#futureheads

[rastronomicals]

The Futureheads

[ridleykemp]

The Sound of God is the Screech of Tires

20 years of the New Pornographers' Electric version. Yes, it's still great. No, I don't know how it's been 20 years. #NewPornographers #ElectricVersion

In which we celebrate 20 years of one of the most important records ever (to me) The New Pornographers’ Electric Version turns 20 today. If you recognize the title of my blog, you probably already know I am a massive fan of the band. Electric Version, their second album, introduced me to their music and captured my heart. It also opened the door for all of those marvelous early 2000s bands that…

[phonographica]

The Futureheads – Christmas Was Better In The 80s (2010)

[hellkitepriest]

Crank Your Hog For Barry Hyde

[transgendercastiel]

I don’t really know how well known either of these songs are but I’d like to see the general consensus

[michelleplayswithfire]

shelly's favorite albums 3/? (albums of 2004) [insp.]

[bandcampsnoop]

1/1/24.

I've been exchanging emails with Jamie from Audio Antihero for a few days, and he turned me onto to this release, Nosferatu D2. Brothers Adam and Ben Parker from Croydon, England issued this small masterpiece back in 2006. And I guess there are hints of bands like The Futureheads and Art Brut here.

But, I don't know what it is about the Parker's music, but I can't help think of a great mashup of The Wedding Present and The Fall. While Nosferatu D2 is no more, the brothers have a new band named My Best Unbeaten Brother. Jamie says he's working with the band on a possible release.

[senorboombastic]

‘Decent Days and Nights’ – Listen to episode 23 of ’60 Minutes or less’, the new podcast from Birthday Cake For Breakfast – featuring Ross Millard of The Futureheads!

Words: Andy Hughes ’60 Minutes or less’ – the podcast from Birthday Cake For Breakfast – returns for episode twenty three and it’s a dream for young teenage me to welcome our guest Ross Millard, guitarist and vocalist in Sunderland’s finest, The Futureheads! With six albums under their collective belts and over 20 years of playing music together, The Futureheads have been part of my life for –…

[ijustwantedtobeoneofthestrokesuk]

Anarchy In The UK

The North

Conor McNicholas (NME editor) “Franz Ferdinand were the first UK band to break through after The Strokes and Stripes.”

Scotland

Scotland has a reputation for having the best crowds. Bands loved playing T In The Park festival as well as iconic venues such as Glasgow’s King Tuts and Barrowlands. The bands coming out of Scotland were just as lively despite being diverse in sound. 

Franz Ferdinand

Art pop Glaswegians Franz Ferdinand seemed to explode out of nowhere with the release of Take Me Out. This was just their second single, after Darts Of Pleasure, which came out in September 2003, quietly putting Franz Ferdinand on the radar.  

Conor “Franz Ferdinand were more influenced by The Strokes than The Libertines were.” 

There was nothing quiet about its follow-up when it was released in the January 2004 and peaked at no.3 in the UK singles chart, introducing the 4-piece to the mainstream with high impact. 

Franz Ferdinand formed in Glasgow in 2002 but they weren’t newbies, they had been playing in other bands in the city but when the quartet came together it quickly gelled. Being a band, especially during these years was a young man's game, Franz Ferdinand used their experience to succeed. By May 2003 they signed to Domino and headed to Sweden to record their self-titled debut album.  

Their goal was the write songs for girls to dance to, in the end, they got everyone dancing as the album went mainstream.  

With such a huge debut, Franz Ferdinand had to deal with high expectations, could they follow the success up? Yes. You Could Have It So Much Better, it topped the charts in the UK and they started to “break it” in America. Their distinctive sound has allowed them as an established band who can go away and be missed. 

Glasvegas

Franz Ferdinand wasn’t the only ones flying the flag for Scotland. Fellow Glaswegian’s Glasvegas formed in 2003. Cousins James and Rab Allan along with Paul Donoghue are the ever-present members while a series of drummers came and went before they settled with, Caroline McKay who was in the band from 2005 to 2010 despite not being able to play the drums. She got the job because she looked cool but she was learning on the job, she’d throw up before each gig due to nerves and as the gigs got bigger she left and was replaced by Swede Jonna Löfgren who looked cool and could play drums.  

