oti don‘t expeet a band just eoming ol‘l‘ an
lron Maiden tour to be headlining the
XII/f tottt'. do yoti‘.’ Bruce Dickinson personally ehose l"uneral for a l-‘riend to open for them aeross their huge litiro tour. But Nil/Ii lo\‘es this Welsli extremo quintet. and their debut ('usuu/ly‘ Dressed and l)(‘(’/) in (‘unrvrsulimt eyen made number l7 in its list of albums ol 2003.
l‘nhappy with the extremo
label (apparently ‘emo’ lml more 'hardeore‘ ). they still can‘t wait to get on XII/2‘ duties. ‘We just like to call ourselyes a straightl‘orward rock band.‘ explains l‘rontman Matt l)ayies in his thick Welsh tones. 'We like punk. we like hardeore. we like metal and we like roek.‘ 'l‘hey revel in a British sense ol‘ intelleetualism: their album title and singles stieh as ‘She l)ro\‘e Me to Daytime 'l‘eleyision‘ hint at far greater depths than most roek aets eould dream ol‘. 'Sometimes it eomes naturally. sometimes it‘sjtist little sayings l haye written down in serapbooks. I‘m a big Smiths and Morrisey tan and l‘iit inllueneed a lair bit by
18 THE LIST " tut- '.
Funeral “ H [in
‘I HATE ONE WORD SONG TITLES
that. l hate one word song titles. they‘re kind of
still. so basie and boring so ljust spiee things tip a little. make things look a lot more literary than they should.‘
And while this may stray into Sums/i Iliis territory. where does the band‘s name eome t‘rom‘.’ And it‘s not alter an lilton .John song. as popular ttrban myths would haye you belieye. ‘When people tried to
THEY'R KIND OF SOFT, SO BASIC AND BORING'
' lind otit about tis in the early days [E they would enter ‘l‘tllk‘l‘itl for a l‘riend‘ into a seareh engine and all these lilton .lohn web pages would eome tip so we thought it‘d be kind ol‘ l‘ttnny to tag along with that.‘ says l)a\'ies. ‘Btit aetually there‘s a hand in the [‘8 ealled I’lanes Mistaken for Stars and it‘s a song ol‘l‘ their album I’m-k wit/1 l'i'n'.‘
l.i\'e. you‘ll see how far remoyed from the world ol lilton .lohn they really are: bu//ing guitars. howling Vocals. thrashing drums. a whirlwind ot‘ dy namism. ‘l‘ye seen how the best hardeore and punk bands interaet with the erowd. It‘s all abotit eonyeying energy and that‘s our aim.‘ (llenry Northmore)
Rapture
he ptiblie at large haye taken a while to
eateh tip with the Rapture‘s elearly
aseending star. btit at last the New York qtiaitet have reached the di/./y heights ol‘ the NMli 'l‘our — and. it past alumni are anything to go by. it shotild be a one-way iieket to wider aeeeptanee by the alternati\'e-minded musie buying population.
()l‘Cotli‘sc. diseerning gig-goers in Seotland (and those who bought the monumental single ‘I louse ol‘ Jealous l.o\'ers‘ ) are already more than t‘amiliar with what this loose. l‘unky. newtest) waye band are eapable ol‘. l'i'Ultt a storming slot at last year‘s ‘l‘ in the Park to a eo-headliner with Radio 4 during '1‘ on the l’ringe. and a return appearance with the like-minded I)Js ot' ()ptimo at (ilasgow‘s Q.\1l‘. they‘ve been pretty regular visitors to our shores btit this is by far their biggest show to date.
Singer and guitarist l.uke Jenner seems to hate absorbed the loeal etilture. ‘Where are you l‘rom‘." he asks. ‘lidinbtirgh‘.’ Aren‘t you guys supposed to hate (}laswegiaiis‘." Not at all. I tell him. although there‘s a bit ot‘enyy in gig—going eireles that all the good bands usually head for the west. ‘ ’eah. well. it‘s one of the best plaees to play beeause the erowds are always mental. regardless of how many people are there.‘ he says. 'I .ike people just stay tip for l‘our days and party you go to a patty at somebody‘s house at noon and there‘s all these wasted people lying around . . .‘ Bang goes the theory that New York is patty eentral. then - Glaswegian stamina has them beat hands down.
So how did they wind tip getting this partieular gig. then'.’ 'l dunno. man.‘ relleets Jenner. ‘I guess we‘re one of the Nil/[5‘s l‘ayotirite bands or some erap like that. 'I‘hat‘s a good thing. ot‘eourse. btit it won‘t be it‘ they review the next album and say it‘s a pile ol‘ shit. We‘re not looking l‘Ut‘WLlI‘tl to that.‘
Despite elaiming ‘we‘re gonna kill ‘em all. we‘re gonna blow them ol‘l‘stage‘ in relation to the other baitth appearing. Jenner eont‘esses he doesn‘t know mueh about them btit eomparisons between the Rapture and l5ran/ Ferdinand prompt him to ask: ‘Are they t‘unky‘.’ Yeah'.’ (iood. then I‘m looking forward to seeing them.‘ llopeltllly something speeial will happen when the New York sound meets the (ilaswegian party ethie. (l)a\'id Polloek)