Florence Welch (she who is Florence & The Machine) speaks to Bob from virgin.com/music about her rise to prominence last year as one of the BBC’s Sounds of 2009 and the Brits Critics Choice of the year. She also dishes the gossip about what she got up to backstage at the NME tour earlier this year with White Lies and Glasvegas…
Tag Archives: glasvegas
June 23rd, 2009
Digg This Story
June 14th, 2009
Having engrained themselves into the binary coding of Scottish nationalism and pieced together more than their fair share of greatest hits compiled of ridiculously memorable singles, you’d be forgiven for thinking that brothers Charles and Craig Reid would be old hands at the promo rounds that pre-empt every record. Yet their ‘appetite to get out there and to make records’ is as fervent as it ever was. This week sees the release of their seventh (yes, seventh) original recording Notes & Rhythms and their enthusiasm hasn’t been curbed one bit.
Of course, given the fragility of a troubled record industry more and more artists are releasing works in order to get back on the road, rather than the traditional touring of the record yet for The Proclaimers, the Reid siblings view every gig as the home leg, as if playing to seventy-thousand at Murrayfield. They’re ‘desperate’ to tour, as ever and where twenty-odd years ago they were willing to walk five hundred miles to wind up at our door, these days they’re ‘covering as many miles as possible.’ And their timing’s down to a tee, what with the festivals lurching around the corner; ‘the trump card’ that wins hoards of intergenerational masses year in, year out is certainly in their pack. Lounging in a North London whisky bar, the duo deal with musing journalists like waitresses accommodating for pancake orders in Tennessee diners. Resoundingly optimistic, they’re wise old hawks carrying pearls of wisdom in their resplendent beaks, offering resolution to the credit crunch, fear of ‘selling out’ and the opera of Glasvegas…
Josh Holliday: Where you two certainly maintain a cult following in your homeland up north, the success brought about by involvement with Hollywood soundtracks and songs in stadiums hasn’t quite transferred across to the English market. On a personal level, has the recession had any harrowing effect on The Proclaimers?
Craig Reid: We remember the last one and we survived! My feeling is that it won’t sink in until the end of this year/ beginning of next and then we’ll be hit with a wave of unemployment and we’ll see what happens. At the moment, it’s not too bad but I have a feeling that’s not going to last. I think some artists have taken the piss a bit over the past few years in terms of what they’re charging for gig tickets and they may well have to change their tune on that one. We like to think that we play for everybody and I think a performer would be a fool not to recognise the impending storm.
JH: How vital has it been to straddle the generation gap, uniting families, friends and fans?
Charles Reid: It’s an incredible scenario but it’s something that just happened. We’ve always had little kids and people older than us who were infatuated with what we were doing and I believe that we’ve maintained that power. There’s never a gender imbalance either at our gigs. And given our involvement with festivals, we seem to replenish our following year after year. Having I’m On My Way on Shrek was an absolute godsend so these days you see these tiny wee kids down the front, always. It’s a great thing to see, particularly in rural town halls up in Scotland with toddlers at the front and seventy year-olds at the back!
JH: With royalties and film involvement, most artists in your position would hum and haw over selling out. With such decisions, did such a thought ever cross your minds?
CR: Absolutely not. There’s only ever been any debate over a few advertising things. Not necessarily because of the product but Americans have asked for the rights to a few songs and we’ve simply said no, just because it didn’t feel right. But, generally speaking we’ve taken the money and said thank you very much. If you’re not getting massive amounts of radio play, it’s fundamental in keeping us on the road and expanding our fan base. We’ve financed ourselves since around ’99 and our crew aren’t really anywhere near minimum wage so it costs a fair bit to keep this show on the road.
JH: From the outset, it seems bizarre to see Sunshine on Leith selling around a quarter of a million copies annually. While writing down those songs on napkins or what have you, would you ever have seen such unfathomable success on the horizons?
CR: Absolutely never. When we started out, we envisaged ourselves playing pubs like this [Pentonville Road’s Lexington], targeting the Billy Bragg leftfield market. Which would have been fine, as we’d have got off the dole having been on it for so long. We’d only been off six or nine months when we signed a deal. And we never want to go back on.