It wasn’t just Caroline who lacked skills, none of them were great which is one of the reasons they sounded unique, the other being their influences that range from Oasis to The Velvet Underground and ‘60’s girl groups, particularly the Phil Spector ones. 

In February 2006 Denise, the bands' manager messaged Alan McGee on MySpace inviting him to see the band at King Tuts in Glasgow. Alan was in the city as he was managing Dirty Pretty Things who were recording an album there. Both Alan and Carl turned up and loved them, and he started to manage them.  

They already had half an album worth of material but they started taking things seriously when Alan came on board and they quit their jobs, bought a van, started touring the UK, mostly playing to empty rooms…

Tim Jonze from the NME saw them play one of Alan’s club nights in spring 2007 and used his own money to release Daddy’s Gone, without the knowledge of the magazine. That single was the start of Glasvegas’ rise.  

The band started selling out venues in the UK and the press were shouting about them so when they signed to Columbia Records in February 2008 the label was keen to keep the momentum going. Within 2 weeks they were recording their self-titled debut album in Brooklyn, it was finished by May, released in September, charted at no.2 and nominated for a Mercury Prize. 

The success of the debut album took them around the world, touring with Oasis, U2, Muse and Kings Of Leon, they were kicked off the Kings Of Leon tour for partying too hard.  

They returned to America to record the second album, Euphoric Heartbreak but in very circumstances. Not only were they staying in a luxury beach house in Santa Monica with a home studio, compared to the intense short-but-sweet stay in New York, the band was also a 3-piece following Caroline’s departure as she found the pressure harder and harder, leaving James to play drums on the album.  

The mainstream indie scene had drastically changed between the debut album and the follow-up and streaming services started to be introduced leading to sales of Euphoric Heartbreak being just 10% of what the previous album did. In the week that their second album was released Columbia Records dropped them but that wasn’t over for the band who returned in 2013 with Later...When the TV Turns to Static after signing to BMG. 

The wait for a fourth album was a bit longer, despite going straight back into the studio after finishing their tour Godspeed wasn’t released until 2021.

The View

Dundee 4-piece The View are a bunch of schoolmates who fully embraced the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle during their peak years. The band formed in 2005 while they were still at school where they’d perform cover versions at talent competitions. Once they started writing their own songs they began to build a local following under various names as they made their way through Dundee’s pub circuit.  

The band signed to a local record label in early 2006 when they were called The Doghouse and released an EP called The View. The EP got the attention of James Endeacott who had signed The Libertines to Rough Trade, he had just launched his own label, 1965 Records and got The View on board, brought them to London and into the bubbling music scene ahead of the release of their first single, Wasted Little DJs. BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 pushed the song and the rest of 2006 saw the band continue to get bigger and bigger as they released more singles, headed out on tour and gained a loyal fanbase who were vocal at their Reading & Leeds Festival set that summer. 

During their hectic rise, the teens from Dundee headed to the studio to record their debut album with the eccentric producer Owen Morris. Hats Off to the Buskers was released in January 2007 and went straight in at no.1 and they continued the party as they joined The Horrors, Mumm-Ra and The Automatic on the NME Awards Tour around the UK. 

After touring the debut album around the world the band released their second album, Which Bitch? in February 2009 but the glory days were looking like they were coming to a close as it failed to have the same success as the debut. It didn’t look great for the lads in their early 20’s but they didn’t give up and they have been rewarded for their persistence as they continued to sell out venues during their 5 album career.

Liverpool

Without Deltasonic Records, Liverpool would have had a very different sound to it. 

