Manchester Missives from the Rock 'n' Roll Frontline
Relevant
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DiScover: The Courteeners
- DiS meets John Lydon - Part 1: The Man
- "It's not arty, it's not crafty. It's genuine - DiS meets John Lydon - Part 2: The Music
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In Photos: Summer Sundae 2011 @ De Montford Hall & Gardens, Leicester
- Singles Round-up (23/06/08)
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V Festival 2011: The DiS Review
- In Photos: Chester Rocks Festival 2011 @ Chester Racecourse
Twenty years on from the baggy ‘Madchester’ scene, 24-hour party people and the endless shenanigans of being one of the all-night drug-prowling wolves in a city that never slept, my hometown of Manchester is finally waking up again.
For sure there have been some great moments in the interim. You can’t get past the Doves, Elbow and I Am Kloot et cetera, but now there suddenly seems to be a buzz across the whole city.
The city centre is four times bigger than it was in the baggy days, and ten times busier. Where there were once a motley crew of drug fiends you get hen parties, poncey bars are invading once feral back streets and the warehouses that were once full of dead pigeons and all-night raves are now expensive flats, but somehow there is still music - loads of it.
Every time I go out I’m bombarded with great CDs of new bands and get to see classic gigs. The city is full of bands, the rehearsal rooms are overflowing and there are already bands breaking out.
The Courteeners are already through and revelling in their own controversy. Frontman Liam Frey doesn’t back down from a good old-fashioned Manc word scrap and spits his was through interviews like Noel Gallagher or Mark E. Smith, spleen is his middle name and he doesn’t mind winding people up with his invective. Good job he can back it up with tunes and next week’s sold out show at the 1,400 capacity Ritz is proof proper that Frey and his band have the backing of the people. The debut album will be out next year and already Frey is winding people up by claiming it will be as good as Oasis or the Roses debuts- bizarrely some people are up in arms at these claims- are these the same people who doubted the Roses and Oasis when they said the same things just before their debuts were released?
(MySpace)
Just behind The Courteeners at the moment there is whole host of bands lining up. Twisted Wheel have a tight sinewy sound that takes up from where the Libertines and Artic Monkeys left off and skews it with a Manc attitude and a curiously Johnny Cash-style stripped-down engine room of rock n roll. They write brilliant songs and have a taut passion that has just landed them one of those record deals that seems to get bigger by the day. Don’t let the money put you off: this is a brilliant young band who fully deserve their break, and their gig at October’s_ In The City _was one of the highlights of the annual conference. They packed the room with a youth crew, proving that they are not some no-mark northern quarter band with trendy mates but The Real Deal. Twisted Wheel are gonna be massive – there can be no doubt about that.
(MySpace)
Danny McNamara from Embrace has been putting on some great new band bills at his Aftershow night at Sankeys Soap. Every Thursday night he finds five more great new bands to celebrate this sudden burst of electricity round the region’s rehearsal rooms. It’s all very altruistic from the Embrace man, putting his money where his mouth is and supporting the up and coming.
It was down there that I saw the Paris Riots, whose rock ‘n’ roll is as sloppy as the prime time Stones- you know- the right kind of sloppy, the slightly off kilter funk that makes great rock n roll great, they also have a charismatic frontman and fistful of top tunes, anthems in the waiting and you got to admit that Paris Riots is a killer name for a band.
(MySpace)
The old guard haven’t been found wanting, though. Last week* I Am Kloot *filmed a great show for local TV station Channel M, where the band were caught recording several songs at a studio in Stockport. They were loose and the stark confessional nature of their songs was captured perfectly. The show is still up on Channel M’s website (link) and is well worth checking out. Kloot are at the top of their powers and played two sold out nights at the university- they should be a national treasure by now.
(MySpace)
The *Sex Pistols *finally made it back to Manchester after 30 years. The four gigs they played in the city in 1976 have gone down in local lore as key events in the formation of the city’s music scene, with their Free Trade Hall gigs often mooted as the catalytic point at which the city’s punk scene kicked off, and their two dates on the Anarchy tour were two of the only shows that were allowed to go ahead on that momentous tour. They changed a lot of lives and seemed to change more in Manchester, the second city of punk, than anywhere.
