If at times the sheer speed of their material threatens to break them down, it’s this pop sensibility that sees them through.

There have, of course, been musical signposts along their way. One inspiration remains Martin Scorcese’s film about the final performance by The Band, The Last Waltz. Another musical direction was pointed out, rather more explicitly, by a DVD of vintage performances from the BBC TV programme The Old Grey Whistle Test.

“We saw bands like XTC, Dr Feelgood and Talking Heads for the first time,” says Felix. “That was quite a big deal for us – seeing bands with a real genuine quirkiness and edge. Now it seems that some of that has been filtered down, to just having ‘spiky guitars’ or whatever – but then, you could hear them physically playing everything, every motion is aggressive. We wanted to sound like that.”

This, essentially, is a band for whom quirkiness is not a problem. Rather than hung up with being cooler-than-thou, instead, in The Maccabees we find a band that is happy with the way it does things, and extremely comfortable in its own skin. “We never tried to be a rock ‘n’ roll band,” says Orlando. “Pop isn’t even a conscious decision for us. We’re just learning about it all, and learning in front of everybody.”

So far, things are looking good for their mission. Now signed to Fiction records, the band are working on a debut album, and are all confident that they’re now doing their dream jobs.

“We want to be able to listen to our debut album and be proud of it,” says Orlando. “Getting a record deal is quite a rare thing, like being a footballer. But if you’re a footballer, your legacy is a statistic.

“We want to leave something that’s really fucking sweet,” he continues. “That’s a good record of us and our noises. Not just ‘12 goals, 16 sendings-off’.

“If you’re happy with it, it’s a pretty nice thing to leave behind…”

It’s an ambitious thing to try and do, but if anyone can, The Maccabees will. This is a band with great songs and great presence. But also – and maybe just as importantly – one with great charm.

»

James

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Boys Noize

Born Alex Ridha in 1982, Boys Noize is DJing since 1996, producing since 1998 and directing BoysNoize records since 205.

A famous remixer ( Depeche Mode, Tiga, Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs ), he has released numerous singles and his first album will be released in spring 2007.

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Ladyhawke

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Idlewild

Formed in late 1995 and playing their first gig in 1996, Idlewild were picked up by Food/Parlophone for a series of acclaimed LPs. They've recently (2007) found a new home at Sequel.

The band's current line up is as follows:

• Roddy Woomble - vocals
• Rod Jones - guitar
• Allan Stewart - guitar
• Gareth Russell - bass
• Colin Newton - drums

For more information and a full biography, ish, click to the band's Wikipedia entry here, or to their MySpace.

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The Script

»

Friendly Fries

MySpace

Friendly Fires are comprised of Ed Mac, Jack Savidge and Edd Gibson.

Formed out of the ashes of ‘First Day Back’, the St Albans hardcore band, they formed while still at school. Friendly Fires make razor-sharp post-punk that burns through the memories of all the dismal, skinny jeaned ‘80s revivalists you’ve been hearing these past few years. Sounding brittle, knotty and urgent, Friendly Fires are the real deal. With no fat or padding on them at all, their songs possess an elegant sparseness.

As guitarist Edd Gibson notes: “The hardest thing I think is to know what to leave out, to know when something is enough.” But amongst all the stripped-back twists, there are also moments full of deep, blessed-out melodies. “I love lush, massive, tingly chords; the My Bloody Valentine sound,” says bassist and singer Ed MacFarlane.

Biog from Last FM

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Squeeze

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White Lies

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Glasvegas

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The Horrors

The Horrors are Southend-spawned but London-based goth-y-punks: a little Eighties Matchbox, a little Cramps. You get the deal, aye.

They are known as:

FARIS BADWAN - VOCALS
TOMETHY FURSE - DANELECTRO LONGHORN BASS
JOSHUA VON GRIMM - FENDER JAGUAR
COFFIN JOE - BANGS THE DRUMS
SPIDER WEBB - VOX CONTINENTAL ORGAN

Those aren't names!

MySpace

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Jamie T

Jamie T - hotly-tipped south London modern-folkster; think Billy Bragg for the Noughties, uncompromising and heart-on-sleeve.

His real name, right, it's Jamie Treays.

Albums to date:

Panic Prevention (2007)

Photo by Jenny Hardcore

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The Courteeners

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Laurent Garnier

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Passion Pit

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The Saturdays

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Little Boots

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Edwyn Collins

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The Twang

Few bands have created such healthy debate amongst the music loving public than Birmingham-based The Twang. The start of 2007 saw many column inches in a whole diaspora of publications given over to the duo vocaled group.

Automatically inheriting a fan-base that veers towards the more hedonistic or weekend worshipping, many see in them a beautiful nod towards the days of baggy and such tuneless, unlamented bands like Flowered Up.

Many question the worth of a band like The Twang, but they clearly underestimate the pull of a good pint and a brawl, as characterised by a number of their songs. Other topics include drugs and wimmin.

