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Every generation has the guitar band that unites them. For those that came of age in the early 2000’s, they had two, the lucky buggers. The Strokes kicked it all off at the turn of the century, and almost directly following in their footsteps were London’s very own The Libertines. A band that basically took the no-nonsense, year zero attitude of the New York City natives and gave it a twist of English romanticism and Dickensian decay. The influence of The Libertines spreads further than practically any of us can comprehend, least of all the band themselves, and it all began with the meeting of the bands frontmen, Pete Doherty and Carl Barât.
Barât was studying for a drama degree at Brunel University, where he was a classmate of one Amy-Jo Doherty. The two became friends and on one fateful occasion that Barât came to Amy-Jo’s flat to visit, Amy-Jo’s little brother, Peter, had come to visit at the same time. The two struck up a friendship based on their shared passion for songwriting, literature and poetry, and soon after they met they both dropped out of their university courses. The duo had become very close very quickly, and they decided to move in together, renting a flat on Camden Road that eventually became known as The Delaney Mansions.
The first line up of The Libertines would be the two of them and their neighbour Steve Bedlow (a man who would later pick up the nickname Scarborough Steve), but later picked up John Hassall to play rhythm guitar and some no-hoper called Johnny Borrell to play bass. The first incarnation of the band were soon playing live anywhere that would have them. In March 2000, they met with Banny Poostchi, a lawyer with Warner Chappell Music Publishing who saw the masses of potential that most people missed in the band, and began to manage them.
Unfortunately, by December of the same year it looked as if the band were going nowhere fast, so Hassall, Pootschi and their drummer John Dufour left the fold, leaving Pete and Carl alone. Fate was on their side though. With the massive hype around The Strokes quickly becoming the music story of the year, Pootschi reconsidered and put a plan in effect to get the band signed to Rough Trade Records in six months flat. She replaced Dufour with Gary Powell, and after it was became clear that Borrell couldn’t be counted on to turn up to rehearsals, John Hassall was convinced back into the fold to play bass instead.
During this time, Pete and Carl were writing feverishly, with the songs that would eventually make up their debut album mainly being written around this time. Pootschi’s plan worked and the band were signed to Rough Trade on December 21st 2001, ringing in the new year playing support slots with the aforementioned Strokes and Australia’s The Vines. The band started to pick up admirers in the music press, especially in the NME, and shortly after the release of their debut single “Up The Bracket”, it was time to record the album. With The Clash’s Mick Jones on production duties, “Up The Bracket” was immediately hailed as a classic by pretty much everyone who heard it, and support slots with the likes of Morrissey and the Sex Pistols soon followed.
By 2003, the band were becoming infamous, known as much for Pete Doherty’s worsening drug addiction and erratic nature than for their actual music. The story of the band becomes a horror show at this point, with Pete and Carl’s relationship being tested to its limits while Doherty refused to stop associating with deeply shady characters and enablers who wanted a slice of the fame and notoriety that followed him around wherever he went. By the time their second album was released, seeing the band live was something of a gamble, as it was just as, if not more likely that the band would play without Doherty than with him. The tabloids had gotten hold of the band at this point, and “Potty Pete” became something of a fixture with them that would continue until way after the decade’s end.
The band were still undeniably special, their UK tours at the end of 2003 and the start of 2004 were heralded as some of the best gigs of the year, and their second, self-titled album was another instant classic. They were finally starting to see some commercial success as well, with their second effort’s lead single “Can’t Stand Me Now” hurtling into the number two spot on the singles charts and its follow up, the prophetically named “What Became Of The Likely Lads” peaking at number nine. By this point however, the band was as good as dead. Doherty was in and out of rehab, missing gigs, promotional duties and recording sessions. Barat couldn’t in good conscience keep going as The Libertines without him, and called time on the band in 2004.
A Libertines reunion was treated as an impossibility for the rest of the decade, until in 2010 when the band were revealed as the sub-headliners of that years Reading And Leeds Festivals. The celebrated show was thought to be a one off until 2014, when the band again announced they were getting back together to headline Hyde Park. This wasn’t to be a one off, and after playing three sold out nights at Alexandra Palace in the following September, the band announced that they’d signed a record deal with Virgin/EMI Records. The band are unquestionably back, and with one of the best British bands of their generation making music again, what comes next is an impossibly exciting prospect. Highly recommended.
Maximo Park was formed in 2001 by guitarist Duncan Lloyd who brought together Archis, Lukas and Tom. The band started out playing small venues, including In The City in Manchester, which showcases unsigned bands; however, in 2003 Duncan and Archis decided they wanted a frontman so that they could focus on song writing instead of vocals. They eventually recruited Paul Smith.
In March 2004 a friend of the band helped fund 300 copies of a single “Graffitti/ Going Missing” on 7’ vinyl. They followed up with another 7’ vinyl single entitled “The Coast Is Always Changing” and “The Night I Lost My Head,” and gigged around, catching the attention of Warp Records. By 2005 they recorded and released their first album, “A Certain Trigger,” which sold over 300,000 copies and was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2005.
