Agent Blue
Something Else

And i suppose the holiday plan and thrice deserve major attention?

DENIED.

oh and i forgot to add, fair enough if you don't like the tune by the way, totally allowed...but DiS seems to be coming like a bit too cool for school, you must keep leading and not following the NME otherwise you're just descending to their paranoid level of only backing the bands that'll get big and therefore give them more readers/web-readers/sales/advertisers whatever...that should never be what DiS becomes...like what you like not what you think you should like. Good bye.

hmmm Shady, i think maybe they meant where the band was from, not Stu

Regardless of whats been said. Whys he make out its a bad thing to be from Stoke??

I think you've missed my point and if Stu is from glasgow you'd think he'd know better.
This person cocks his nose at Stoke and accuses Agent Blue of retreading 80s punk influences (i mean its not like bloc party the futureboys franz inter-departure-pol others razorlight etc are rehashing anything is it!) - Agent Blue were born in the mid 80s they're hardly old blokes reliving their teenage years are they?

If AB were a london band sex drugs and rocks through your window would have been NME single of the week....but hey they're from ''the not quite rock mecca'' of Stoke so fuck them the fuckin hill billies...

I just think it seems you can go to art school in London/glasgow or any big cool city, form a band and look good but sound shit and get all over the NME/DiS etc but industrial miserable Stoke (Manchester late 70s anyone?) means only one thing...they must be crap...well er no it's just they've not got powerful pr powerful managers or journo mates.......well i think its smells horrible.......

Agent Blue are the most real genuine band in britain, not motivated by career just motivated by a desire to reach out from Stoke and avoid the dole queue and you'd hope the fact they were ace would mean they'd get recognition they deserve...they got signed in the good old fashioned way, cos they were good enough that's all.... but obviously they don't hang around the right bloc or parties so the path to proper acclaim is going to be a little harder for em……Come on DiS get behind AB properly don't do an NME and start building em up to knock em down...the reviewer is clearly an emo guy so why not let a real fan review AB on DiS...they need your help not hindrance...and furthermore Mr Chow it's not like any emo band isn't retreading the influences of minor threat black flag pixies husker du fugazi etc.... s'pose thats ok though yeah?

I like DiS mate but i'm worried it feels like its going down the path of ''most favoured bands'' like the NME and not just the music loving and hating website it used to be...i'd be surprised to see an average review anywhere for bloc party franz etc because DiS clearly likes these bands and has decided editorially to back them all the way.....personally i think young bands like Agent Blue should be encouraged through positive criticism fine but...... it's a fuckin difficult enough business to get on in as it is (just ask any band that's been cruelly dropped after 1 album) - without some half wit taking the piss out of where a band is from while telling them they're nothing special (although he actually loves emo and can't understand why da boss gave him this indie punk nonsense to review in the first place).... thats all i'm saying....

Some good points but mainly speculation, and I can't speak for Stu there as I don't know his reasons for reviewing the single (I would've liked to have reviewed it, had I got a copy, which I don't). But I have to say about them not having "powerful pr managers" - Agent Blue have the same PR company as The Darkness.

and they're signed to Universal? And they're on the Carling Stage at Reading/Leeds - notoriously difficult nowadays for a small/up'n'coming band to get on if you don't have the appropriate agent/manager/etc or one coincidentally the same as a bigger band also on a bigger stage at the festival that year.
I know it's a "difficult enough businessto get on it", and I'm ready to give em an open-minded try and all, but... Come on...

Where's the point if for every band's release you hunt down a "real fan" of theirs on the DiS staff to review it too, you sooner than later erode any fucking critical substance to the whole website entirely...

Shady Adie the review slagged off AB's home town so i merely said it was not relevant to do that in relation to the tune. Furthermore it was not particularly fair. Thirdly i'm not against criticism but it was tainted here in an unbalanced way because of the Stoke thing and was also rather out of touch with current trends, like i said has he heard franz interpol departure etc.. it seems wrong to slag them off for simply being in touch with the modern times and in an uncontrived way unlike say the departure who've swallowed the 80s text book whole!
Mr Pompey fine the teletext thing does not describe the music and equally mr pompey neither does the review and thats my point. If Stu doesn't like it, no problem, i am over it, i think i'll sleep at night but since when was it not allowed for us the DiS massif to chuck your reviews back at you if we think they're wrong. Apologies for getting abusive Stu but i just care about my favourite bands thats all in what seems an unjust music world!

im sure i met a member of a band called agent blue who used to be on fierce panda a couple of years ago on holiday...

I've only just seen this big debate. To quote 517norman, "like what you like not what you think you should like".

I didn't like this single. It's got nothing to do with anything other than that. I wouldn't like this band, no matter where they came from. And I wasn't slagging Stoke On Trent, more making the point that it's not well known as a musical hotbed of talent.