JH: Given the sibling dynamic that’s supposedly ideal coursing through the veins of The Proclaimers, what’s it like being on the road with your brother, endlessly in each other’s back pockets?
CR: We’ve played in bands since we were about fourteen or fifteen and we’ve always wanted to play our own music. We get on reasonably well and I know there’s plenty of tensions that have given birth to some impressive art forms and music but personally, I’d rather be on the road with someone I can get along with. It’s in the interests of the band too; we’ve had a fairly consistent band over the past few years and it’s not just the ability of the musician but also the social aspect of being able to get along with people. If it’s been a long day, you’re knackered and getting back on the bus, you have to be able to hack it.
JH: Modern Scottish music: do you have a lot of faith in it?
CR: I have a lot of faith in individual bands but I don’t know if I have a faith in any single industry. It’s the individuals and individual groups within that I believe in. There seems to be a resurgence in new Scottish talent, particularly Glasvegas. That record is stunning, it’s almost like an opera. I like to see great talent from anywhere but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t give me an extra bit of satisfaction knowing that it’s from a very small country. It does make me proud that these people are doing very well and good luck to them.
JH: Without blowing your own trumpet, do you see echoes of your own music in these bands?
CR: I see more of Alex Harvey in Glasvegas and I’d never claim to have influenced anyone at all but what’s important is that they keep churning out credible, inspirational sounds from our tiny little part of the world.
JH: Not singing in an American accent helps…
CR: I’ve noticed that there’s definitely been a move away from it. I don’t see anything wrong with it; you can sound like you’re from New York when you’re from Paisley; it doesn’t make any odds to me if you’re from Atlanta or Aberdeen but maybe it’s a sign of something changing in a culture. Rather than it being negative, I’d see it as a personal trait of change. I’d never recommend what we did to anybody else but when we started it seemed like a fairly lonely field. Now it doesn’t feel quite so lonely…
JH: Google maps informs us that from Fife to this exact whisky bar is around 447 miles. Does 500 miles still seem as far twenty years down the line?
CR: It still seems like a long distance yet in America in the back of a tour bus, you shut your eyes for an hour or two and that’s it. I’m not saying that I don’t mentally subdivide distances into chunks of 500 miles because I probably do but the four hundred and something miles between Edinburgh and London’s always distinctly noticeable.
JH: Finally, on the 4 Music stage at this year’s V Festival, it’s renowned for booking the odd nostalgia act. Are you prepared for tartan flags and further English conversion to the kilt?
CR: I feel that if you start playing music in your twenties, you’re young. And then if you keep playing you’re not as young and then you’re middle-aged and then you’re fucking decrepit. I hope we can carry on ‘til we’re decrepit. What we never did was a rock’n’roll act so I don’t worry about the ageing thing as an act but more as a personal thing, getting older and not being able to do stuff. But I believe that what we do doesn’t really age as it’s more about the spirit. We’ve done the V Festival twice previously and both times have been fantastic. It’s a great festival to play and having two sites, you can see every single band on that line up if you stick at one for a day but whether you play a pub or a festival, whether you’re twenty-one or seventy-one, it’s a gig. You come on and enjoy it. I don’t think all that much as to whether we’re a nostalgia act or not and I think the way you stay relevant is inside your own head. Keeping four or five crazed individuals together is not easy but it’s easier because we’re brothers.
March 31st, 2009
Radiohead and Kings Of Leon join Arctic Monkeys as headliners of Reading and Leeds Festival 2009. Prodigy, Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party all get second billing across the three days from Friady 28 to Sunday 30 August. Other bands added to the lineup include Placebo, Maximo Park, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fall Out Boy, Vampire Weekend, Ian Brown, Funeral For A Friend, Gossip, Glasvegas, White Lies, Florence & The Machine, Friendly Fires and Gallows. Tickets are on sale at seetickets.com or by calling 0871 231 0821.
March 16th, 2009
This coming May Brighton holds The Great Escape festival. This year’s three day festival will see such bands as The Maccabees, Black Lips, Kasabian and Dananananaykroyd take to the stages of various venues across the town.
The Great Escape has made a name for itself by getting the best new acts from around the world, before they become huge. Vampire Weekend, Glasvegas, CSS and Klaxons have all played in previous years and gone on to big things.
