Last year’s 10th birthday celebration of the radio station XFM was marked with around 20 or so gigs in London. They were all really well organised and in just over a month I saw the likes of Babyshambles, The Klaxons, CSS and Maximo Park play small and intimate venues. I thought that there was a friendly spirit at all of the shows and support for a station which has been instrumental in breaking countless bands over the past decade was evident amongst the bands and fans alike.
The XFM big indie gig was very much in the same spirit as the celebrations last year with virtually all of their DJ’s doing sets throughout the evening with the evening kicking off at 9pm and going on until 3am the following morning. As far as the selection of the bands went they were right on the money with all three bands being on the verge of breaking through. Again there was the age old problem at the Brixton academy, with the lighting and sound being pretty shoddy for the support acts. That said both “Black Kids” and “One Night Only” put on a great show.
Black Kids who are from Jacksonville Florida have been receiving a considerable amount of airplay for their single “I’m not going to teach your boyfriend dance with you”. It’s one of the most infectious records that I have heard for ages only topped by Great DJ by The Ting Tings (Yes Vale I know you hate them), and The Teenagers single “The Homecoming”. Not surprisingly it’s been championed by John Kennedy on his Exposure show on XFM for the past few weeks and hopefully it will be a hit for them when it’s released in early April. In addition to this gig they are also due back in the UK in June and will be embarking on their first headline tour. Surprisingly enough though they are only doing one festival this year, T in the Park which is up in Scotland somewhere (not Glasgow) in June.
“One night Only”, who are more pop than rock could become as big as Razorlight. Their debut single “Just for tonight” is incredibly radio friendly and their debut album “Started a Fire” has received critical success from a cross section of the media. Their performance tonight was pretty good, they evidently were nervous however their charm and youthful good looks won the audience over. They are kicking off a mini tour staring on the 8th of May in Glasgow and will be playing ULU in London on the 20th of May. If you are into the pop bands such as Keane, Coldplay and Razorlight you probably would like them however they are a bit commercial for my tastes.
The Futureheads are revelling in their long overdue and newly founded success. Their single “Beginning of the twist” is one one of the great success stories of 2008. The band however still seem to carrying a chip on their shoulder regarding getting dropped by Warners. A recent two page interview in the NME focused entirely on their feelings and the circumstances surrounding them being dropped. Come on guys GET OVER IT!!! I know it’s incredibly humiliating however every now and then the majors get it wrong! It’s true that only around 80% of bands who get signed by a major aren’t successful however you can’t blame everything on the labels. The managers, promoters, PR agencies seem to be immune from the blame when a band is not successful however in fairness normally when bands get dropped they are released because their records were simply not good enough. It’s tough however no label under the sun wants failure. Also the strike rate with the majors is much higher than the indies. In relative terms how many bands have Beggars Banquet, Rough Trade or Factory broken in relation to the number of acts they signed? Oh I’m sorry the last two labels went bust due to lack of success and poor financial management!
Anyhow rant over. I guess The Furtureheads are pretty good but then again lets not forget that you are only as good as your last record. Their performance was pretty good however by the time they came on at 1am the audience was too drunk to care!
Written by John Rahim