After seeing them on NME.TV about a month ago, hearing them being played on Soccer AM/FM and then being told that beat-boxing extraordinaire, ‘Petebox ‘is their drummer, I was quick to become bare keen to see ‘Swimming’ play at A Nation of Shopkeepers last night.
It was an ideal opportunity to catch up with favoured gig buddy Alice Marns, who (along with boyfriend Nick) made my night before I even finished my first pint, when she ended one of her weekend stories with “…and there was pizza in me bum crack!” Lol-demort.
The free gig also provided further opportunity for Andy Fairweather to show his friend (of 2 chance meetings at Reading Festivals) Arthur the sights and sounds of Leeds. Although I had an inkling, it’s just this second been confirmed that Arthur did in fact have a ‘sweet time’.
We missed the first band, sadly. Alice did however catch them and she was bumming them quite a lot. I bumped into friend Luke who informed me that ‘I Ching’ features his brother Tom and that they do warrant the aforementioned ‘bumming’. Check them at http://www.myspace.com/weareiching.
Arriving halfway through the second band’s set, I joined Alice on the sofa to speculate whether the sound engineer was in fact Tom Woodhead who used to front the band, iForward Russia!. After rinsing her iPhone for picture references (and a 50% cut of 3 bottles of wine), it was Alice who politely asked whether he was indeed the former front man. This was confirmed by the slightly tired, scrawny and more introvert looking Tom. Aint it funny how things turn out? Despite performing in front of 7,000 people in the Radio 1/NME stage at Reading/Leeds 4 and a half years ago, he seemed happy enough to be helping a relatively unknown band from Nottingham sound terrific for 7 people.
Swimming were brilliant.
Sending my genre-dar all over the ruddy place, I can only describe them as engaging and uplifting synth-shoegaze. In an attempt to portray an accurate story, this potential description has taken me all morning to word. Sometimes Sonic Youthy, other times Duran Durany and occasionally even White Liesy, it’s a bit pointless even attempting to type-cast them, which lead singer John will be more than happy with. “I hate being labeled as indie”, he said.
We spoke with John’s brother Pete AKA Petebox for quite a while covering topics of festivals, his experiences (namely playing to massive crowds at Reading Festival in which Arthur was in attendance), drumming work and hair. It was a really great evening.
‘Sun in the Island’ is their new single, which I happen to think is, well, a bit good (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4ZCLJ9I8HE)
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee x
About Me
- Simon Nigel Danger Wood
- Born at the age of 4 in a woodcutter’s cottage in the Black Forest sometime next year, I’m a student at Leeds Met University studying Project Management. Despite the absolute lack of creative freedom, it’s alright and I’m quite good at it I suppose. Leeds Met is often referred to as ‘the other one’ in relation to its more distinguished cousin but I like to think it’s not important. We are all students of Leeds. I’m not an absolute ‘rah’ and I’m not a complete ‘spaz-tard’ – I’m very happily sandwiched in-between, all warm and snug. Anywho. I digress. I enjoy many things in life, from the humble Jaffa Cake and social intoxication to music and my attempts of being a ‘lad’. The idea of blogging has long been wandering aimlessly in my less-than-average sized head. During my previous life jumping when Yorkshire Water clapped, I put together a monthly newsletter which people seemed to like. So. Possessing a half decent grasp of the written word and the occasional tendency to be a bit of a douche, I thought ‘blogging’ could be a hoot. Enjoy. P.S. I must credit the late John Peel who I based my whole ‘born at the age of four...’ intro. Kudos, John. Kudos.
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