Kingmaker

I don't think I ever saw these guys live (except maybe at Glastonbury?) but they were part of the whole indie scene around the time of the Neds, Stuffies, Mega City 4, Poppies etc. and they had some great tunes. I think they originally came into a lot of people's consciousness with their sleeve artwork which was created by a pre-Gorillaz' Jamie Hewlett.

"High octane guitar pop" is probably one way of describing their sounds which undoubtably woill have reached my ears courtesy of Gary Crowley on his Sunday afternoon show on GLR (now called Radio London I think) which I used to listen to whilst I did my homework on a Sunday afternoon - oh the memories! Anyway, their debut album (depending on whether you regard 'Postcard CV' as a short album or long EP) had some great catchy tunes and stunning artwork. Catchiest of the lot was 'Got It At The Delmar' which was a classic indie disco tune. One might say they were fairly 'disposable' tunes but things were about to get a bit more grown up.

The next album 'Empire Of The Senseless' was darker and had more of a conscious. Starting with the album tracks first off there were some crackers such as 'Counting Friends', 'Tempting Kate' and 'Just One Reason' were quality tunes. But when it came to the singles there were some classics which included some social comments too. 'Homophobic Asshole' was a brave statement about some of the things they were seeing from some of their colleagues in the industry and other 'homophobes' in general however with a title like that and a tune that was perhaps less bubblegum than some of their previous stuff it was always going to struggle to dent charts. 'Primary Instinct' and 'Hold It Down' had more commercial success (although their Wiki entry doesn't have any chart placings to I don't remember the details). They did have some great 7" single colour vinyls that I still have in my collection.

Final album 'Taking Care Of Business' was less successful and I only remember getting the 'Christine Keeler' single (renamed from an obviously radio un-friendly 'Christian Killer') and not the album. The band went their separate ways and the main offshoot from this was when Morgan Nicholls joined Mile Hunt and Pete Howard in 'Vent 414'. Morgan then went on to play with Muse live doing all their keyboard wiardry out on tour. Cass create Delakota who released the acclaimed 'C'mon Cincinnati'.

For more information:
Kingmaker on Wikipedia
Kingmaker on MySpace

Essential Listening:
Eat Yourself Whole
Bloodshot and Fancy Free: the Best of & the Rest of Kingmaker

Senseless Things

I don't think I ever saw these guys live (except maybe at Glastonbury?) but they were part of the whole indie scene around the time of the Neds, Stuffies, Mega City 4, Poppies etc. and they had some great tunes. I think they originally came into a lot of people's consciousness with their sleeve artwork which was created by a pre-Gorillaz' Jamie Hewlett.

"High octane guitar pop" is probably one way of describing their sounds which undoubtably woill have reached my ears courtesy of Gary Crowley on his Sunday afternoon show on GLR (now called Radio London I think) which I used to listen to whilst I did my homework on a Sunday afternoon - oh the memories! Anyway, their debut album (depending on whether you regard 'Postcard CV' as a short album or long EP) had some great catchy tunes and stunning artwork. Catchiest of the lot was 'Got It At The Delmar' which was a classic indie disco tune. One might say they were fairly 'disposable' tunes but things were about to get a bit more grown up.



The next album 'Empire Of The Senseless' was darker and had more of a conscious. Starting with the album tracks first off there were some crackers such as 'Counting Friends', 'Tempting Kate' and 'Just One Reason' were quality tunes. But when it came to the singles there were some classics which included some social comments too. 'Homophobic Asshole' was a brave statement about some of the things they were seeing from some of their colleagues in the industry and other 'homophobes' in general however with a title like that and a tune that was perhaps less bubblegum than some of their previous stuff it was always going to struggle to dent charts. 'Primary Instinct' and 'Hold It Down' had more commercial success (although their Wiki entry doesn't have any chart placings to I don't remember the details). They did have some great 7" single colour vinyls that I still have in my collection.

Final album 'Taking Care Of Business' was less successful and I only remember getting the 'Christine Keeler' single (renamed from an obviously radio un-friendly 'Christian Killer') and not the album. The band went their separate ways and the main offshoot from this was when Morgan Nicholls joined Mile Hunt and Pete Howard in 'Vent 414'. Morgan then went on to play with Muse live doing all their keyboard wiardry out on tour. Cass create Delakota who released the acclaimed 'C'mon Cincinnati'.

For more information:
Senseless Things on Wikipedia
Senseless Things Website

Essential Listening:
Empire Of The Senseless
The Singles

Unbelievable Truth

Happy New Year everyone, and I'll start with a band who were criminally overlooked in their time and I'll try not to mention the R word!

Hailing from Oxford (yes they are from there too) Unbelieveable Truth consisted of Andy Yorke, Nigel Powell and Jason Moulster. They played beautiful, beautiful music that was best heard in a lovely small venue like the Fleece and Firkin or The Louisiana (two venues that I saw them play at). Debut single 'Building' was released on Shifty Disco in 1997 and was a gorgeous piece of music which defined their style and sound. The fact that Andy was 'his' brother was something that both helped them (got them press, gigs, attention) and hindered them (always having every article ever written about them mentioning the R word). They deserved all the attention though and debut album 'Almost Here' lived up to all expectations with other classic songs including 'Higher Than Reason' and 'Finest Little Space'.

The band were dropped from Virgin records and so the returned to Shifty Disco for their second album 'SortryThankYou' in 2000 which was met with less enthusiasm from the media and a short while after Andy left the band (but didn't go to Russia but instead back to University). Nigel hung around to put together the 'Misc. Music' double album or rarities and live stuff which was released to fans via the internet. Nigel went on to do other things and stayed within the music business releasing loads of old UT MP3's he dusted off from the vaults and kept the official UT website going for a while. He stayed in touch with Jason and now Andy and they played together as a band again last year at The Zodiac in Oxford after it was reopened.

Whilst writing this entry I've been listening to the tracks on Nigel Powell's Sad Song Co. MySpace page. For everyone who thought that R******** were so innovative in releasing an album and you could pay for it what you wanted well I wonder where they got the idea from??? Sad Song Company did it first back in March of last year and when 'Poignant Device' was released you could decide how much to pay. Go to the Sad Song Co. website and order it now (and pay him a fair wack for it).

Then later on this year Andy Yorke finally returns to the music scene with his debut solo album after disappearing for a while (and not going to Russia apparently). Listen to some of Andy's new stuff and keep in touch with everything he is up to at his website.

For more information:
Unbelievable Truth on Wikipedia
Andy Yorke Official Website
Sad Song Company (Nigel Powell)

Essential Listening:
Almost Here
SorryThankYou