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aeolianblues · 26 days ago

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I took 4 hours to make a stew today. I also listened to five different Johnny Borrell interviews in the intervening time. I think the two might be connected. I should be packing my suitcases instead.

I have been toying with the idea of reaching out to Razorlight management. They just put out an album, Planet Nothing on Friday. I have been thinking about this for a whole MONTH. In defence of my delusions who else is clamouring to interview them in Canada? This continent knows two songs (America and In The Morning, maybe Golden Touch at a stretch). Besides their management has liked my posts about them twice. So feed my delusions. I’ll try and reach out even though the album is now out. Worst case I won’t hear back, which is normal.

If they did say yes though, imagine that. It would make them one of the highest profile guests I’ve had, but that’s also good reason to be nervous. What the fuck do I know about touring the world, being in showbiz, doing telly, festivals, you know what I mean? You have to know about something yourself to ask questions about it.

And there’s say that Johnny is apparently a notoriously hard interviewee, though I’ve only ever heard him be delightful and insightful in interviews. Man doesn’t have a phone though, he’s like old-school old-school. He doesn’t trust social media which is valid and based. But I also find it’s easier for such people to fall out of touch. Like. What do I do if this guy shows up completely uncomfortable with the concept and practice of using Zoom? They aren’t touring Canada, any interviews will most likely be remote. This has literally happened before, where an interviewer in 2020 was like ?? Buddy you’re taken aback seeing yourself on the screen on Zoom, again, valid but like. Have you never used FaceTime or any such thing before? You’re in your forties. And he’s just like nope, never had an iPhone, don’t have one now, it’s borrowed for the interview, don’t trust it.

Man I want to talk about music? Let’s not get stuck here. He is completely right about how social media is killing creativity though, it doesn’t give you a chance to be bored and think, dream. Still, it does mean that we’d start things off on quite different pages, and then I’d also be working to pull him onto the same page, or meet him somewhere halfway. Whatever.

He was even asked about his supposedly difficult and standoffish persona, and he said he’s never had a tough time talking to music interviewers, you know music journalists from radio, music magazines, whatever; anyone who actually wanted to talk about the music itself, but because Razorlight got big quite fast and found themselves miserably thrown onto like art, culture lifestyle and celebrity programmes and magazines, and the interviewers would ask them inane questions, and Johnny just doesn’t seem like the kind of person that had the patience for that rubbish. He apparently groaned and moaned about having to go to the BRIT Awards because he had no interest in the façade of importance the music industry builds around itself, but the management had said yes before he ever had a chance to decline the invites and didn’t want to look like a dickhead pulling out at the last minute. That’s pure artist, and always a tricky interview— but one that could go really really well!

Here’s one interview Johnny gets criticised for, from I think 2007? Johnny gets asked questions regarding press about him, and he gets quite uncomfortable and says he’d rather not do it at all. All I see here is someone setting down firm boundaries over something he isn’t comfortable with, which should’ve been applauded! Instead almost universally the mood in the studio (and in the 16 year old comment section) is sour, there are people calling him a diva for politely saying he’s uncomfortable with and doesn’t want to dignify lies about himself written in the press— some of which the interviewers say they’ve made up for a laugh. Johnny says he’d rather they moved on, and they’re like 😐 we don’t have any more questions, we have a minute to fill.

Like that’s not Johnny Borrell’s job? Good on him for standing up for himself, the interviewers should’ve had backup questions. It’s so awkward, not because a musician set down boundaries but because the interviewers then made it awkward! Goodness, if that happened to me I think a TV Interviewer would never see me again. This is the kind of shit that made Godspeed stop doing interviews entirely.

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In contrast, here’s an interview Johnny did with Face Culture in 2018 where he’s perfectly forthcoming and extremely pleasant (it’s more recent as well, which could be a confounding factor). He even said at the end when he’s called away for soundcheck, that’s a shame, I could’ve talked longer, I really enjoyed that, thanks for the intelligent questions.

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I think he gets unfairly maligned in the press, and it’s a bad cycle that keeps spinning faster— one bad interview and suddenly journalists (especially non-music ones) are approaching you with that predator-out-on-the-prowl attitude and you’re cooked then because they can write what they please. They can make things awkward where there was no right to be awkwardness. Things like that.