Thirty years is a very long time in rock ‘n’ roll, and of course the Sex Pistols arrive at the sold-out 20,000 capacity MEN Arena meaning very little of what they meant in those heady mid-‘70s days. The reviews were mediocre but they were missing the point: The Sex Pistols were stunning. In 2007 they are merely a brilliant rock ‘n’ roll band with enough caustic bile and sheer power to justify their existence. They stormed the Arena with a celebration of the one thing that they never get any credit for: their sheer power as a rock band. Cook and Jones are power chord machines and Rotten was injecting the songs with the venom and soul power necessary to make them work. Don’t believe the anti-hype, the band were killer! And the Arena gig also featured the biggest mosh pit I’ve ever seen.
A few days later another band that are having problems with press, Babyshambles, played the same place and this time it was only a third full. But this didn’t stop the band from delivering a great gig. There is some debate as to whether Pete Doherty is any good without the props of drugs, but this whole drug debate is deathly dull. I don’t give a fuck about what drugs he takes. That’s his problem, why are the tabloids so obsessed with his chemical intake? If you wanna see junkies I can round up 20 smack heads in five minutes – it’s a miserable, shitty drug.
Let’s get to what we are really interested in here – the music. The Babyshambles show is brilliant, the songs are great and the band is very tight; the whole performance is well worked out from the Steptoe theme as its intro to the World War III backdrops and matchbox stage props – it looks like the seedy set from some mid-‘50s sitcom, a homage to Doherty’s favourite comedian Tony Hancock, and adds to the intimacy of the spectacle. It’s a great night and underlines the special talent of Doherty, the edgy songs that just won’t collapse and the street poetry of the lyrics. Doherty delivers with a brilliant wonky charm in a city that has been a big influence on his muse.
(MySpace)
After the gig we wander back through the freezing streets of the northern quarter and note how many kids are wandering around carrying guitars, the next generation dreaming and the next generation of Manchester rock ‘n’ roll already carving out its own new legend.
Sex Pistols photograph borrowed from RollingStone.com
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- Coming soon: DiS meets John Lydon
- DiS meets John Lydon - Part 1: The Man
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Sex Pistols
I Am Kloot
As far as I'm concerned
These bands are not what the music scene in Manchester is about.
Cats In Paris
Planet Earth
Magic Arm
Burnst
all much better than these Neanderthals.
Oh and
not that I've seen them live, but The Search Map are also a good example of a much better Manchester band.
I disagree
Though still an improvement on the bands in this article.
.
pablo's finest hour are pretty good
but im slightly bias seeing as its my brothers band
but they deserve a bit more recognition
Suprise, suprise...
All the bands mentioned in that article are John Robbs mates.
And if you are reading this Jonny boy - hows pimping The Courteeners outside of Manchester going?
Having some trouble with that maybe?
Twisted Wheel
will be punching above their weight if they become the Northern Uproar of this generation.
I know nothing of the other bands you mentioned but the way you described them makes me glad I've avoided them.
Still seems
Like you have barely touched the surface of the City. I'll agree that I think the Ting Tings will burn out as fast as they sparked up, but I've got a lot of time for Modernaire. They have witty and quite bitting lyrics and are making enjoyable electropop.
However, where are The Answering Machine? Best pop band around Manchester and they are getting better with every show they play at the moment. Since bringing in Ben on drums that band seem to have changed their sound with every show. I know that they are experimenting with more Broken Social Scene type stuff in the studio at the moment, which will only enhance their sound more.
Similarly, Air Cav. Rightly described on this here website as a mini Arcade Fire, I was amongst a number of folks who travelled to the continent to see them rip up Paris. That band must be on the verge of a break through.
Whilst I'll admit that they are two bands who I have worked with and consider friends, there are a host of other folks out there making great noises. Gideon Conn is a star waiting to happen. Laymar sound like nobody else in town and are utterly captivating. Tim and Sam Tim and the Sam Band with Tim and Sam's folkyorchestra are beautiful, and are rightly starting to get noticed by the media and other folks in and around town.