So here are my top 4 ones to watch at this years Great Escape.
Abe Vigoda
Already a favourite over here in the UK with the booming following of lo-fi bands, these Californian ‘tropical punks’ will bring their warm steal drum guitar sounds to the beaches of Brighton in an effort to make them feel that little bit warmer.
S.C.U.M
Bringing back the days of The Birthday Party, East London’s S.C.U.M are creating their own take on post-punk/art rock that was made again popular a few years back by such bands as Neils Children. Having only released a single 7″ record back in September 2008 on Loog Records, these guys are a definite watch if you like your intense live shows with a bit of artistic visual lighting thrown in.
Pulled Apart By Horses
Big Scary Monsters is a label that has its tasting finger dipped right in to the broth that is the UK music scene. Leeds’ Pulled Apart By Horses are one of the best, most chaotic live bands around at the moment. The copious amounts of fast paced, booming riffs play big in the sound of Pulled Apart By Horses. Make sure you catch these guys before the end of the year at least… destined for big things I think.
Vivian Girls
New York based all girl garage act Vivian Girls have been on the lips of many music fans for some time now. Their self titled album was on many top tens of 2008 including Rough Trade’s list. Slowly working their way into the major publications around the UK, having already made a name for themselves in the States with a number of support slots with acts such as Jay Reatard, these girls make beautiful surf-pop.
Other acts to mention who are playing over the festival are London’s A Grave With No Name, Gentle Friendly, Esser, Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man, Black Lips and Throats
- go to The Great Escape website for more info
February 25th, 2009
Lead onto Glasvegas‘ glamorous tour bus (while on the NME Awards tour) by drummer Caroline, commendable for standing through every show and making wearing sunglasses atop your head credible or at least bearable again, the floor is lined with Milky Way Magic Stars, Kronenbourg and blue WKD. Geraldine, famed for switching career paths from social worker to merch stall coordinator, pounds her Macbook keys vigorously whilst Caroline smirks mischievously.
Josh Holliday: Have you been going out with the other bands? We’ve heard you keep yourselves to yourselves. You’ve been described as Mafia-like (see the White Lies interview).
Caroline McKay: [Caroline at this point adopts her best Italo-American accent] Respect me, respect the family.
JH: Did you pick that up in New York?
CM: No no, TV programme probably. I don’t think we’re like that but I think people assume we are. We’re not terrifying. We’ve been friendly, intermingling and getting drunk. I think you’ll find we’re much happier people than you’d expect.
JH: James [Allan - vocals/guitar] commented a few weeks ago that he wouldn’t be surprised were he to quit music. What would you all do then?
CM: We’d find a way to do something else. That’d be it. Nothing’s guaranteed and nothing good ever lasts forever.
JH: Focussing on New York, given your affiliation with the city could you see yourselves moving out there?
CM: I think New York’s an amazing, iconic city. It’s such a wonderful place to be but I guess my heart’ll always be in Glasgow. I’d move to the Big Apple for a bit though, definitely.
JH: Do you miss Glasgow?
CM: I do, yeah. You miss your family and friends and a familiar environment. Would I swap it? No. But I wouldn’t swap the position I’m in now either. We’ve very lucky.
JH: Do you find it difficult being all go, all the time?
CM: I think you make time and find time, whether it’s going for a walk or shopping or lying in the bunk sleeping. Like I said we’re incredibly lucky to be where we are so I wouldn’t swap it. What a way to earn a living.
JH: And you get to visit the outer reaches of the planet that you may never have got to otherwise.
CM: Transylvania.
JH: I was thinking more along the lines of Tokyo.
CM: There’s a possibility I might have gone to Japan anyway but Transylvania’s well off my list of places to go. It was magic.
JH: It’s one of those places you almost don’t know if it exists or not.
CM: Yes! The Children of the Night and Dracula. It’s bonkers.
JH: Something in these parts which I guess is quintessentially British is the concept, presumably stemming from binge drinking and youth culture, of lad rock. Now a load of bands get thrown into that pigeonhole but every time Glasvegas crop up in that category I’m shocked…
CM: People like to pigeonhole things to make themselves feel comfortable and that may not necessarily be true. It’s an opinion and a branding that doesn’t really affect us. We know what we are and we think what we’re doing is quite unique, whether it be James’ lyrics or melodies…
JH: …and his voice…
CM: …and his voice, absolutely.