Think Liverpool, you think The Beatles. Then what, The Coral? The Zutons? The Dead 60’s? Unfortunately, Deltasonic wasn’t around in the ‘60’s but if it had, it would have been the label for Sgt Pepper. Deltasonic celebrated Liverpool and off-centre pop. 

The label was founded by music obsessive Alan Wills who’d wanted to start a label, after seeing The Coral. Deltasonic needed The Coral and The Coral needed Deltasonic, it was meant to be.  

Bill Ryder-Jones (The Coral) “We for some reason hated admitting it but there was a great scene in Liverpool with great venues great people and yeah I felt a sense of community.  

We first met Alan in our rehearsal room called Crash, it was down some back street in the financial district. Peasy who ran the place loved us and sent Al the demo. He came into rehearsal one day and pinged his head off a speaker, was dead funny.  

He did something amazing, sadly he was just a bit too mad to make it work as it should and of course, he died which didn't help“ 

Alan had previously run another label in Liverpool but Deltasonic was a fresh start and The Coral were the perfect reason to kick start the new venture. They teamed up with Sony who had a 49% share in Deltasonic which helped the label achieve more as they had the resources to reach a larger audience.  

After The Coral broke out of Liverpool, more local acts formed and Deltasonic was their home too. This included The Zutons, The Dead 60’s as well as Miles Kanes’ first two bands, The Little Flames and The Rascals. With a focus on local talent, a scene formed as the bands would tour with one another and since then they’ve gone on to work together.  

Matt McManamon (The Dead 60’s) “Back then the scene was buzzing, so many good bands emerging. Deltasonic definitely signed the best acts in Liverpool at the time. It was an exciting time, Deltasonic was massively important in exposing the music that was coming out of Liverpool.” 

In May 2014 Alan was killed in a cycle accident but the label lives on, continuing with the ethic Alan had put in place since day one.  

Dave McCabe (The Zutons) “The scene in Liverpool at the time was pretty close and tight, everyone was looking out for each other. We’d support one another and help each other out. You didn’t necessarily have to be close to people and they would lend you an amp or a guitar at a gig  It was a very special time and we created it ourselves in the Zanzibar, we were flying, it was a happy time.” 

The Coral

The Coral were the leaders of the Liverpool scene that exploded in the 2000’s but they had been together since 1996. 

Bill Ryder-Jones “Ian the drummer started the band. He spied me and Paul as people who could play. He'd just got into The Who and kind of pushed us into playing with him. James came in very soon and started leading the group, then Lee came in as he was my mate and then Nick came in as he worked in the pub with James.” 

The newly formed 6-piece made their way through Liverpool’s venues on school nights but it was an arty gig poster that caught the eye of Alan Wills. The band were yet to release any music (this was a time before bands put demos online), it was that poster that not only gave him a reason to go to the gig but the gig drove him to fulfill his desires and start the label.  

The Coral were one of the first bands out of the era with the release of their first single Shadows Fall in 2001. They started to grow a following outside of Liverpool, then in July 2002 they released their self-titled debut album, which was nominated for the Mercury Prize.

Bill left the band to become a solo artist as well as a producer and collaborator. Initially, he took a break from playing live with the band, “touring is something that I don't think is very healthy for me.” As a co-founding member, Bill experienced the years without success and those when the band was at its peak. “I was never under any pressure, I'm sure James was as the songwriter but yeah the first few years were the best for me. I loved it, we were against the world and we didn't give a fuck. I prefer being on my own generally. My music is basically me bitching about my pretty sweet life. I just write about what's going on for me.” 

The Coral have consistently released genre-bending, often experimental records that have seen the band become much loved amongst both musicians and fans. 

The Zutons

The Zutons might be known for writing the ‘Amy Winehouse song’ but they deserve much more credit than that. They formed in 2001 from the ashes of former Liverpool bands, originally as a 4-piece, led by Dave McCabe. Saxophonist, Abi Harding became a the full-time 5th member after joining the band on stage a couple of times, her addition gave the band a new dimension.  