So i think Johnny is okay, and particularly as campus radio, as someone with literally 0 agenda other than I want to talk about music to you, and as someone who is digging deep now and doing my homework, I think I should be fine. So I want to reach out (scared), if we do get the interview I hope he’s feeling great! He’s an interesting fella and if it works out, this could be the biggest interview of my (nonexistent) career so far.

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ijustwantedtobeoneofthestrokesuk · 6 days ago

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The Future Starts Now

London

Razorlight

There aren’t many bands out of London who “made it”, but Razorlight were one of few to successfully leave the scene, even if it was short-lived…

On the 21st June 2004 Razorlight, fronted by Johnny Borrell performed on the roof of The Bricklayers Arms, a pub in Shoreditch, days before the highly anticipated debut album, Up All Night was released. Ok, a East London boozer is hardly iconic levels like The Beatles at Apple Corps but it got people talking (not that they needed the attention, Johnny’s one-liners were headline-grabbing).

Razorlight are a polarising band, but that was more to do with the bands’ frontman and former Libertines bassist, it’s hard to find people who have a good word to say about Johnny Borrell. He was a well-known figure in the scene before he’d formed Razorlight. His personality might have been off-putting but he knew how to write a tune. Up All Night, the bands' debut album is criminally overlooked, is that because of Johnny? Was he really that bad? Was he misunderstood? Was he performing/playing a character? His bandmates have suggested so…

Up All Night was a soundtrack for London in the 2000’s when the sun went down. They didn’t think they were making music for mass consumption, they were as surprised as anybody to see it chart and were in shock when America became a huge hit. They’d have just been happy to have rehearsal space, the opportunity to record an album and play some gigs. Headlining festivals and touring the world wasn’t part of their dream so they made the most of it.

As well as a brief spell in The Libertines Johnny had also attempted to launch a solo career, which had gone a bit stale in the summer of 2002. He tried again, this time putting an ad in the NME to find a female who could sing and play guitar. Swedish guitarist, Björn Ågren who had recently moved to London, aged 21 responded to the ad, despite not being a female or a singer but he could play guitar.

A meeting was arranged at the Red Lion in Hoxton, East London. Björn met Roger, Johnny’s manager. When Johnny turned up the pair bonded over music for 15 minutes then headed to Johnny’s flat to listen to some demos, which included Rock ‘n’ Roll Lies, recorded on a four-track. Björn added his guitar parts, which ended up on the debut album.

The pair started to play gigs together, joined by gospel singers and a blues guitarist who was part of Johnny’s solo project. The first gig was at Cherry Jam in West London, the second at Metro in Central London. Björn introduced Carl Delemo to Johnny and he became the bassist then Christian Smith-Pancorvo became the drummer (but he’d be replaced by Andy Burrows after the album was finished), their first gig, as a 4 piece was supporting The Von Bondies at Dingwalls in Camden on 17th September 2002.

They wrote and rehearsed the debut album in Kensal Rise in a cold, damp space. The 4-piece would be there 4 or 5 nights a week, Johnny would turn up with a new song and the rest of them would add bits in. At first, it was Johnny and his backing band but the dynamic gradually shifted as members got more involved in the process. Björn suggested that the Golden Touch chorus needed to be rewritten and that turned out to be one of their biggest hits.

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A real game-changer was when Andy came on board as the drummer, he wasn’t your typical drummer, he was a talented multi-instrumentalist and a songwriter which gave the band more opportunities to grow their sound. Somewhere Else was a breakthrough moment for the band, recorded after the debut album. Andy played a key role in the song with his piano skills offering something different that wasn’t just another indie record.

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The second album had a different sound to the first but it was a record that they would buy and listen to themselves, they just had no idea if other people would do too. In The Morning, the albums’ first single was played as part of a Dior Homme runway show in Paris but it was the second single that took Razorlight to the next level. The band was in complete shock when America topped the UK singles chart in October 2006. They knew it was good but didn’t expect it to be received so warmly. This took them to a new level, the following summer the band headlined the Reading and Leeds Festival.

After the massive success of Razorlight’s second album, they were feeling the pressure too as they tried to keep the momentum going.