JH: That’s a lot of your appeal though and it shows in the faces in the crowd, from trendy arty types to football fans.
CM: Well it’s bizarre to see fourteen year olds alongside a fifty year old both bellowing ‘Daddy’s Gone’ back at you. I think it’s the honesty of the songs; James confronts human issues, feelings and vulnerabilities, which everyone can relate to and so people almost take ownership of the songs. They seem to touch so many people.
JH: Having spoken to White Lies earlier about sincerity, how vital do you think it is in music and do you think a song’s lacking if it’s somewhat insincere?
CM: I don’t know. I mean you can become perfectly successful without that and people do very well from it but sincerity features highly in the agenda.
JH: It depends on the style of music but regarding Glasvegas or White Lies if the lyrics were found to be insincere the effect would evaporate.
CM: Fortunately, the audience notices things like that.
JH: But the danger is that on an NME tour the audience doesn’t notice anything but what they’ve been force-fed over the past year.
CM: I don’t know if that’s true. There’s a lot of Glasvegas fans at these gigs that didn’t make it to shows last year and even if it is a totally different audience I’d imagine it’d connect with someone without a doubt, even if they were to hear it for the first time.
[Caroline knocks on the window and Rob emerges in the doorway armed with half of Tesco’s confectionary stock]
JH: What’s it like sleeping on a bus with three boys at night?
CM: I’m probably the worst of them. I’m high-maintenance.
[A mound of Milky Way Magic Stars and Mars bars arrive burying desolate apples in the depths of the fruit bowl. A tube of Barocca protrudes the calorific pile and conversation shifts to hangovers]
JH: Do you find hangovers harder to confront perhaps than the younger contemporaries on this tour?
CM: Ooh kitty cat! What a thing to say! We’re people of experience. We’re wiser. I don’t know; we all have our fair share of good days and bad days. Today was a bad day. I’ve been doing the walk of shame all day. We were ludicrously drunk last night and it was great at the time, I thought it was funny. Not so funny this morning.
JH: We’ll leave you to nurse the hangover in that case.
The show must go on and as the imaginary curtain is raised, one fatal flaw of the NME is laid hideously bare; the fragility of musical trends. None of these acts stoop anywhere near the disastrous lows of an Iglu & Hartly live onslaught. However whilst a mere matter of months ago mudded revellers would have hiked day or night across however many miles of Glastonbury mire to catch a glimpse of Glasvegas, half tonight’s crowd empty out onto the streets following the dying embers of Friendly Fires to catch last trains home, check their MySpace friend number or Limewire that new Passion Pit EP. After all, they’re supposed to be big soon, aren’t they?
Photo: Steve Gullick © 2008
February 23rd, 2009
Jarvis Cocker once described much of modern lyricism as “sophisticated shopping lists”, which is somewhat kind to some of this week’s singles club. While Glasvegas are heartfelt dealing with teenage murder and the Pussycat Dolls presumably meaningful when slating their misgivings about men, the lines don’t rise above the mundane. The Hot Melts don’t exactly prove themselves to be wordsmiths supreme either. Thankfully, First Aid Kit set their sights above poultry - more words about words below, read on ladies and gents.
Glasvegas – Flowers and Football Tops
This is a song of laudable intentions, which Digital Spy awards 8/10 for being “heartbreaking and haunting”. Comfort Comes picks up on the grating rendition of You Are My Sunshine the song ends with, which “seems a little hokey and unnecessary part to an otherwise cracking tune”. City Life believes it “conjures up the kind of sonic experience that earned all those My Bloody Valentine and Jesus & Mary Chain comparisons” and gives 8/10. However, there is nothing as intelligent here – this is basic, bereft of musical ideas and gets 3/10.
MySpace / iTunes / last.fm / Amazon / Spotify
The Hot Melts - Edith
Lyrics this bad must take some serious thought. “I head to the kitchen/well yeah, what a surprise/overcooked the chicken” – watch out Cohen and co. Still Glasswerk is right to call Edith “an adrenaline fuelled foot stomper”. Daily Music Guide observes the group “aren’t really breaking free from their comfort zone here”. Subba Cultcha is far more taken, proclaiming it “A sterling effort from the Melts, like U2’s perfect three minute singles, only rockier and more fun”. It sounds like being 15, which is fine as far as it goes, but only worth 5/10.