The band seem largely unflustered by their new status as the great hope for British music. Possibly a sensible move; as the band themselves say it's more important that; “Everybody’s ‘Avin It”...

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Noisettes

Schizophrenically contradictive: one minute rough, raw and explosively dramatic, the next, detached, calm and serene.


click here for myspace action
click here for the website

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Metronomy

Myspace»

The Virgins

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2 Many DJ's

The Soulwax side project which is the king of the bootlegs!»

The Gaslight Anthem

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Priscilla Ahn

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Florence and The Machine

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Jeff Mills

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Dave Clarke

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Green Velvet

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Peter Doherty

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Seasick Steve

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Slam

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The Dykeenies

Band members:

Brian Henderson (lead vocals, synthesiser)
Alan Henderson (guitar)
Andrew Henderson (bass, vocals)
Steven Ramsay (guitar, vocals)
John Kerr (drums, vocals)

About:

The Dykeenies will release their rabidly anticipated debut single 'New Ideas / Will It Happen Tonight' on 17 July 2006. A time for new beginnings as well as New Ideas, the single is also the first release on King Tut's Recordings, the label run by the team behind Glasgow's legendary King Tut's Wah Wah Hut. Reflecting the venue's global reputation for identifying and supporting now-household names at their earliest stages, the label will act as a launch pad for new bands of the highest quality.

The Dykeenies certainly fit that description. Formed in June 2005 in Cumbernauld, near Glasgow, this art-pop five-piece - three brothers (Alan, Andrew and Brian Henderson) and two childhood friends (Steven Ramsay and John Kerr) with a natural knack for constructing snappy pop songs. With synth hooks that Brandon Flowers would give up eyeliner for, and guitar riffs that could frazzle We Are Scientists until they're nothing but memories through the bright flame of a bunsen burner, The Dykeenies have struck gold.

Throw in a few handclaps and choruses so welcoming that the words sit in your memory as comfortably as the alphabet after only the first listen and a rehearsing schedule heavy enough to flatten the average man, all The Dykeenies needed to complete the set was an adoring fan base.

Through word of mouth and the power of the internet alone, The Dykeenies sold out their first ever gig: not at their local pub with a capacity of fifty if everyone really squashes in like sardines, but the 350-capacity ABC2 venue in Glasgow's city centre. If the sell-out show a month later at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut was anything to go by, the shiny new band went down rather well with their expectant audience.

It wasn't long before they were being drooled over all around Glasgow and the band soon ventured East for the first time, to play two gigs to increasingly excitable crowds in Scotland's capital, not to mention a sensational show with the Mystery Jets at Glasgow's QMU sandwiched inbetween. Now, with the band barely a year old, a performance on the T-Break stage at T In The Park has been confirmed.

With enough killer tunes already waiting to be unleashed on the world to pop out an album tomorrow (although you'd have to freeze time to give them a chance to lay down the tracks), they may list The Cribs, The Futureheads and Bloc Party amongst their influences, but it won't be long before those guys are asking The Dykeenies for tips.

Both tracks on this double A-side have been a staple of The Dykeenies fans' diet for some time. Now it's time to give the country a taste of the best New Idea since crisps.

Links:

The Dykeenies on Myspace

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The Airborne Toxic Event

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Silicone Soul

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The Hours

http://www.myspace.com/thehoursuk»

Joris Voorn

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You Me At Six

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Jack Peñate

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Fight Like Apes

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Funk D'Void

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Ben Sims

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Daniel Merriweather

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GO:AUDIO

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Mr. Scruff

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That Petrol Emotion

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Claude Von Stroke

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hockey

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Delphic

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Gary Go

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Mumford And Sons

MySpace

Musically Mumford And Sons keep close to the roots of folk and bluegrass, but cleverly translate the songs into a wider world of the popular. Not in the throw away sense of the word, in the true sense of the word.

The band formed at the tail end of 2007, when Marcus Mumford met banjo player Winston Marshall at the infamous West London folkster hangout Bosun’s Locker on King’s Road. The pair discovered a shared joy of bluegrass and country music, and quickly added Ben Lovett and Ted Dwane into the cocktails that brings to life the lyrics Mumford had been penning.

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Vagabond

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Twin Atlantic

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Dinosaur Pile Up

Dinosaur Pile-Up lives because... Matt Bigland plays guitar whilst singing, Tom Dornford-May plays bass guitar, and Steve Wilson plays drums... they ride in a 6 seater burning inferno that goes by the name of 'truck delorevan bigland' and travel at molten hyper-speeds. The name of the band was birthed when a young Matt watched King Kong... he subsequently wrote some kick ass songs, disappeared for a while, and returned with the mark of the mighty riff on the back of his arm - thereby marking the beginning of the almighty 'Pile-Up...

Myspace

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In Case Of Fire

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Tommy Reilly

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Bjorn Again

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BeardyMan

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Will And The People

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