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Tiredness started to kick in as the bands’ touring schedule blurred into writing and recording third album Slipway Fires. The sound started to get darker and tension built but they didn’t want to take a break. Kings Of Leon had released their third album, they were determined to do the same but there was a lack of communication between bandmates. Instead of heated arguments, they distanced themselves from one another which meant that problems were never solved and the band started to crumble. They used alcohol to hide their mental health problems.

One trip around the world in 2 weeks at the start of 2009 tipped Andy over the edge, he was homesick, tired and lost his passion, he walked away. The Libertines drummer Gary Powell stepped in for the remaining tour dates.

The passion had gone for the rest of the band a couple of years later, Johnny was working with other musicians, Björn was collaborating with Lucy Rose, they had found new thrills and that was the end of Razorlight, or that’s what they thought.

Johnny had new material with his new bandmates and instead of starting a new band, the record label convinced him to call it Razorlight.

After the brief existence of ‘new Razorlight’ Johnny invited Björn and Carl back as Johnny and Björn lived near one another and Björn and Carl were still close. Andy, who had built a new career needed more time to return.

The Others

The Libertines were one of the first bands to use the internet to create a community but Dominic Masters, lead singer of The Others knocked down the barrier between the band and fans further as he’d happily hand out his phone number, party with fans and let them sleep in his flat, which was how he built an audience. The Others fan base became an inner circle of kids who were dedicated to the cause, everyone looked out for each other.

The Others were originally a 4-piece (the line-up has grown since) who split everything equally, giving each member their own responsibilities when it came to writing, recording and performing but frontman Dominic was very much the vocal leader on all other matters. The band became best known for their live shows as they relentlessly toured the UK (and further afield), picking up fans in every town and city on the way while gaining headlines for their ‘guerilla gigs’ on the tube, dodgems at Leeds Festival and the iconic Abbey Road crossing. These creative shows would have gone viral in today’s era but they were recognised with John Peel Award For Innovation in 2005.

Dominic Masters “I was a big fan of The Parkinsons and would regularly attend all of their London gigs and I was a weekly regular at Club for Losers and The Dirty Water Club where I would hang out with Victor, Pedro and Alfonso from the band as well as PJ (DJ Dirty Water Club) and Max (DJ from Club 4 Losers). Everyone knew that I adored The Parkinsons but I was too ashamed to tell them that I worked in an office in a sales job, as I didn't think it would sound very cool and potentially I'd lose their respect. So I started saying I was in a band, I looked like a singer in a band, I hung out with bands at the clubs and it just made sense to say I had my own band. But you can only be economical with the truth for so long before people start getting granular on you.

Victor kept asking "When is your band playing?" and I'd shrug it off saying "We are still rehearsing", I got away with this for about a year and didn't lose face. Then the night Joe Strummer died a hastily organised tribute gig was scheduled with about 7 bands at Club for Losers. Victor, in front of the whole club, said "When is your band going to play", again I said "I didn't know?", then he said "What's the name of your band?" (he'd never asked this before?!), So I said on the spot, "We are called The Others" and with that he called Max over and said "When can Dominic's band play?", Max looked in his bookings book and said "2 weeks!". I agreed, went white with shock and left the club immediately. Walked down Camden High Street decided to phone Jimmy, and explained the situation (he had been in my first band, a few years previous called Magnetta as the guitarist). Jimmy said he could get a bass player (Johnny Others) and a session drummer. We wrote 6 songs in 2 rehearsal sessions and went to the gig.

When I stood on the stage I got a standing ovation from Parkinsons fans, as most people knew I really didn't have a band 2 weeks previously! We did the gig and a guy from Domino Records came up to me afterward and said "When is your next gig>", I told them confidently in a month's time and took his mobile number and said I'd call him with dates and times. Then proceeded to tell Jimmy and Johnny that we'd better book another gig soon. That's how we started. It was quite magical and special as it was never planned but I guess Victor knew I'd make a good singer.

I was working in an advertising sales job at the time and it was quite demanding, working 8am - 6pm each day then I would rush down to Brighton on the train to get to rehearsals. It was a tricky couple of weeks juggling everything but it would give me some insight of how things would be logistically in times to come with this band.