First Aid Kit – Drunken Trees
The debut EP from this precocious duo is subtle triumph. The Music Magazine gives it 9/10 for “sheer gorgeousness” and comments that “raw and improv style echoes firmly around” the record. The vocal accomplishment is highlighted by There Goes The Fear, which states: “Its melodic yet weird vocals and scales flow through the record making for a captivating listen”. The Beat Surrender is less convinced, giving 6/10 but admitting it “can certainly hear enough here to see why they are being touted as [a] big breakthrough”. It is full of dark, simple pleasures and lands 8/10 here.
MySpace / iTunes / last.fm / Amazon / Spotify
Pussycat Dolls - Whatcha Think About That
Corsets, flying on giant swings, a guest spot from Missy Elliot, Pussycat Dolls are nailing the girl group clichés here. Tengaged calls it “an addictive song which is too catchy for its own good” and gives it 6.5/10. Digital Spy presents a 6/10 mark for “a vibrant slice of danceable R&B, all bhangra-style beats and spunky attitude”, while MSN commends the “clap happy…latest catchy little ditty”. Is bad boyfriend baiting, “he got to go” faux girl power really still sellable? Apparently so - it isn’t very good though, it’s 4/10 material.
February 20th, 2009
Two girls, a number one record and enough hype to power Hype Machine (TM) for the next few months, it can only be the arrival of one thing, the NME tour 2009. Another year, another tour, yet where mass hysteria greeted the then track-suited Arctic Monkeys and new rave’s favourite fluorescent adolescents Klaxons in years gone by, it’s a sombre, almost monotonous affair at the frozen heart of February.
White Lies and Glasvegas’ combined wardrobe feels almost dreary enough to induce a solar eclipse. Friendly Fires, sandwiched in between the overlords of quintessential British doom and gloom are left to try their damndest to recall their Notting Hill carnival-inspired festival shows of August and lighten the mood. And at the bottom of the pile, Florence Welch; the gawky, infuriating monster to the ‘Machine squawking over harps in a dingy toilet somewhere nearby soon. But she’s already bagged a Brit award. So the future must be as orange as her flittering fringe.
Inside the Academy, or the O2 Academy as it’s now soul-crushingly known, the walls of White Lies’ shoebox dressing room are quaking. Florence is ‘sound checking’, which loosely translates as bashing a drum in time with the heart rate of Pete Doherty experimenting with a defibrillator. It’s far from the glitz and glamour of the O2 Arena dressing rooms the West London trio shall doubtlessly be gracing this time next year, but bassist (and self-confessed guru pulling the strings and keeping the lies as white as false teeth) Charles Cave is in his element, adorned in black as if condemned to a life of perpetual mourning. He crosses his legs.
Josh Holliday: Three weeks on the famed NME tour. How’s that turned out?
Charles Cave: Only a week left. And then we’re going to… what’s it called again…? Europe.
JH: Right, that unheard of territory. Aside from tour itineraries and introductions let’s delve into sincerity, or lack of. For a band so young, your lyrics perhaps focus on aspects you wouldn’t necessarily expect from them. Do you feel in some respects, it’s difficult to interpret them as a genuine product?
CC: I don’t think so. Even when the lyrics are stories, I think the main focus and emotions of the stories are so obvious you don’t really have to take everything so literally. Loads of people are always saying all our songs revolve around death but that’s not really true. Even when it’s mentioned it’s not meant literally. None of us are really bothered about how we’re going to go or anything like that. It’s to do with the kind of loss that goes with it, how it feels to lose someone; whether it be a parent, a son, a friend. I think anyone can really relate to that.
JH: So is it from personal experience, or just a generic viewpoint?
CC: No, everything has to come from personal experience. I couldn’t write anything that was completely detached from myself. How can you be creative if it doesn’t come from personal life experience? If you were living in a white asylum box, then you’d have nothing to write about.