Dave “I first got into music from birth I suppose I had 2 older brothers so it was always there in the ‘80’s with Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk etc… I got into Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Rage Against The Machine and Nirvana when I was around 10 and it grew from there.” 

Dave and The Coral’s frontman, James had previously written together. James had to convince Alan, the head of Deltasonic to sign the band. Alan wasn’t a fan of Dave’s previous bands but when he heard some of the demos he was in.  

A year after forming the band released Devil’s Deal, a 3-track EP which was followed up by a series of singles in 2003 ahead of their debut album, Who Killed...... The Zutons? in April 2004.  

After the big sales and accolades from the debut, The Zutons came back stronger with their second record Tired of Hanging Around 2 years later. Unfortunately, for The Zutons (well, maybe not, their bank balance will have benefitted), Mark Ronson chose one of their songs, Valerie to feature on his second album, Versions (where he recreated songs with other artists) with Amy Winehouse, which not only became an instant classic but one that many remembered following her death in 2011. 

Their third, You Can Do Anything was released in June 2008, after touring the album for a year the band took a break, returning for the occasional gig before a 4 album in 2022. 

The Dead 60’s

The Dead 60’s were a 1-album band who went from playing in pubs to a handful of people to mainstages at festivals within 2 years. Their rise was rapid, as was their decline.  

While at school in guitarist and singer Matt McManamon formed pop-punk band Pinhole and they made a name for themselves in Liverpool, playing any venue that would have them.  

Matt McManamon “I was about 10 years old when I heard The Beatles and knew I wanted to be in a band. A few years later (1998) that happened with Pinhole who was very much a ‘high school’ band as I like to describe it. As I got older my musical taste(s) and style(s) started to mature and change, which reflected in the style of music I began to play. Pinhole reached its natural conclusion thus leading to the formation of The Dead 60s in 2003.” 

Pinhole released an EP with Manchester punk John Robb’s label Thrill City Record but their biggest achievements were recording a John Peel session and supporting Green Day at an arena in Newcastle. 

As the lads had grown into their 20’s their tastes had evolved, getting into reggae, ska and punk. This started to influence their songwriting which didn’t fit the Pinhole sound. They invited Alan Wills to the rehearsal rooms for a bit of guidance. After a few weeks Alan saw the progression the band was making and in 2003 offered The Dead 60’s a record, despite never playing a gig under the new name. 

Matt “We formed, spent a year writing and rehearsing and basically honing our sound, then spent a full year on the road touring mainly doing support tours and building up a following. Then we released our first album. 

Quite early on we did our first ever TV performance in London on ‘Tim Lovejoy & The All stars’ show. Mani (Stone Roses) was a guest, as was Super Furry Animals who refused to speak to us in English and would only speak in Welsh, apparently, this was due to an unsavoury experience they had had in Liverpool, so decided not to take to us as we are all scousers. Mani and ourselves ended up on a massive bender together after the filming was done, things got rather messy, Mani ended up passing out in my hotel room. He apparently was under strict instructions to fly back to Manchester that night but went missing with us! Funny days, they were great.” 

They rehearsed regularly, jammed out for a couple of hours, a song would emerge but their main focus was on their live shows. They made songs that would get the crowd going, in the early days they’d be supporting their label mates, it would be Scousers On Tour. When they wrote Riot Radio, their breakthrough hit they knew it would be well-received live but they didn’t realise how good it was until they went into the studio.  

Their management team, based in New York got Riot Radio on college radio and it was becoming a huge hit. Commercial radio picked it up too and they ended up touring the States, selling out shows before they sold out anything in the UK so they focussed on America where they released the debut album in May 2005, ahead of the rest of the world.  

After touring the debut album they returned to New York to record the second album, Time to Take Sides. Sony’s involvement in Deltasonic gave them additional resources with Sony’s team and a major label budget.  

Over 3 months, in 2 studios with legendary producer David Kahne the band recorded a different-sounding album than the debut, which was infused with ska, the follow-up was more anthemic. The Sony team would drop into the studio to see how it was sounding, they were all happy with it.  