If Twisted Wheel and The Courteeners are the best that this city has it is a pretty damning verdict on other people being far more creative in Manchester.
I saw the courteeners
play with the headlines at the night n' day. they had replaced blood red shoes who had cancelled due to illness. I was bitterly dissapointed about it at the time. but then after the gig i realised that my disappointed should in fact be anger and fury that someone actually thought the courteeners were worthy of replacing the blood red shoes. Not that the blood red shoes are the best thing since sliced bread, more to do with the fact courteeners are f**king awful, they made my ears bleed. The Headlines were far better, and they are no better than alright!!? this article has completely missed the point, or at least the point has completely missed me.
I think these monsters are from in and around the manchester area, they're far better than any of the tosh aforementioned!!! To be honest although lots of good bands come to manchester to play the bigger venues, there aren't actually that many good bands knocking about that are actually from manchester, especially when you compare it to london and even leeds!I mean who the hell are the whiskey cats? urgh!
John Robb on DiS!
Ace!
"why does everything always have to involve the stone roses and oasis"
manchesters own fucking self obsession with its past.
I feel like shaking some people round here and screaming "move on!" in their face.
Modernaire
have some superb songs, are your ears working laddie?
And badly written
No suprises there tho.
I like John, but.....
I honestly think that most of the people who have commented on here have got their finger more on the pulse than John has. Especially the 'underground' scene.
I work at a venue, my band (mentioned above somewhere - thanks popcult), play penty of gigs in Manchester, I put on about two gigs a month and on my days off I go and see live music in Manchester (and Leeds) and I can honestly say I never see JR at any of the venues I go to.
also
shouldn't it be "Rock n Roll Missives from The Manchester Frontline."
PERHAPS?
Thats because he is too busy recording
"remember the 80's / 90's!"
shows down in London, Caj.
Or in Big Hands, either way I agree - the man is fucking clueless to whats actually going on in this town.
Yeah
That man is just so fucking punk rock, I mean "smash the system man - once I've finished my 30 second vox pop about Prodigy's "Firestarter" - of course!"
Awww
Haf I ubset swome pwor darlings feelins?
Now, now - go back to Big Hands and cry into you fucking pint, cock-end.
Yes
I am bitter enough to spend 3 minutes creating several profiles on Drowned in Sound to deflect comments about myself.
Oh hang, no...
And you know what...
Its amazing I keep hearing this
"..is bitter cos he's not getting the attention" nonsense. Its just deflection.
I'm just sick of a certian journalist dirtying Manchesters good name with shit bands whilst trying to get himself more work.
Give up Johnny, your days of being "on the pulse" in Manchester and now long gone, and I sometimes get the feeling you were just a bandwagon jumper anyway.
Frankly those "indie snobs" that actually make up core audiences in Manchesters real music scene think you are becoming a bit of a sad joke with all this Courteneers knob sucking of yours.
Time has come to look to the future, not to drag us back to the late eighties.
Why not embrace the likes of Air Cav, Modenaire, The Search Map, Band(ism), Say and The Marder (and of course my good self!) rather than backing those who sound like what your percieved "Manchester rock and roll"?
.....
(Of Couteneers gigs)
Agreed..
Been pretty annoyed about the lack of support bands in this town give each other, we're trying to encourage against this with The Anti-scene nights but it feels like an uphill struggle.
When you see a bands crowd leave the floor when they have finished, only to be replaced by the next bands - you have to ask yourself if we have a serious fucking problem with the way we treat live bands these days.
If there are any bands out there in Manchester reading this (and I know that this is the case) perhaps think about enthusing about the bands your supporting or who are supporting you to your fans - it makes all the difference.
Big up!
The One Post Posse.
Hello John.
Nice synopsis
...totally wide of the mark.
phew....
..gig anyone?
god bless these dis rants..
gra
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/NORTHSOUTHDIVIDE
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/WHILEOTHERBANDSPARKVANS
very kind
of you to offer such kind words. Glad you enjoyed the CD Mr Robb, good to see repected figures around town gave it a listen.