Johnny, Jimmy and myself were listening to different things. I was listening to The Stooges, Sonic Youth, The Fall and Pavement. Johnny was listening to Sisters of Mercy, Jesus & Mary Chain and Echo & The Bunnymen and Jimmy was listening to Peter & The Test Tube Babies, The Buzzcocks, PIL, Magazine and the Sex Pistols so we were coming from different perspectives. I write the lyrics and the band write the music, we don't often write together.”

After the first couple of gigs the band found themselves playing in front of a small crowd as they were first on the bill in mid-week gigs. Dominic thought differently, he wanted to find a way that would get the band higher up the bill so he focussed on building a fanbase. He started advertising the gigs on .org, and a following grew but they were only being offered mid-week gigs. To reach out to those who lived on the outskirts of the capital, who’d usually not be able to attend as they’d have to get the last bus/train home he opened up his flat for after-parties and a floor to sleep on. Kids from the outskirts would not only get to see a band but they would be able to party with the band and stay at the singer's flat before going to school/college/work the next morning.

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Dominic “The internet and MySpace were real enablers for us and were the catalysts in helping propel us to a major label. I'd spent time with Pete from The Libertines and Scarborough Steve (Steve Bedlow) and they'd suggested I post on .org to get my bands name out there. So I dully did. So, every time we had a concert I would announce it on .org and announce an after-party too so that would tempt people out on a weekday night to come and watch The Others play. As the band grew in stature I utilised MySpace as we were getting many fans from outside of London, we also had our own website too called LetsKillTheOthers which we used as well to get the message out while filesharing helped the band as our music spread outside of London.

I think The Libertines and Babyshambles were pivotal and absolutely essential to the growth of the indie scene of 2002 - 2008. I certainly did see them evolve. Pete was kind enough to give us the support slots supporting The Libertines at Brixton Academy, at The Astoria for Rock Against Racism gig and we had a few support slots supporting The Libertines at The Rhythm Factory that was facilitated by the late Johnny Rhythm and the late Mark Hammerton (Senseless Things), I watched The Libertines at all those gigs and they were very good, especially at The Rhythm Factory shows. When the band went on its 'hiatus' and Pete formed Babyshambles we supported them for their first 2 concerts at The Troubadour in West London and then we did subsequent support slots at The Rhythm Factory, again, I watched the gigs and watched the line-up evolve. I'm always very thankful to Pete for those support slots as it helped to get us signed.

Originally I was part of The Parkinsons/Ikara Colt/The Von Bondies kinda scene that congregated around Dirty Water Club in Tuffnel Park and Club for Losers in Camden. Then when The Others went from supporting The Parkinsons to supporting The Libertines and Babyshambles we moved effortlessly into that scene of people mainly because everything was happening in the East End of London and I lived off Brick Lane! Pete lived very close at The Albion Rooms in Bethnal Green and then moved to Cambridge Heath Road, He held parties, I held parties and the scene evolved from the fact that it was an open door policy allowing people to meet the bands instead of there being any division between band and fan.

The community came together very organically, the 853 Kamakaze Stage Diving Division evolved on its own as the band grew. The community kept building because there was no barriers between fans and band, so just kept growing as a community as people could meet each other at the afterparties at my flat and get to meet new 853 members as well. The Inspiration of the name of the 853, came from a night when there was about 100 of us on a night bus going across town to my flat off Brick Lane and a naming ceremony happened as a result of a bus number and a number plate from a car and so the 853 Kamakaze Stage Diving Division was dutifully named.

Giving out my mobile number inspired loyalty in my fan base as they knew they could phone me and talk to me about their problems. A lot of 853 members come from similar difficult backgrounds like I have and I think it helped people to have someone they could talk to who understood them being from broken families and understood being working class with not much help or support and sometimes not much hope. So I tried my best to inspire people. That mobile phone helped to increase our fan base substantially, helped us to grow the band outside of London, helped us to mobilise troops, plan advanced afterparties, get people organised and mobilised. It was a very good strategic decision and outfoxed other bands who claimed to care about their audience.