The band returned to the UK for a tour. They had a meeting in London with the Sony team who had loved the album in New York, but that was no longer the case. The band was dropped from the label, they were still on Sony France so it was released there but they lost their management team and agents and the band split up without ever releasing the second album (except for in France).  

Newcastle

Maximo Park

Named after Máximo Gómez Park in Miami, Maximo Park from Newcastle originally formed as a four-piece in 2000 however, the bands' vocalists wanted to focus on songwriting and their instruments so, in 2003 they recruited Paul Smith. Having Paul up front was a game-changer for the band as he brought them to life with his energetic live performances.   

The following year they released a 7” double A-side of Graffiti and Going Missing which started to get the band noticed by Paul Epworth who produced their second single The Coast Is Always Changing and The Night I Lost My Head. With Paul Smith’s lively stage persona the band started to build a fan base in their hometown which led to them getting their first record deal with Warp Records who released their Mercury-nominated debut album, A Certain Trigger in May 2005. 

Maximo Park stood out with a mix of punk, pop and ‘80’s post-punk that filled dancefloors at indie discos. He band have continued to release albums that remain relevant in an environment where other bands faded. 

Sunderland

The Futureheads

The Futureheads are an energetic, fast-paced post-punk band who weren’t influenced by what was going on in London or New York but what really made them stand out was their vocal harmonies. None of the band members wanted to sing so they shared the responsibility between them, creating a unique wall of sound.  

The best music often appears where there’s not a lot going on. In Sunderland, the 4 lads started attending a social club in 2000 that was focused on music, encouraging them to try different instruments. 

They came from different areas of the city and they had different tastes in music. They would share records with one another and watched the rest of the group of people at the social club leave Sunderland for uni, they were still there. They’d played a few gigs for fun, each one different then they started to see progress and rehearsed in their parents' garage, after 6 months they were playing outside of Sunderland. These gigs, such as the iconic King Tuts in Glasgow became a regular occurrence and they were building up a fan base, it was grassroots in its truest form.  

In early 2002 they got a manager which led to recording some demos with Andy Gill from Gang Of Four, one of the bands’ main influences. They also headed out on a DIY tour of squats in Europe for 2 weeks and in early 2003 they signed a record deal with 679 while still at uni (graduating that summer and going full time with the band). Their growth was organic. 

The 5 tracks recorded with Andy Gill featured on the self-titled debut album, released in July 2004, they recorded the rest of the album with Paul Epworth. Their unique harmonies made them a great live band and a cover of Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love allowed them to get audience participation, even with new audiences. In January 2005 they joined The Killers, Bloc Party and Kaiser Chiefs on the NME Awards Tour around the UK, the following month they released Hounds Of Love as a single which went on to become the NME’s Single Of The Year. The rest of 2005 was spent on the road with a busy summer of festivals and support shows with Franz Ferdinand, Foo Fighters and Pixies.  

They quickly recorded a second album, News and Tributes which came out in May 2006 however, as the music industry was going through a transition with illegal downloading on the rise there was less money going around, Warners Music Group had started cutting budgets in some of their subsidiary labels, one of them being 679. Without the marketing budget, the album didn’t perform as well as expected and the band managed to get themselves out of the record deal and launched their own label, Nul Records for the third album, This Is Not The World.  

This Is Not The World in 2008 and 2010’s The Chaos were much rockier than the first two, the band took a huge turn 2 years later with Rant, a cappella record. It might have been their worst-performing record but the band loved creating it.  

Following Rant the band went on a hiatus in 2013 due to Jaff’s mental health. There wasn’t a plan to reform, each member went in different directions, Ross went on to play guitar with Frankie & The Heartstrings.  

In 2018 the band got back together, touring and recording their 6th album, Powers in August 2019. 

Nottingham

Paul Melbourne “Nottingham was a good city for music, not necessarily that many great local bands coming through but it had some amazing venues from very small to big ones, so bands would come through playing The Social or Junktion 7 or Rock City basement then next time be at Rescue Rooms and then Rock City. It was a stop on most bands tours so it was a good city to be in at that time. 

