Two Bands Who Are No More……

[blade]

Here are two groups which, for differing reasons, are no longer around, which is rather a shame.

First, The Long Blondes, formed in Sheffield in 2003 by five students at university in the city. In early 2006 they were tagged “the best unsigned band in the UK”. That year they signed to Rough Trade Records and released their debut album Someone to Drive You Home in November 2006. It was voted 7th best album of the year by NME (Howling Bells was 11th on the same list).

In April 2008 their second album Couples was released and, like Howling Bells’ second album, it featured a change of direction with more use of keyboards. Later that year guitarist and songwriter Dorian Cox suffered a stroke at the unusually young age of 27 and the band was forced to split.

Check out their videos, especially Giddy Stratospheres and Once And Never Again:
www.youtube.com/results?search_query=long+blondes&aq=f

Singer Kate Jackson is now pursuing a solo career and one of her songs, Homeward Bound, can be heard here: www.myspace.com/bernardbutler


The Little Flames were from Hoylake on the Wirral and, on tour, supported Arctic Monkeys, The Coral and The Zutons. Arctic Monkeys were said to be big fans.

They recorded one album, The Day Is Not Today in 2007, but for some reason it was never released. It is available in chunks (audio only) on Youtube, and the song Isobella is wonderful. The video for that is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wctRde7_rNM

One of the band members, Miles Kane, formed The Last Shadow Puppets with Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys, and is now a member of The Rascals. Singer Eva Petersen is going solo – listen to her stuff here: www.myspace.com/evapetersenmusic

[pbobcat]

The Long Blondes were a great band and I had the pleasure of seeing them several times in tiny venues before they started to get a bit of attention. Was gutted when they split up but I'll give her first solo effort a listen later. Cheers

Never heard of the Little Flames but will check them out also!

[tealovertoma]

Love Little Flames, the album actually leaked so you can get that on various places on the web. I've got 17 songs of them in total

I think The Rascals are no more, and their album was pretty mediocre anyway. Miles has some solo songs out but they don't really excite me either. Thought Last Shadow Puppets were great though, but we probably have Alex to thank for that. Eva's solo stuff is okay. But they were really better than the sum of their parts, shame they broke up.

[blade]

Miles Kane played a solo gig in Sheffield last week and the review wasn't very good, and Eva Petersen's solo music isn't particularly sparkling, so you're right tealovertoma - The Little Flames were really better than the sum of their parts.

And I'd never thought of searching for a download of the album, so thanks for the prompt tealovertoma. I found one pretty easily, and if anyone wants it, it's here:

www.megaupload.com/?d=G6EUDI4Y

[blade]

Former Long Blondes frontwoman Kate Jackson has formed a new group, rather imaginatively titled The Kate Jackson Group.

I don't know if she's doing a full tour but she's playing at The Plug in Sheffield on Friday 24th June.

Here's the info about her new venture:

Former Long Blondes front-woman Kate Jackson returns with a new sound and a new live band behind her, Kate Jackson Group.

Following The Long Blondes split in 2008, Jackson began work on a collection of songs with former Suede guitarist and producer Bernard Butler. Working from mutual influences such as Brian Eno, David Bowie, Patti Smith and Roxy Music as well as the distinctive guitar sounds of Neil Young and Mick Ronson and the lyrical narratives of 60s country pop acts like Nancy and Lee, Jackson and Butler came up with a sound which fuses indie pop and glam with elements of country and 70's rock.

With each song Jackson creates a cinematic landscape of English motorways, sprawling airports, suburban bedrooms, future cities, coastal roads and disparate time zones. Inspired by the films of Wim Wenders, David Lynch and Wong Kar Wai as well as writers such as Alain De Botton and Iain Sinclair, Jackson's fascination with place, travel and time is romantic and searching.

In 2010, after signing to EMI publishing, Jackson met songwriters David Venn and Steven Marsden who have been collaborating with her ever since. They have gone on to form the backbone of Kate Jackson Group which also includes guitarist Richard Phillips, drummer Duncan Morrison and multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Catherine Anne Davies.

2011 will see the release of the first 7" singles from the Butler sessions and Kate Jackson's return to the live music scene after an absence of nearly 3 years.

