They came out at just the right time for me and they were my first music obsession. Through that I started going on music forums which led to the discovery of so many things that I listen to, read and watch now. A real gateway band.
The music doesnāt stand up though and it was wrong of the music press to make teenagers idolise a heroin addict. 2/5 because Up The Bracket has some good songs and theyāve played some enjoyable gigs.
First album is genuinely great, second one is ok in parts, absolutely swallowed whole by everything that took place around them. A generous, nostalgic 3 cause I really loved Up The Bracket.
Was gonna give it a 3 because I thought they had one or two bangers, then I looked at the singles list and was like nah all of these songs are shit
Canāt give them a nostalgia vote bocos really I was too young for them, theyād long since broken up when the other solid lads were listening to them when I was a teenager. I kind of want to give them a nice score just because their presence reminds me of house parties and street drinking around GCSEs time, but I never even liked them I just knew people who did. Caught probably most of their Leeds festival and Glastonbury comebacks, both times I had a massive sense of āis this really the band people piss themselves with reverence aboutā.
Huge for some people but I clearly do not get it at allā¦ Probably a 1
One of those bands where i wouldnāt of disliked them quite so much if it wasnāt for how aggresively ott their fans and some of the media were about them. All for people being positive about a young band and enjoying music but theyād of had you believe Pete was in line for the Nobel Prize for his blighty, albion, guvnār lyrics.
Had to Google this, mustāve missed it at the time. Youāre right, that really is a big breakfast. Like that he had a strawberry milkshake with it too. Might be a 4 now.
Was already in my mid-20s by the time they started getting radio play, so wasnāt swept up in that kinda teen thing like I was with Oasis and I was only getting NME for the crossword by this point.
Couple of early singles are okay, but nothing special.
Saw them at a festival when they had that other bloke singing - really, really poor gig with a ridiculously large crowd.
Loved Up The Bracket and 50% of the follow-up at the time. I was quite an impressionable 20 year old back in 2002 and properly bought into the romance of the whole pseudo Victorian drugged up intellegentsia, renegade gigs in Hackney living rooms thing, to the point where they actually inspired me to up sticks and move to London from the sleepy north Wales village Iād always lived in. So in that respect I canāt thank them enough and they deserve a 5*
(* Actually gave them a 2 because Iām a jaded, cynical 39 year old now, the second and third records were mostly garbage and hindsight is fucking great)
Iād give them a 1 for being the most relentlessly overrated shite for a brief period in the early-to-mid 2000s, spawning a whole cult of dickheads fawning over their twat idol Pete Doherty based on a largely fabricated backstory and pretence that they were part of some vibrant DIY scene in North London when really they played some rich kids coke-fuelled house party one timeā¦
But that would be denying that Donāt Look Back at the Sun, Canāt Stand Me Now and Time for Heroes arenāt all great songs, so Iāll give them a 2 at least.