Scene Report: Stoke On Trent April 2007
By: Alex Lee Thomson
The great thing about Stoke On Trent is that, yeah, you can talk about how many great bands have played the area recently; iForward, Russia!, Little Man Tate, Cursive, The 1990s, Ash, The Rifles and Patrick Wolf in just over a week period... but the real bee-yuti of the Potteries is the wealth of local talent that continues to infiltrate the national scene. Most recently The Tommys - a girl comprised rock band - made some headlines when they opened for ex Blink 182 bunch +44 across Europe, the highlight being a sold out, mosh ready, stop at Brixton Academy that attracted the attention of a myriad of record labels to the show, all with itchy fingers for a record deal with the northern Goddesses. Their ability to bolster a Nirvana / Pixies-esque grunge sound has made them so important to the future of rock music, and being one of the best performance pieces around certainly won't do them any harm. The Tommys take it in a different, dirtier direction swaying away from the indie/electronica movement and channelling into a dying hard-edged rock beat that's persuasive, hard-hitting and insistently engaging.
Another snarling bands coming out of the Sugarmill / Underground woodwork is The Disappointments who also take control of the rock-devil horns and ride them to the point of musical annihilation. Taking reference points from American influences such as Rancid and Flogging Molly and cavorting them into a marriage with very British ideals, they've united two substantial fronts and formed a band that's got the power of the biggest US invaders but all the talent and unfussy care of home grown superstars. The vocals are raw without being needlessly obscene or irrelevant and back themselves into a small window that forms between the gaps of beating and affecting guitars. All the elements come together at the right moments to allow The Disappointments to ride above the potential pitfall of their own name. Like Little Man Tate's 'Man I Hate Your Band', it takes balls of steel to give prospective naysayers ammunition, but luckily this next northern noteworthy assembly is nothing of a disappointment and currently signed to Fierce Panda are tickly to make headway throughout 2007.
The Alones have been advancing their borders recently, attacking the minds of indie boys and girls like an aggressive early twentieth century invading force. They're one of those bands that you get into really early on and never quite get out of, and when they play support dates with The Enemy around April their fan base is going to get so massive it'll make Stoke heads turn once more. Like Morning Sparks and Kamikaze Pilots, they're pushing and pushing at the walls of what the 'Stoke sound' is, pulling off a live show that'll have you wetting your pants like a nervous schoolboy round the back of the bike shed at milk time.
Pete Doherty has famously said Stoke brings him closer to Arcadia than anywhere else in the country and with a constant circus of touring pioneers paraded through the brickwork of venues like The Sugarmill, Fat Cats and Victoria Hall, coupled with a gaggle of groups that's overrunning the common marketplace... it's easy to see why. The revolutionary nature of the Stoke movement is giving rise to a diverse and endowed generation of bands and with the hopeful birth of labels and festivals in the area it looks set to be the next Leeds, London, Liverpool or Newcastle in terms of musical significance. Viva los Stoke On Beats they cry.