One further comment on this one, why does it matter that Sir Yes Sir aren't as good as Pavement? Few are, even Malkmus' solo stuff struggles to compete. I know that I'd rather listen to someone who is trying to ape Pavement than copying Northern Uproar.
Save the ad hominems
for when you have created something different and new.
Steggy
Fuck off mate, seriously - your not fooling ANYONE.
You are the same person be it John himself, a band member or someone involved in said band - that trolls every place where these people are commented on negatively. And its obvious. The comments are always the same.
Do you HONESTLY think that people are fooled into thinking there are people like yourself out there willing to defend these views?
And why do you care?
Because you are worried that something might just disrupt what you see as this bands inevitable commercial success and no doubt a pretty penny for you too, eh?
Say what you like about me, the other "indie snob" detractors on here and the Manchester scene you so despise because anyone and everyone for whom music is more than just a simple commodity can see what kind of person you really are.
You claim to love "rock and roll" but in truth you just like the rewards, maybe you understood once but its gone now.
Goodbye, hollow shell.
Yawn...
I don't seriously believe that anyone cares that much to invest this much time in deflecting attention away from the band or Robb's detractors.
Tell you what though - prove me wrong,
tell me what gigs you have been to in Manchester recently and what you thought of them.
Or post up a myspace here or something,
you might not like me fella but I least I can prove I actually exist!
No Steggy
Unlike you no doubt I have a lovely lady to keep me warm at night, I don't need to "mong" out with my "mates" cruising web forums for the warmth of human existence.
Fuck, this is entertainment to you and your accusing ME of being creepy?
At least I have a purpose here.
Are you one of those Gallagher lookalikes that dwell in Manchester sattelite towns - you know the ones with the mock walk and effected accent that never existed pre-Ian Brown, that sit around going on about how legendary the Stone Roses were.
Here's something that'll cheer you up mate - I'm not even from Manchester, I'm a fucking southerner.
Can't wait to hear what you have to say about that....
Oh and by the way.
THANKS!
Your tireless namedropping of me on this article has won me a fair few new fans and supporters over the weekend.
You have even bigged up BLACKLANDS, a band I play a major part in, yourself.
As they say - all news is good news.
:)
Well, if you want to blow your teeny salary
On two watching shit bands twice in one week..
"You're just like plasticine being moulded into a libertine dream"
As some twat once said.
If I could ever convice them
to stop being bummed by you for five minutes.
Although they are all probably pretty sore now - having had this treatment from Steggy and John Robb in the space of just this article.
I'm enjoying this, some nice vitriol there sonny - work on it and you might actually be funny one day.
The thing is "billy"
Your personal slights on me don't bite, otherwise I wouldn't invite more of them by continuing to post here.
I know you are probably someone that knows me, or thinks they do - I've met quite a few spineless cunts like you in my time.
So keep em coming...
Anything else?
Well if I am an OAP at 31 then clearly you must be pre-pubescent or something.
I cleared a little scally kid off my shoe a few days ago - was that you?
Oh, hang on...
"hip, handsome and famous young men"
No! Your one of those little indie tarts that follows them around aren't you?
Awwww.
Either that or you really need to have a think about your sexuality there mate...
Now, now....
Stop deflecting all this onto me - I can see the real root of your angst now little missy.
Don't worry tho - soon those Courteener posters will come down, just like the Bloc Party ones did.
And then, that next band you fall in love with...
...
....I'll be here smashing nails into them too.
And my dreams are just fine, I have everything I could want right now in fact.
And the way is wide open.
For the things I want.
Not the ones you would.
If you were me.
And Eugh! by the way.
Time to get Mommy and Daddy to shell out
for some more sessions with that child
shrink I think.
Your clearly a nasty box of issues.
Well, whoever you are
I don't think its healthy to fuel this strange obsession with me any longer.
So I'll bow out of this slagging match
now thanks, I'm sure there are plenty
of other people out there you can creep
out.
Happy cyber-stalking!
Yup
You just pretty much confirmed everything
I thought about you as well.
Goodbye, and enjoy hiding in the shadow
of this band you love. Whilst you still can.