Because The Others had a named fanbase that was separate from the band name, it meant that people weren't called or referred to as 'Others fans' but as 853 members. The press were absolutely intrigued about this and were very curious about how we could mobilise the troops at short notice and effectively create our own 853 flash mob ready to cause a show on tube trains and storming the BBC. I remember Ben Bailey (lead singer of Thee Unstrung) being involved in some way on the bus that evening in the final naming of The Others fanbase. The community was very broad and we were a welcoming church to all, so people felt respected and there was no hierarchy which made it very meritocratic. I remember other bands being puzzled about why The Others would choose to hang out with the 853 members and not suck up to other bands. The 853 was more than just fans, people made friends for life, got married and subsequently have families as a result. The 853, fortunately, brought me Joe our drummer and Eddie our lead guitarist/bassist when we needed them most and I'm always grateful that I could recruit future band members from our own core fan base.

It took about 1 and a half to 2 years before we got real devotion and a true 853 that could be mobilised like a flash mob. I held afterparties after most of the gigs and they got bigger and bigger parties as I didn't want to exclude anyone. Most of my audience knew me, knew where I lived and knew that I'd be having a party at my flat afterward.

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The Guerrilla Gigs came simply out of necessity as we attracted a bigger audience, younger kids who couldn't get into the venue started turning up and wanting to watch us play. So the first Guerrilla Gig I think was somewhere near New Burlington Avenue/Street, as we were playing at White Heat, 7 kids turned up and they traveled all the way from Ilford, quite a mission on a weekday night and they couldn't get in and told other 853 members that there was problems about not gaining access, they came and told me, I had to really think on my feet about how we'd deliver for them. Jimmy found an acoustic guitar in the venue and the 2 us went outside the venue and sat on the steps and Jimmy played for 30 minutes on the acoustic guitar with me singing with no microphone. I'm still friends with Dan Edmunds from the original Ilford 7 to this day! So I must have done alright for my first Guerrilla Gig.

I knew pretty early on through .org, MySpace, LetsKillTheOthers and people phoning me all the time on my mobile that there was a big appetite for The Others outside of London. I was switched on to this early on but knew economies of scale prohibited us touring initially. So I waited strategically, declining individual gig offers in the hope we'd get a tour. I waited till the time I'd negotiated the single, our first single contract with Poptones for 'This is for The Poor', I negotiated the single deal myself with Poptones with the help of my lawyer Paul Spraggon. Then once we were signed I went and got a manager that was separate from Creation/Poptones Management. Alan McGee didn't want to give me a tour initially until he'd seen how well 'This is for The Poor' did in the charts, I argued with my manager that a UK Tour would help to drive sales substantially as I knew we had strong uptake for The Others outside London.”

Ronnie Joice “Although I was late discovering The Libertines, I soon caught up, and having seen The Others live with my new best pal Jess from college in Worthing and then having hung with Dominic Masters and the band, it opened up another world, both online and offline, to me. The 853.

The next generation of indie came so fast beyond The Strokes and The Libertines and the internet had everything to do with that. While the mainstream media were behind the times, and the general populace too, us indie kids were pioneers when it came to utilising the internet.

It’s no surprise that I work now as a digital marketing manager. We lived our lives when not at gigs, on forums, either discussing music or planning our next meet-up. As I became more entwined in the 853 community, set up by Dominic Masters of The Others, I started visiting more of their meet-ups.

They would be simple affairs, just bring some booze and yourself to Regents Park, by the fountain. I remember once trying to sell some old DVDs in Camden beforehand. They had told me they weren’t interested and for one film, I’d forgotten to even put the disc in! I suddenly had lost my money for the day ahead, but it didn’t matter: There was always enough to go round, and everyone chipped in to make sure nobody went without.

The community element, that now social media owns was so damn important. I couldn’t afford to go to ‘big gigs’ on the regular, but these forums allowed us to discover new, emerging acts while these forums allowed them to post about their gigs and offer ‘cheap list’.

Most importantly, it kept me in contact with people from all around the country and allowed us to arrange these ad-hoc meet-ups. I would rarely travel up to London with anyone else, and that didn’t matter. There would be a post detailing where everyone was meeting, and it would always be somewhere easy and cheap meaning you would just head there, unafraid you’d be flying solo any longer than the train and then a short tube journey somewhere.

Those monumental meet-ups would be a nightmare for any park warden, but literally created life-lasting friendships for all of us.”