JH: I think you might have something to put to paper if you spent your life contained in a blank box…
CC: If you were born in there and never learnt to speak then you just… you wouldn’t…
JH: You wouldn’t be able to really write then, would you…?
CC: I don’t think anyone can really write lyrics that are completely irrelevant. Even when they’re fantasy and story, inspiration for that has to come from something they’ve gone through, even if they don’t know it and it’s written subconsciously.
[Florence bursts in, Motel bag in one hand, lemons, honey and lozenges in the other whilst darting across the room screaming]
JH: It’s quite important to gauge exactly how seriously you take yourselves. Perhaps a Dali-esque moustache wasn’t the best way to address that…
CC: No, you’re probably right. I got rid of that. We don’t take ourselves seriously at all, but we take our music ridiculously seriously to the point of dangerous obsession. On tour we’re pretty fun. Florence can vouch for that. We can get down and have a pretty good time.
JH: I suppose you’ve got familiarity on your side this time round, having toured with Glasvegas extensively as well as Friendly Fires on a previous NME jaunt…
CC: It’s odd actually cos we’ve been getting on best with Florence and her band. Not that we don’t like the others but maybe it’s an age thing. Friendly Fires and Glasvegas are lovely people but lovely people that tend to keep themselves to themselves a bit more.
JH: Glasvegas beg to differ; they reckon they’re showing you the ropes on how to rip the UK apart. Having said that, it’s not all spanners in the works. They did say your album would become the best of this year.
CC: They do seem like the wise old trees. And they’re like a proper family unit on tour. They’ve got cousins and brothers managing and tour managing and lighting so they’re all tied in somehow. They have their kind of family and it’s something of a Mafia situation. You don’t want to piss it off. We stay in our box, they stay in their mansion.
JH: What was it that made you decide you didn’t want to make music in the vein of Fear of Flying any more? There’s a stark contrast to the dark tales of doom and gloom of your debut…
CC: It’s hard to explain because we were doing Fear of Flying when we were 15 or 16, which is obviously an intense age bracket. You change as a person and effectively grow up and we were as impressionable as the next teenager with what you wear, what you listen to and for us being in a band, what we wanted to sound like. That’s linked to what we listened to and we had new favourite bands every week so we’d say let’s write a song like that this week.
JH: So you were doing anything but being yourselves effectively?
CC: We almost thought the worst mistake we could make was to be ourselves. Let’s do what people hopefully will want. The significant change with White Lies is that we got so fed up and became quite bitter about our lack of success and maybe recognition. We couldn’t understand why no one was paying attention. So one day we sat down and decided it wasn’t working. We lost a lot of support though; we deleted our MySpace page without any token farewell gigs and sent messages out saying where we could be found. This sounds lame but talking in terms of MySpace as everyone does nowadays we had something like 8000 friends and then said if anyone’s interested in what we’re up to, head over to our new site. We got loads of messages back saying ‘what the hell is this-is this a joke’ but then within a week we had 200 friends. And that’s the state of it. It demonstrates that a site like that is a very bad indication of who’s behind you. If we weren’t confident about White Lies being successful, we were confident about being happy with it.
JH: Finally, if nothing’s set in stone, do you see White Lies as another brick in the wall or is this the final product?
CC: I think as musicians, we’ll always be evolving. But we certainly feel like this is a safe vessel to be in now. We’re very comfortable with the band and the sound that’s coming out of us. But we’ll take every day as it comes. We’re already excited to see what shape the next record will take. We can’t write in the back of a tour bus so nothing’s under way as yet but it can all happen very quickly. We don’t settle for any tracks that we don’t feel are substandard. A producer told us that when David Bowie went in to record Hunky Dory he got told to play every song on a piano only using two fingers and if it still sounded amazing, then it was a brilliant song and that’s really stuck with us.
JH: Have you done that exact thing then and followed the steps of Bowie himself?
CC: Um well I’m so bad at piano that two fingers are about all I can manage. Luckily Harry’s pretty good so he can hack at least four.
Next: Josh gets aboard Glasvegas’ tour bus for a chat with the band…
Photo: Steve Gullick
February 2nd, 2009
2008 has been a crazy year and has seen the conclusion of two world defying political campaigns. First we had Obama vying for the best seat in the world, and second we had Eleanor Conway on her campaign to become Virgin’s global reporter in 2009. While Barack started his campaign by going door to door through the United States of America, Eleanor took to the streets and fields of the UK to tout for your votes. Features Justice, Sam Sparro, The Presets, Glasvegas, Elbow.
music.virgin.com/author/eleanorconway.