The following year they started to record their sophomore album entitled “Our Earthly Pleasures,” and was announced to be released on 2 April 2007. They also announced an upcoming tour with the same name as the album. Maximo Park released their third album, “Quicken The Heart” which was led off by the single “The Kids Are Sick Again,” in 2009. The band continued to put out albums and successfully tour, and in 2014 released “Too Much Information.”
I went to see the Libertines play a headline slot at Hyde Park this July despite lots of doubt as to if they could pull off their biggest show ever. They have an uneasy start with ‘Vertigo’ and things didn’t go that much better when they went into ‘Boys in The Band’. They had to stop and start the song due to crowd troubles and from where I was, in between the gaps all I could hear was the chant ‘Jump the fence’. A random bloke managed to jump the barriers to get to the priority area closer to the band. More and more blokes were trying this and managed to avoid security, soon it started to empty out so we just went for it and got over for the ending of boys in the band which is when the concert started to go uphill. With an ever so slightly better view, I got to witness The Libertines perform with their Sex Pistols-esque approach to music. After a short run together and only 2 full albums who would have thought that The Libertines would get over 60,000 people singing back every word of ‘Music when the lights go out’ just as the sun set over Hyde Park. You know you can always expect to have a good time filled with chaos and drama at a Libertines gig. Towards the end, Pete and Carl had to stop half way through a stripped down version of ‘France’ as some fans had decided to climb onto the delay tower. As the show came to a close, Pete and Carl recited Siegfried Sassoon's 1918 poem, Suicide In The Trenches. Then the four band members gathered in a line to salute their fans, Doherty began the hokey cokey while Powell told them: "You are all amazing and you are all Libertines." Only all of this could happen at The Libertines gig.
Alt-rockers Maxïmo Park wrapped up their latest UK tour in their home base of Newcastle with the second of two shows at the O2 Academy. The band have been touring in support of their fifth studio album "Too Much Information" - a genuine candidate for ugliest album cover of the year, which is a shame because the album represents something of a return to form after 2012's disappointing "National Health" which was released in the darkest depths of the recession. The new album sees an increased reliance on beats and electronics but singer and writer Paul Smith remains a poetic, romantic lyricist and Duncan Lloyd a seriously underrated and melodic guitarist. The tour got off to something of a bad start with a couple of shows having to be rescheduled due to Smith requiring an emergency eye operation, but to his credit he soldiered on even though this meant that his stage presence wasn't quite as animated and acrobatic as normal. It also provided a rare case of a rock star wearing sunglasses on stage through necessity rather than affectation. Opening with a fine trio of songs - the catchy "Give, Get, Take" from the new album, "Our Velocity" and "Signal & Sign" - the band soon got into their rhythm, with Lukas Wooller pogoing around his keyboard while Smith in trademark trilby, shades and check-suit struck a series of camera pleasing poses and even demonstrated some sub-Peter Crouch style robotics for the crowd crushed against the barrier. Although the new material such as "Brain Cells", the terrific "Midnight On The Hill" and "Leave This Island" was greeted enthusiastically, it was the songs from the first two albums “Our Earthly Pleasures” and “A Certain Trigger” that got the adrenalin pumping quickest and the biggest crowd responses. Old favourites like "Graffiti", "Limassol", "Books From Boxes", "By The Monument" (always popular in Newcastle, where the Academy is only a few hundreds yard from said monument), "Girls Who Play Guitars" and a tremendous version of "Apply Some Pressure" received wild responses. Some of the better songs on “National Health” were also performed such as the title track and “The Undercurrents”. A few years ago I saw Maxïmo Park play to a packed crowd at Newcastle Arena - where they even flirted with lasers - and it seemed for a time that they might be lost to the bigger sheds which would have been a shame. Venues like the Academy are the perfect place for the band - Smith is a genuinely likeable frontman easily capable of whipping up a crowd of this size. The band relate to their audience well, and it would be a shame to see this relationship diluted in bigger arenas. “The Park” always a deliver a passionate performance and Saturday night’s tour finale was no exception.
Feeder are a great rock band. I first became aware of them when they I saw them supporting Stereophonics back in 2001 (one of my Top 10 gigs).
They've been around for a while but continue to have a good fan base of which I'm one. Some of their songs are the get up and jump around songs (or go to the mosh pit if you dare), like Buck Rogers, whilst others are melodic and a bit calmer like Pushing the Senses which was also used in a car ad on TV.
I have seen them at various venues over the years, some small like Proud Gallery, London and some larger like supporting REM at Hyde Park in 2005. They also had a sort of side project (a bit more loud and raucous in my opinion) under the name of Renegades.
Grant Nicholas, their lead singer, has recently been working on a solo album which I think will be very different from Feeder but that doesn't mean that the band are going their separate ways.
If you want to see a good rock guitar band, then I would recommend Feeder.