Ah now COME ON!
Typical North / South divide rubbish going on here.
Manchester has got plenty of original and vibrant sounding bands, most of which don't revert to the obvious sounds
of the late eighties / early nineties.
Do you, any of you, ever take reference from anything but Q Magazine and the fucking NME??
Rock and Roll...
Conveyor line more like ;)
Cheers Vince
Maybe we should invite these poor saps
down for Febuary 7th - show em what the real sound of Manchester is.
They might even turn out to be decent human beings behind that creepy stalker facade.
Shhh...
Don't upset him Vince, he's clearly distressed that the band he's blown all his pocket money on have turned out to be shitty Libertines aping also-rans.
Oh and Mr Steggy - seems like your mate Liam can learn to love southerners, so maybe you can too!! -->
"Thanks for being so receptive to us. London is like our second home..."
hahahahahahahahaha!
Come on Skeggy
I'm enjoying watching you trapped in a corner here - throwing out abuse because you are incapable of actually arguing your point.
I think, in reality - your the child here really, aren't you?
And "cliched" - mate, I drew you out into that territory earlier when I had you ranting about southerners in the most cliched way possible.
Your just a puppet, skeggy! We're playing you like the dumbass you are!
Tessie
I get what your saying but we're not actually that much against these bands
as much as the way Manchester is being
represented in that article up there.
That Manchester grass roots scene is hardly represented on this site mainly
because most people around the UK think
all the city has to offer is "attitude"
bands.
You know as we know, this just isn't the case.
hahaha
Nice try, mate - your bailing because your beat, simple as that.
Now fuck off and learn to hold an argument, prick.
And by all means..
...come see me play and continue this
in person.
I won't hold my breath that a clueless,
faceless little troll like you would
ever have the guts to come good on
that.
But the Anti-scene is waiting for you
first Thursday of the month, if you want to prove me wrong.
:)
Aye
And its the Smiths that are globally
the biggest Manchester band ever, as well
as being the best.
I was out in eastern europe a couple
of years ago and amazed by how popular
The Smiths were in Prague, encapsulated
by a nigh on 7 ft Czech guy singing
"William, it was really nothing" at
me during a party there.
I have checked out The Deodates
and am loving the rawness, tell em to check their myspace ;)
Ultimately with the anti-scene we are not trying to create a movement as much as a place for bands that are willing to innovate, a place to meet up and check out what others have to offer.
We're just trying to keep that Manchester DIY spirit, the one Mr Robb loves to talk about but has long since forgotten, alive and burning bright.
VICTORIAN DAD
seemed to have missed this Band maybe..
DAVID RYBKA & THE VICTORIAN DAD
. It has been a long time coming and David Rybka, the leader of “Wigan’s Super Group”, is no stranger to hard work. He has perfected his compositional style and live act over the course of thousands of performances (beginning when he was just fifteen years old) and this experience is obvious – so much so that within a year of his arrival in Manchester he was offered not one but two publishing deals: an acoustic release on R.I.P. Records and a full electric album (entitled “The Thin Thread”) on Elbow’s label “Skinny Dog Records”.
Together with his band (consisting of core members Jimmy Wilson, Tom Doherty, Matt McNicolas, Tom Yates and Fran Lydiatt) he has carved out a keen UK following and something of a private mythology; the band moved into Withington’s last surviving 18th Century farm house and soon transformed it into a hermitage for musicians of all disciplines to collaborate in (until they were suddenly evicted and the place began to crumble – but they now tour too much to make use of such a base anyway).
David and the VDB have recently enjoyed enthusiastic support from BBC 6 Music, patronage from The Smiths’ Mike Joyce and praise from local artists I Am Kloot & Elbow. They are also part of Manchester’s Debt Set (affiliated with co-operative label Debt Records run by occasional collaborator Louis Barabbas) and are engaged in a host of creative and promotional projects with their contemporaries in the Manchester arts scene.
NOTE TO EDITORS
The electric and acoustic records will be available soon after, accompanied by a video for single No Fashion. A further album is in pre-production.
DEBT RECORDS.net
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