December 1st, 2008
Knife fights, street crime and single parent families… it sounds like the backdrop of a quintessential Panorama special as opposed to your NME touting, Alan McGee championing supergroup, also known as Glasvegas. They’ve had a fruitful summer, selling 56, 000 copies of their debut album ‘Glasvegas’ in it’s first week of release and winging their way into the hearts of the nation. In association with music.virgin.com Eleanor Conway Presents: Glasvegas - in a rare insight into the band, the album and how to clean those grubby doors of perception.
Features videos ‘Daddy’s Gone’, ‘Geraldine’, ‘Please Come Back Home’ (and also a wee bit of strong language).
http://music.virgin.com/author/eleanorconway
****************WIN SIGNED JUSTICE ACROSS THE UNIVERSE DVD*********************
Whatever happens on tour, stays on tour… until now.
THIS IS FOR DIE-HARD JUSTICE FANS ONLY.
I’ve got 3 signed copies of Justice’s Across The Universe (Live CD + Tour footage) to giveaway…
TO ENTER:
Bribe a mate to leave a comment about you on my fanpage wall.
Remember you both have to be fans and the comment must include your name and the word ‘Justice’.
DO IT HERE…..!
I will choose the 3 most original wall scrawlings and get the boys to sign your swag on the next episode of Eleanor Conway Presents: in association with music.virgin.com…
Enter before 00.00 GMT 4th DEC
November 28th, 2008
As Blighty gets chilly, it’s not just the houses that are warming up. Across the country, bands are tuning up their voices and limbering up for the race to the coveted Christmas top spot. Seeing as it’s almost December and I’ve pretty much got frostbite anyway, I thought it was only apt to have a look at who’s giving Cliff Richard a run for his money…
Simon Cowell’s Christmas number one machine is in full swing as not only does he have the usual X Factor karaoke entry (this year Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah is taking a battering - my money’s on Diana) but Leona Lewis is releasing her cover of Snow Patrol’s ‘Run’, which is the most requested Radio 1 Live Lounge performance to date. Fact.
The Wombats are having a punt with “Is this Christmas?” which begs the question “Is this a band?”. It’s pure cringeworthy cheddar and proves that when it comes to commercial success The Wombats are quite happy to disregard any integrity as a band for an embarassing number complete with sleigh bells. Is this Christmas? I bloody well hope not. For anyone who has managed to avoid it, if you’re having a bad day check out the video here and you’re guaranteed to feel instantly better about your own life.
At the other end of the spectrum, as far removed as squeaky pop as you can get Adam Ficek is joining the race with his Christmas single “Horses” from solo project Roses, Kings, Castles. “It’s about the many wintry things I dream about in the months running up to Christmas,”says Adam. “Throw in some characters from my past, present and future and you’re left with Horses, a tale of Jack Frostical proportions.” It’s being released on the 8th December with B-sides “Everybody Loves” and “Pulling Me Round”. Check out the Babyshambles’ drummer’s MySpace.
Glasvegas are a strong contender with “Please Come Back Home” from their mini Christmas album A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss) being released on 1st December. Check out their Super8 video on YouTube and get some more sneak previews of the mini album from their website - it includes a truly haunting version of Silent Night, guaranteed to give you nightmares.
So with Christmas round the corner, who do you want to be singing along to this year?
For more pictures of Glasvegas check out SteveB!’s Flickr Account
October 13th, 2008
Mercury Lounge is a tame-looking Lower East Side pub that’s renowned for booking best up-and-coming bands touring Manhattan. You won’t see Diddy there but on any given day, you could see just any one you’ve read on Drowned In Sound and whoever has dated Agyness Deyn of recent. It’s one of those rare venues you actually stop by Merc Lounge on impulse and 80 percent of the time happen upon musical majesty. (The last 20 percent is pure but lovable crap).
