Tales of the Vanishing Band
Going through my music collection I have found a few bands that I thought would be huge…and have disappeared into nothingness. This blog will maybe reunite some people with bands that they have not heard about for a while and think “ah yeah I remember them”…and on the other hand they may introduce you to bands you have never heard of…and may even think the same as me…”why didn’t they make it?” or “how did I miss hearing them?”. For a couple of the bands I am about to mention I was fortunate enough to see them live before they packed in…which I think helps form a bond with a band…I don’t know about you but I can go off a band a bit if I never get the chance to see them live….saying that…I’ll have to weigh that against all the bands I’ve been put off by seeing them live…Editors spring to mind there…I went up to Newcastle to see them…just after An End Has A Start was released in 2007…Tom Smith’s voice was amazing….but the rest of the band were as flat as anything…really boring to be honest and following that gig I’ve not really listened to that much they have released since…it’s a shame I loved ‘Munich’…such a great song. Anyway I digress…here are my choices of bands that should have been big…but disappeared…as always…enjoy.
The Little Flames
Right…you know I’m serious if I start a sentence with..Right…ok? Touring around with the Arctic Monkeys and Reverend and The Makers didn’t help this band much…forming out of Hoylake (Merseyside) their sound was definitely similar to that of the Arctic Monkeys but their Nico-like lead singer Eva Petersen brought an excellent presence to the band that was a bit different in the wave after wave of male dominated Libertines wannabes. The band also featured a young Miles Kane of The Last Shadow Puppets fame who formed The Rascals with fellow band members Joe Edwards and Greg Mighall when the Little Flames spilt. They only lasted for 3 years and left behind a couple of excellent punchy singles in ‘Put Your Dukes Up John’ and ‘Goodbye Little Rose’ and a fully recorded but unreleased album. I have managed to get hold of a copy of the album and it’s really good!!! I will let you make up your own mind and leave you with ‘Put Your Dukes Up John’ which was covered by The Arctic Monkeys on the B-Side of their ‘Leave Before The Lights Come On’ single…the original was better!
The Hiss
I was lucky enough to see this band on an NME tour in Manchester in 2003…they were superb. The first time I heard them was from an NME mixtape that had a demo version of their song ‘Triumph’ on it…a single that the band produced themselves…and I instantly took a shine to them. They were a four piece garage rock band that formed in Georgia (America). Due to the success of bands like The Strokes and White Stripes…The Hiss rode on this continued acclaim and released their debut single…a new version of ‘Triumph’…followed by ‘Clever Kicks’ and ‘Back On The Radio’. Their album Panic Movement was produced by Owen Morris who received plaudits for Oasis’s Definitely Maybe…this lead to them touring with Oasis on their 2003 tour of Germany. Although their first two singles were full of swagger, grumbling bass and loud feedback ridden guitars the rest of the album failed to deliver which lead to the band changing personnel over the next few years before finally calling it a day in 2008. You may remember them…if not give ‘Clever Kicks’ a listen…see what you think!
22-20’s
Honestly…this band should have been HUGE…yes in my opinion but they had it all. The heavily blues inspired band from Lincolnshire exploded onto my musical radar in 2003 with their Muddy Waters-esque ‘Why Don’t You Do It For Me?’. Their self-titled album was full to the brim with bluesy rock would-be classics…leading the way on the album was the song ‘Devil In Me’ closely followed by my personal favourite ‘22 Days’ and ‘Such A Fool’. They were getting rave reviews from all of the mainstream mags…toured with the likes of Oasis, Supergrass and Kings of Leon…Guy Ritchie used ‘Shoot Your Gun’ for his film ‘RocknRolla’ (great film by the way) and Vauxhall used ‘Devil In Me’ for their new Astra advert…they were gathering momentum. Then they split out of the blue in 2006… Martin Trimble the band’s lead singer had wanted to change the direction of the band much to the reluctance of the other band members and this led to the band splitting. Although they reformed they didn’t push on as a band. If you have not heard it please give their album a listen..or even ’22 Days’…great song…could have been a great band!
Ambulance Ltd
Inspired by the great shoegaze bands of the 1990’s…bands like My Bloody Valentine, Spiritualized and Ride…this band formed in New York in 2000. Their debut and only album released was a self-titled bag of joy for the ears of a shoegaze lover like myself. They could have…and should have been much bigger. Songs like their debut single ‘Heavy Lifting’, ‘Stay Tuned’ and the heavily Kevin Sheilds influenced ‘Swim’ were full of reverb-drenched riffs and swirling dreamy guitars that instantly gave me flashbacks of the early 90s . They followed that up with their second single ‘Primative (The Way I Treat You)’ which treated us to a much poppier hook with Teenage Fanclub-like harmonies. The album as a whole didn’t stay still in one indie rock genre…it moved about showcasing the band’s many musical influences which at the time I found quite refreshing. Unfortunately for Ambulance Ltd and their very talented frontman Marcus Congelton they were caught up in red tape from legal wrangling of their record label TVT who claimed bankruptcy and stopped the band from releasing any new material…this choked the band into splitting 3 years after releasing their debut album. Well I hope you have maybe found a few new old songs to listen to…I’ll leave you with ‘Heavy Lifting’…such a good song…enjoy.
