I GAVE MY HEART TO A SIMPLE CHORD.......
Another homegrown band who stood out for me were The Cooper Temple Clause. Mixing angry guitars with electronica and touches of space rock, this wild haired Berkshire six-piece had released a few EPs over the previous year or two before their single "Let's Kill Music" managed to enter just outside the Top 40, but it was their performance of the next single "Film-Maker" (#20) on TOTP that alerted me to them, and i soon picked up their debut album, "See This Through And Leave". Bursting with melodic but aggressive indie anthems, wild electronic tangents and two slow burning dark closing songs and paranoid outsider lyrics, it made them stand out from the pack. Songs like "Panzer Attack" and "Been Training Dogs", with tales of small town Friday night violence, barrelled along, whilst the synth stabs and Bacharach samples of "Who Needs Enemies?" and the slow building electronic rock of opening song "Did You Miss Me?" showed a more experimental side that would be given full reign on their next album. There was also old school rock from Hundred Reasons with their album Ideas Above Our Station, which spawned 4 Top 40 singles, the best of which (to my ears) was "If I Could", singer Colin Doran bawling out the lyrics from under his curly mop.
Hailing from Kippax in Leeds, The Music welded baggy dance beats to Led Zeppelin guitars and vocals, topped off with brash self confidence which often saw them mocked in the music press. Their eponymous debut album flagged a bit in places, but thundering rock-dance songs like "Take The Long Road And Walk It" and "Getaway" won them some dedicated fans.
That October i finally got to see some of the bands i'd been listening to and raving about when Radio 1 bought their One Live festival to Nottingham. With a week of gigs spread over several venues i was spoilt for choice, but i was drawn to my familiar stomping ground - Rock City. Over two nights, i - along with my brother Dean - saw four spectacular bands and two who were not bad. The first nights line up was an American hardcore band called Vendetta Red (about whom i remember nought), Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and headlining act Queens Of The Stone Age. It was packed and sweat was dripping from the ceiling, with enough atmosphere to make Mars habitable. BRMC glowered moodily through their fuzz-toned set, playing most of their debut album, and setting the stage for an epic performance from QOTSA, during which it was so jampacked it was impossible to mosh! Opening with "Millionare", and blasting through "Feel Good Hit Of The Summer", Josh Homme and his compadres pummelled the crowd with one great song after another. One of the best performances i've ever seen!
The following night saw a band from Sheffield called Hoggboy opening, their cocksure garage rock providing a decent start to the proceedings. They weren't well known but they clearly impressed a guy in the crowd who, in response to the singers' enquiring if anyone had their album, shouted "No i haven't, but i'm going to get it. You guys rock!", leaving the frontman equally amused and pleased!
Next up were The Libertines, a bunch of well-read ragged-looking dreamers from London who were as equally influenced by William Blake, Thomas Chatterton and Edwardian wit as they were by The Clash, The Smiths, Chas 'n' Dave and Sex Pistols. Incorporating romantic ideals of the underdog, a libertarian dream of a free Arcadian utopia, and references to British life into their raw and ramshackle sound. Key to their appeal was the close but volatile relationship between co-frontmen and songwriters Pete Doherty and Carl Barat, a cauldron of love, obsession and jealousy, which fed their creativity. The onstage sight of the two of them singing into the same mic, almost intertwined, was an iconic one that the press loved. Their close and open relationship with their fans was unique too: aside from speaking to them on fan sites and forums, they would be invited to impromptu performances in Doherty and Barats' shared flat. A world away from the untouchable and enigmatic image that a lot of musicians prefer to foster, But what of the music? Well, at this point i hadn't yet been seduced by the few songs that i'd heard, but sometimes to truly "get" a band, you have to witness them in the flesh, and this was one of those times. In beaten leather jackets and jeans so full of holes they looked as if they might disintegrate at any moment, they shot through their ragged and ramshackle set of indie rock, all razorwire guitars and slurred vocals. A memorable performance that would persuade me to buy their debut album, Up The Bracket.
The headlining act, Aussie garage rockers The Vines, didn't disappoint. Their chaotic but snarling performance gave me chills down my spine, as they ploughed through some of their Highly Evolved album and a cover of Outkasts' "Ms Jackson", occasionally having to reset mic stands and cymbals inbetween songs due to frontman Craig Nicholls antics! I left that night buzzing and raved about it for weeks afterwards. I knew after this that i needed to get away from working nights and start going out more, especially to gigs! The nagging notion that i should be doing something involved with music, ideally writing about it or working in radio, remained unfulfilled, and my total obsession with listening to and reading about it continued.
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