[incoasterble]

This thread made me think of Dead Disco - A Leeds band that I truly loved to bits a few years ago, but then split up without going any further than putting out a handful of songs all of which were fantastic, here's summathum:

You're Out

Automatic

Treatment

Probably you recognize the lead singer Victoria Hesketh. When the bans split up in December 2008, she went on to pursue a very successful solo career as Little Boots. Meanwhile, Lucy Catherwood & Marie France formed Video Villain. They put out their first single, fearless on 14th March this year. VV's music has a dark, industrial feel which I really love. They're both from the Yorkshire Dales, where I spent many of my teenage years, so perhaps that's why I find it easy to associate with their music. As an aside, Little Boots was from Blackpool - something which I think comes through a lot in her sound.
Video Villain are pretty creative - look at this: Deliverance vs Video Villain
They had four older demo tracks up on their myspace which I'd love to link to, but unfortunately they're not appearing on their anymore...
In fact they tend to have some pretty long gaps in between postings with their websites...
Interestingly, Lucy and Marie are also partners in fashion design and have an online shop here: Art Disco

On the previous topic, I think Bernard Butler and Kate Jackson's collaboration has a great sound which reminds me of Suede.

[blade]

Some good stuff there....

And I always thought the Dales was such a sleepy area. Can't remember seeing either of those two when I was in Richmond or Leyburn. I'll have to go more often, see if I can see some of those strange goings on on the moors.....

[blade]

Here's an interview with ex-Long Blonde Kate Jackson from the Sheffield Star, 27th May 2011:

[incoasterble]

An example of somebody getting screwed by the record industry like this only fortifies my personal resentment of the tradition whereby musicians sign away their personal creations in record contracts. In my view there should surely be fairer ways to bridge the boundary between business and art...
I reckon that Kate and Bernard seem to have suited one another incredibly well based on the promising demo on his myspace - I would have totally bought that album and whilst I'm v happy for her and am gonna wanna check out her latest stuff, I'm pretty sad to think of her work with Bernard getting lost in time.
/Howl

[incoasterble]

May 21, 2011 14:05:54 GMT incoasterble said:

This thread made me think of Dead Disco - A Leeds band that I truly loved to bits a few years ago, but then split up without going any further than putting out a handful of songs all of which were fantastic, here's summathum:

You're Out

Automatic

Treatment

Probably you recognize the lead singer Victoria Hesketh. When the bans split up in December 2008, she went on to pursue a very successful solo career as Little Boots. Meanwhile, Lucy Catherwood & Marie France formed Video Villain. They put out their first single, fearless on 14th March this year. VV's music has a dark, industrial feel which I really love. They're both from the Yorkshire Dales, where I spent many of my teenage years, so perhaps that's why I find it easy to associate with their music. As an aside, Little Boots was from Blackpool - something which I think comes through a lot in her sound.
Video Villain are pretty creative - look at this: Deliverance vs Video Villain
They had four older demo tracks up on their myspace which I'd love to link to, but unfortunately they're not appearing on their anymore...
In fact they tend to have some pretty long gaps in between postings with their websites...
Interestingly, Lucy and Marie are also partners in fashion design and have an online shop here: Art Disco

On the previous topic, I think Bernard Butler and Kate Jackson's collaboration has a great sound which reminds me of Suede.

Happened across another Video Villain song on my travels today --> Paranoia <-- My favourite one actually the ending particularly rocks.

[blade]

I went to see Kate Jackson and her imaginatively titled Group at The Plug (Sheffield) last night. It was a disappointingly sparse attendance considering she was returning to her former home city, but it had been postponed twice and a windy Monday night probably put some people off. It would have been much better attended on a Friday night at the height of summer, when it was originally scheduled.

Anyway, she played all her new stuff, only one of which, 'Homeward Bound', I had heard before, so naturally this was the stand-out song. The remainder were all high-energy, rollicking guitar-based songs backed up by a thumping rhythm section, which will certainly entice me to buy the album when it comes out.

Kate's problem is probably that the Long Blondes split up more than three years ago, so she has slipped away from people's attention. She therefore has to build it up from scratch again, but there should always be a place for a guitar-based band fronted by a good-looking girl who is talented, sassy and full of on-stage confidence and charisma.

Now, who does that last sentence remind you of?

[incoasterble]

Sounds based on what you're saying like I ought to be going & checking one of her shows out
Opens the Googoracle...

(5 mins later) meh, well I'll certainly be keeping an eye out.