We started putting on our gigs, the Tudor Rats nights, we would invite everyone back for a party at ours, it was a big 6 bedroom student house so it was a great party house. That year and that house bring back such great memories of that time, it wasn’t just after our own nights just every time we were all out at a gig, we would get people back and inevitably the bands would all pile back too. 

The only band that actually played in the house were The Rakes, on mine and my housemate Kelvie's guitars and their drummer on a saucepan and spatula! But I can remember having The Others, 10,000 Things, The Paddingtons, Dustin's Bar Mitzvah, Thee Unstrung come round. 

All I can do is feel sorry for poor Winston and his wife who lived next door to us at Tudor Grove. The amount of times we went to buy her flowers from Tesco after we'd had all-nighters, it worked the first couple of times but WInston's patience soon grew thin, looking back rightly so! 

The Tudor Rats nights started after we were going up to Sheffield every week to see Arctic Monkeys. They got to know us as the Nottingham boys and they were amazed people from another city were actually travelling to Sheffield to see them play! They said they'd never played Nottingham and could we sort them a show, we only remembered the next day feeling very hungover that we'd promised them we'd sort them a gig,  bearing in mind none of us had ever put on a gig before! So we thought shit, we better actually see what we can do, so we just started trying to find a venue we could hire for cheap and found The Old Angel, we booked that and had Arctic Monkeys and The Mardous play, we didn't have a clue what we were doing but managed to sell it out (well, oversell it) as Arctic Monkeys were really starting to get hype then! I remember we paid them £100 and their guitarist Cookie was still a tiler then so they couldn't soundcheck as he couldn't get to there till he'd finished his tiling job for the day! 

We did the nights under the name 'Tudor Rats', then had Milburn, 1984, Dustin's Bar Mitzvah, Chineapples, Bedford Rascals (a great Nottingham band with a great name) and I think that was it we didn't do too many! We had a good run though, for saying we had no clue what we were doing! I kept the Tudor Rats name going though when I was in Uni in Brno in Czech Republic where me and two mates did a weekly indie night.” 

NEXT CHAPTER

[moonrver]

Sometimes you've gotta take your shows off and throw them in the lake so you can be two steps on the water

[thevellaunderground]

XTC: Pioneers of Post-Punk and Prophets of Peace

XTC, the quintessential English band hailing from Swindon, has left an indelible mark on the post-punk scene with their eclectic mix of sounds and thought-provoking lyrics. Their journey from the energetic beginnings of punk to the more nuanced and experimental phases of their career mirrors the evolution of post-punk itself. The Post-Punk Contribution of XTC Emerging in the late 1970s, XTC…

[rastronomicals]

2:30 PM EDT June 12, 2024:

The Futureheads - "Park Inn" From the compilation album Beyond Punk! (2005)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

Taken from the 2002 7" EP, Nul Book Standard

'Mojo Presents 15 Tracks of Post-Punk Noise 1978-2005.' Giveaway with the April 2005 issue.

--

[mitjalovse]

The thing about Martin Glover's career might be that he did not do many obvious choices for someone like him as we have seen. I mean, I'm surprised he didn't produce more post-punk revivals band, since his work with Killing Joke could've given them a good gateway. Still, he did accept the Futureheads out of all the options. I'm unsure why, but they are one of the most reliable groups of the scene. Nonetheless, did they really need Martin Glover to gain some cred? They were rarely mentioned in the same breath as Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and the similar despite them hanging around the same influences, yet they seemed to be mostly present as another case of the style without being paid much attention. Then again, their experimental side succeeded more often than that of their peers.

[boitedeconcert]

The Futureheads

The Lubetkin Theatre, East Durham College, Peterlee, England. 20/01/24.

[scribeartistjo-tan]

So I heard the beginning of this song on the radio yesterday, and all I could think of was