Dominic “I had to formulate a proposal to Alan McGee and his business partner Stephen to try and prove our organic reach, Matt Willis (the new manager I appointed) had put together a budgeted tour and each band member would have to survive on £5 a day for all 3 meals. Alan and Steven at Poptones could see the proposal was solid and the tour was cheaply costed and agreed to pay for a 5-week national tour. The result 'This is for the Poor' sored in at no.42 in the UK and we would have made the Top 40 if they'd printed more records as we sold out the allocation.

The tour had proved that we were big outside London and the single sales had proved I was right. Touring was extremely important. We are a good live band and can replicate our album sound live because it's uncomplicated which was an advantage for the band as the listener can hear the album clearly when it's played live. Not all bands can replicate the big sounds of their album live. Luckily we could. The UK tours helped to drive single and album sales and we kept getting upgraded each tour to bigger venues because the word spread that we were good live and the gigs were chaotic with the crowds stage diving and crowd surfing all the time. Touring was a godsend. From the first tour in 2004 to the last tour in 2013/2014 we always went out on tour as the headline band, we never supported a band on tour. In terms of bands that supported The Others on tour, I particularly enjoyed having the Stoke band Agent Blue as our main support band and enjoyed touring with Nick & Callum.”

It wasn’t just London, as we toured the country, the community grew. I was very aware of the northern scene and have many friends in the north as a result of the connection with the 853 members. We played many a sold out gig at The Cockpit in Leeds and we would hang out with Yorkshire fans in the dressing room and the club night afterward. In Sheffield I remember going to watch 10,000 Things at The Foundry around the time that NME had given a bad review to Sam's band and it really hurt the local fans, We played Sheffield and Leeds often.”

After being given a leg up by Alan and Poptones there was a bidding war between three labels to sign The Others in early 2004, two were majors, one independent (Rough Trade). They ended up signing with one of the majors, Mercury (who had a relationship with Poptones) as they were offering twice the amount for one album compared to Rough Trade who wanted 2 albums out of it. The deal from Mercury was £135,000 for the 18 -month 1 album cycle, 20% went to management, £10,000 to a lawyer then the rest was split equally between the 4 members and that was their wages for 18 months, plus any royalties that would come in every 3 months. They had already written the album.

Dominic “We recorded the self-titled first album in the summer of 2004, around June and July at The Chapel Studio in Lincolnshire with Paul Schroeder as our producer. The record label felt we needed to get away from London because of the parties so they de-camped the band from London/Brighton to Lincolnshire. It was a live-in studio. We had a live-in chef who cooked us meals and in the evening we went to the pub, drank and played darts. The Chapel Studio was in such a remote area. We were told no visitors. But I managed to get James Turner (Gram Parsons) from the 853 to travel up from Birmingham to stay with me, so I had a friend for some of the recording.”

As tours went on the communities mixed and grew, you’d go to a gig and there’d be 40 people in the dressing room, from different cities, who’d all met because of The Others, they’d share hotel rooms or stay in each other's floors. Dominic would also be clever about the bands he chose to tour with, ones who had a similar sound but not too similar such as The Paddingtons, The Rakes, Thee Unstrung, The Supernovas and The Cribs, suddenly their fanbases would merge, growing the 853 community furthermore.

Conor McNicholas “The Others were the biggest selling debut cover for a new band during my time at the NME. It was a measure of how hot the scene was at the time.”

Dominic “The deal with Mercury Vertigo (Universal) was that I needed to sell 100,000 records in a period of 18 months globally. But I sold 60,000! I was 40,000 short and knew I hadn't hit the target in time and knew my fate. We recorded some demos for the second album and went with Matt Willis, our manager to meet the boss of the label.

The guy that had signed The Others had sadly left and retired, the new guy they appointed was strict on figures. I thought he was realistic in the meeting and just said 'contract says you needed to sell 100,000 copies, you're 40,000 short, sorry'. He dropped 26 of the 28 artists on Mercury/Vertigo (Universal) records roster the same day. Then I got Matt Willis and Paul Spraggon to discuss 'sunset clauses' and get us a safe passage out of Mercury/Vertigo deal so we could jump to another label. It was hard to find the right label after Mercury/Vertigo. This was a tricky 6 month period of negotiations with various smaller labels. Matt decided we should just lay-low while negotiations prevailed. Martin Oldham (former drummer on the first 2 albums) had met the chaps from LIME Records in a pub by coincidence, out of all the smaller labels that bid for us they were the nicest. So we signed for them for £60,000 and that would keep us going for another 18 months and allow us to make the second Album 'Inward Parts'.