Glasvegas packed the place to the brim with industry folks and band loyalists - so much so the energy at 12:30 am, Saturday, October 4th was as thick and stifling as the body heat. (Fact is we were lucky to have them at all since an earlier US show had to be canceled due to visa issues.)
James Allan hid the whole night behind black raybans - which just added to the shoe-gaze inflection really - red lights beaming onto his face. Asides from his sunglasses-at-night and a bright smear of red lipstick on kick-ass chick drummer Caroline McKay, the guys didn’t really concentrate on music over fashion (thank god). Instead, they rocked through each song of their self-titled album, which was in fact recorded in Brooklyn.
It didn’t matter James Allan’s chatter in between songs was nearly indistinguishable due to his heavy accent. It didn’t matter it was pant-soaking hot. It didn’t matter that the acoustics lived up to their reputation as notoriously aweful at Merc Lounge. Something about the event made us feel like we were witnessing history in the making. I’ll take bets that not long from now, it will be a distant dream to see Glasvegas so up close and personal……with James Allan’s sweat dripping on the front row. It doesn’t really matter Glasvegas came up empty at the Q awards or that they sound eerily so much like My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus And Mary Chain. They’ve got songs that burn into people’s memories. Perhaps the crowd too realized it because they picked up and sung-along; the last song “Daddy’s Gone” had to the whole hall echoing in chorus.
September 15th, 2008
With the X-Files franchise riding a revival of sorts it re-awakens the speculation of life on other planets and little green martians with big elbows. I can’t help being suckered into the idea of extra-terrestrial life, but I refuse to entertain the thought of bogey-coloured midgets with enlarged arm joints. If there are indeed folk out there I reckon they’re exactly like you and I, living on an identikit Earth, and dosed to the tits on a popular culture parallel to ours. However, what passes for popular there is - like themselves - out of this world.
In space, their Metallica have been the one to beat for the past decade. ‘Load’, ‘ReLoad’ and ‘S&M’ courted brand new critical highs, and the band’s meteoric rise in importance was celebrated by the free dissemination of their work on the internet - much to Lars Ulrich’s pleasure. ‘St. Anger’ went platinum a billion times and the ‘Some Kind of Monster’ flick did anything but display Metallica as whinging wotsits. Outer space domination was theirs, though that all went arse over tit this year when they decided to return to a pre-’Load’ era. Thankfully for our own Metallica this translates to a turn in good fortune.
So the word is out: Metallica have returned to their hairier roots. The shredding solos, the proper drums, the big instrumentals and the heavy thrashings stain ‘Death Magnetic’ as it did the first four records. However, this is less a case of money for old rope (which was no bad thing, hairy metallers love a good piece of old rope) and more a break for freedom. Be it the southern blues, Bob Rock or whatever it was holding them back, they’ve absolutely bloody legged it and made a lot of old skool racket on the way.
A heartbeat opens the album, mimicking the chest activity of your frantically hopeful Metallica fan, before blowing like Apocalypse Now all the way til the appropriately-titled closer ‘My Apocalypse’. Sufficed to say, the fan worry gets doused in petrol and set aflame - right along with your eardrums. You’ll walk away from this record wanting to buy yourself new decibels; ‘The Judas Kiss’ alludes to a severe aural battering by dragging in ‘Suicide & Redemption’ at such a low volume you’re checking your ears for blood.
There are a couple of links to ‘The Black Album’ littered around - the most obvious being ‘The Unforgiven III’. Sequels are often unnecessary (don’t get me started on that X-Files film) but trilogies always have the eyes rolling back to the wrong parts of the skull. In print ‘The Unforgiven III’ does just that, but the song itself lends new levels of mood, calm and darkness to both the track’s series and ‘Death Magnetic’. A pretty essential addition, also for those ears.
‘Death Magnetic’ has Metallica riding the lightning once again, however the outer space Metallica don’t have Scotland’s Glasvegas pulling the plug on things. The palms at Mercury Records got a bit sweaty this week and pushed the UK release date of ‘Death Magnetic’ ahead of today’s worldwide release, creating a near-comical battle of indie versus metal in the musical blogosphere. In all dramatic-ness, both bands are out to prove a heck of a lot this week - Glasvegas are making a mark, whereas Metallica are trying to reclaim theirs. Metallica arguably need this more, and to win would really be justice for all.
