The View - London, UK - Winter 2007
By: Alex Lee Thomson
The View are easily one of the leading bands to come out of the UK this year, and love 'em or hate 'em, their success is balancing on a bedrock of extraordinary live shows and outlandishly catchy indie pop tunes. They've filled that subtle Pete and Carl hole that's been left since the demise of the Libertines in 2004, and best yet, they've made an astounding album filled with hardcore rock 'n' rolling anthems that for many has been the soundtrack to the start of the year. We met up with Kyle, Kieren, Peter and Steven for a talk about their music, the effect it's had on the public, and the effect it's had on them...
Rockfeedback: The first thing that a lot of people pick up on with your music is your similarities to The Libertines - would you say that they were as big an influence as people would like to make out?
The View: "We like a lot of older music, and we're inspired by a lot of bands who The Libertines were inspired by, The Beatles and Oasis and people like that, so it's a fair statement, but we'd be insulted if anybody said we were just a Libertines rip-off band."
RFB: It all took off really quickly for you guys; did it seem fast at the time?
TV: "We got picked up at our second gig, that's when we got our manager, but we'd been practicing for so many months before we got our first gig, just learnin' how to play. This guy was just starting up a label called Two Thumbs and we were the first band he signed so obviously we'd never heard of it and were like a bit sceptical about it, but it all snowballed out of control really quickly."
RFB: And would you say touring with Babyshambles helped accelerate your popularity?
TV: "Well yeah, it was because of those first shows that people went clicking online to places like MySpace to find out who we were... we were startin' to get all the 'View is on fire' chanting as well so it helped people remember the website and everything.
RFB: You mentioned your now trademark chant there, the almost infamous 'The View, The View is on fire'... can you remember when that came about?
TV: "It was one of our first gigs and a mate started chanting it, then we played Leicester not long after and people there were saying it. Maybe people who saw the other gig thought it was our thing or something... but it started to get sung at every show and made it down south..."
RFB: Did you find it was daunting to play to such large and ravenous crowds so early on?
TV: "It was daunting at first but as people say, we do play that style of music, and if they were there to see Babyshambles, and like that kind of thing, then hopefully they liked us as well... and everybody was there from the start as well because everyone wanted the best position to see Pete. We could play with Primal Scream and when we're on half the people would be at the bar because they're there to see Primal Scream, but because Pete's such a cult figure people want to be near him."
RFB: So you feel as though you got a better deal than most support bands?
TV: "I think that we were all the same when we went to see gigs, you know, we were only there for the main band and we feel guilty about it now as you need folk to take notice of you at that stage and you can't imagine the pressure that you feel under and the sense of obligation to the crowd. We always watch all our own support bands now because we owe it to them to at least show our support and see what they're about."
RFB: What would you class as the moment when you realised that you were going to be this huge force in the music scene?
TV: "Every time we did a Babyshambles gig... or the first time we didn't have to pay for drinks behind the bar! When we all started thinking that this is gonna get serious though was at Big Weekend and T In The Park when we saw how people were reacting to the music and our performances... it was like, shit, something's happening here, or something's going to happen here."
RFB: Something that's obvious from talking to you is that you all have very defined Dundonian accents yet they don't come across in your songs, was that something you were very much aware of?
TV: "Well, some people say they can hear it and some people can't. It probably gets stronger the further north we go or if we've been speaking to friends or fans or whatever and they've got accents themselves, it probably comes through more. I think there are bits of songs that sound better with a bit of an accent but for the most part you're using your singing voice and not your normal talking voice anyway, and most people have got a slightly different singing voice."
RFB: Obviously you're not quite at The Proclaimers standard yet...
TV: "Well, I think The Proclaimers should be f**king shot..."
RFB: So [moving on], the future of The View... Are you confident that it's all good from here on in?
TV: "It's hard to say what the future's going to be like. A year ago we were kicking around Dundee and now we're here on this stupidly big couch talkin' to people such as yourself about what our lives are gonna be like... it's mental y'know... but it's going to be fun finding out. We're going to take every day as it comes and hope it does all go well."
Although you and I, and they, know the influence and hold that The View have had over the past twelve months, you get the impression that it's all still fun and games, and with no signs of bust-ups, fall outs and better yet, severe drug problems hiding in the background - there's hope for The View as the band that we hoped Libertines would be.
And yes, we're all tired of the analogies constantly made between the two but the simple fact is that they are very similar. They match each other in spirit and confidence and although maybe The View wouldn't have had as much attention had the Libs still been around, there's the idea that both bands could have lived side by side in our hearts. We can, and probably will, be comparing the two until our dying breaths, but you have to look beyond the obvious parlour tricks of the band and into the heart and soul of their music, as behind all the anarchic upstart façade is a group very much on the verge of being something quite special indeed.
Artists in this article: The View