The band would be on tour pretty much non-stop until going in the studio to record the second album, Inward Parts. They went up and down the UK and through Europe, did a show in New York and played to 35,0000 people in Japan as well as the festival circuits.

“In 2005 Newcastle we played The Evolution Festival with Mick Jones (Carbon Silicon) supporting us! It was a crazy festival and the support for The Others was incredible with running battles with the security staff. We did more gigs in Sunderland than Newcastle as more Others fans were from Sunderland.

We played Glasgow time and time again and each time we'd play a bigger venue and then hang out with Glaswegians through the night and drink until the morning when I'd have to jump on the tour bus with no sleep and head to the next gig. Scotland has die hard 853 members to this very day! I will always remember the T In the Park gig, that was pretty crazy, I don’t think the security staff were quite prepared for us or the 853.

We were professional (in terms of not having to work jobs) from 2004 then, in February 2008 I went back to work. It slowed down because we couldn't get a third album deal. I decided it was better to use my brain and go back to work in the industry I was in before the band, financial services. Once I had a full-time job, I didn't have the motivation to do the band and we took a break for a few years.”

Bloc Party

Bloc Party’s beginnings date back to Reading Festival 1999 when guitarists Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack met, their dream was to form a band so that they could play the festival one day.

The pair played together under various names and guises but in 2002, while going under the name The Angel Range they sought out band members with an ad in the NME. Gordon Moakes was the only one to turn up to auditions who could play bass and he became the bassist while Matt Tong completed the line-up when he auditioned as a drummer.

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Conor McNicholas (NME editor) “Bloc Party were heavily influenced by Franz Ferdinand, by that point things were moving so fast.”

After going through several names they settled on Bloc Party in 2003 and released their debut album, Silent Alarm which went on to be NME’s album of 2005 and established themselves as one of the most exciting bands in the UK, the follow up A Weekend in the City got the world talking as they didn’t sound like every other band.

Their danceable beats and tender vocals let the band outlive the scene, there have been years of silence from the band but every time they return there is an audience waiting.

Art Brut

Art Brut are a band driven by enthusiasm, rather than raw talent. The charismatic frontman Eddie Argos, who’d spent his youth in a band called Art Goblin where each year the line-up changed as members moved on and went to uni leaving Eddie in Dorset. Eventually, he followed his bandmates who moved to London for uni but once they’d moved there they didn’t want to be in the band anymore.

With nothing else to do Eddie sought new bandmates, lying about his talents at parties, eventually, he was upfront and honest that he wanted to be a frontman but he couldn’t exactly sing and that seemed to work as guitarist Chris Chinchilla gave him a chance. They then found others who’d join them, none of them were friends with each other, they didn’t share a style or a taste in music which is what made them stand out.

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Eddie not only couldn’t sing, he wasn’t a lyricist either which he could get away with when the band rehearsed under the arches in Camden as he mumbled his way through it. He came clean and made a speech which was then turned into their first single, Formed A Band

Their attitude and likability has given them cult status amongst both fans and the industry as they’ve continued to release albums.

The Rakes

The Rakes formed in London in 2002 when 4 lads bonded over beers in their local. After working their way through the London circuit The Rakes were one band who fitted into the community that took them around the UK however, they deserve more credit for their tunes, especially on debut album Capture/Release.

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Like many of their contemporaries, The Rakes caught the eye of Hedi Slimane and a 17-minute version of The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect was used for the Dior Homme Spring/Summer ‘06 runway show.

A shortened version of the song was included on their second album Ten New Messages which came out in March 2007. The album was produced by Jim Abiss and, despite sounding polished it lost the raw energy of the debut. The band were one of the first to collaborate with grime artists, as Lethal Bizzle remixed 22 Grand Job and they were the backing band on his track Police On My Back (which also samples The Clash). This genre crossover krept on to the second album where Suspicious Eyes features Asian rapper, Raxstar who the band discovered on MySpace, the track also features a young Laura Marling.

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