NME Tour 2010 @ Nottingham Rock City 9 February – Review

If there is any moral to be drawn from the 2010 NME Tour, it should be he who grafts most shall inherit the earth.

The four names from self-proclaimed indie gods, NME, felt a little different this year. Usually, they provide a somewhat accurate barometer for the coming year’s rising stars and big-hitters. But it is difficult to imagine The Drums, Big Pink, Bombay Bicycle Club or The Maccabees receiving the same hype on the back of the tour as Florence and the Machine, Friendly Fires and White Lies did last year.

After appearing on the NME’s 2009 bill, all of these three went on to headline festival slots and filled mid-sized venues on the strength of their own names. That’s not to say that the class of 2010 won’t, or haven’t already in the Maccabees’ case, but you get the feeling that it won’t come as easily for this lot. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

When I first heard New York band The Drums in 2009, I had a hunch that they would lack substance. Their Rock City slot confirmed that gut feeling, as it was only on their more light-hearted moments that they reached their best. And on these rare, airy, whistle-filled indie tracks like Let’s Go Surfing, they resembled the Beach Boys or Peter, Bjorn and John’s Young Folks.  On these occasions, they also managed to drop the over-performing and pretentiousness, as well as the faux-Joy Division/New Order vocals and riffs.

The Drums

At number two, the Big Pink’s familiar wall of sound was initially mildly spine tingling as they opened with best track, Too Young To Love. Having seen them at Bestival in a tent which made all vocals and melody indistinguishable, this was a welcome beginning. But like the album, A Brief History of Love and indeed, last year’s festival performance, the middle section left much of the audience with ear drums in need of something really distinguishable to cling on to amongst the distortion. It was the aural equivalent of being beaten up in a boxing match, and The Big Pink left the audience hungry for the occasional mid-fight rush of adrenalin. And when Velvet and Dominos arrived, as good as they were, it was a little late.

The Big Pink

It was the more traditional guitar bands, Bombay Bicycle Club and Maccabees, who stood head and shoulders above the previous two. The crowd was, for the most part, already a loyal cohort of fans gained from years of grafting on the smaller circuit. These two, after all, are the masters of hard work, having carved names for themselves through talent and acclaim and with little publicity. Both also had two of the best albums of 2009, the Maccabees with Wall of Arms and Bombay Bicycle Club with I Had the Blues but I Shook Them Loose.

Bombay Bicycle Club

The thing that never ceases to amaze is the tender young ages of these two. The Bombays have only just hit their 20s, but they possess exquisite, soaring guitar riffs, lyrical adeptness and a lead singer, Jack Steadman, with a deep, beautifully quivering voice boasting the warmth of a Sunday lie in.

In short, at the Rock City, BBC were mesmerising. At the risk of sounding gushing, every song they touched turned to gold. Even to the brutally young audience’s normally up tempo leanings the ballads became emotion rather than boredom. Dust On The Ground saw the band play boyish romance, tinged with a charming disbelief at hearing the words sung back at them. And at the song’s epic break into a barrage of melody upon Steadman’s announcement, “All is quiet now”, the reaction was its ecstatic antithesis. Their penultimate and epitome of tenderness, Always Like This, was the clear favourite. That same look of delight once again swept across the four piece’s young faces their own declaration of love was sang back at them.

The Maccabees

It’s a small coincidence that Maccabees’ lead singer, Orlando Weeks, possesses a similarly unusual singing voice to Jack Steadman’s. His was at least as well received. Reeling off a long list of best hits all at under three minutes each, the Rock City was taught a lesson in how to start off with a great debut, Colour It In, and to not only sustain, but better it in the shape of Wall of Arms. Every Maccabees song felt like a mini epic, where the band scooped up the audience as well as the brass section they brought with them into a euphoric mass, only to watch everyone melt as soon as the opening bars of Toothpaste Kisses hit the ear drums.

The boys, who are all still in their early 20s, proved that their rougher-edged first album tracks like XRay, Precious Time, All In Your Rows and First Love are still just as much of a tonic to poor template indie as their more recent. And both have the same lyrical charm and descriptiveness which makes the words worthy of etching permanently on the brain for such an occasion as this on whence to belt them out after a few beers. From Wall of Arms, One Hand Holding and Love You Better both roused every sense, made all the better with the brass section addition. Can You Give It? – a glorious knees up of a track – induced a boozy romp, whilst No Kind Words firmly positioned the band as a favourite who, after five years of hard graft, have earned this place at the head of the NME tour.

The thing is, this was all expected of the Maccabees because they have been brilliant many times before. After some years climbing up through the venues they have proved their mettle and set their own bar high, so much so that you go to a Maccabees gig being almost blaze about how good they are expected to be. Fortunately for them, they have an ability to keep that musical ball rolling and developing so that people’s attitudes towards their brilliance don’t evolve into non-gig-ticket-buying complacency.

Nevertheless it was Bombay Bicycle Club who stood out on this NME Tour, purely because their sheer ability was still new enough to be shocking. That’s no disservice to the Maccabees because they remain equally as fresh and sublime. Both they and BBC have that same hard working gene which means that unlike the first two acts on this 2010 tour, they will not only inherit the earth, but also the gift of longevity.

Filed under: gig review, Bombay Bicycle Club, Florence and the Machine, Friendly Fires, NME, NME tour, Nottingham, Rock City, The Big Pink, The Drums, The Maccabees, White Lies

BBC Sound of 2010 longlist

The ‘BBC Sound of’ longlist is usually a pretty good indicator of the artists that’ll be making it onto the masses iPods, the festivals and bigger venues over the next calendar year. From a corporation which brings us helpings of mainstream and Strictly Come Dancing, it’s a little bit surprising that they should be the temperature gauge of next year’s talent, but the list is picked by leading UK music critics and, for the last few years it’s been startlingly accurate.

Admittedly the Beeb’s 2009 picks were already a little more familiar than this year’s offerings by the time it was announced. And White Lies, Florence and the Machine and Lady GaGa all went on to headline festival stages, Passion Pit, La Roux, Little Boots – the 2009 winner – and Empire of the Sun were big hitters, whilst The Big Pink will grace next year’s NME tour.

Mumford and Sons and The Temper Trap, although a little less aimed at mass consumption, also gained some serious helpings of critical acclaim.  And testament to that, The Temper Trap’s ‘Sweet Disposition’ became one of the tracks of 2009.

Although Adele won it in 2008, with Vampire Weekend, Foals, The Ting Tings and MGMT making up some of the longlist, lets not forget past and rather less favourable winners included Keane and The Bravery – admittedly the longlists they topped were considerably better than they themselves.

So onto this year, safe bets are The Drums, who will play alongside The Big Pink, The Maccabees and Bombay Bicycle Club on the 2010 NME Tour and Everything Everything, who have notched up some good support tours including the Maccabees in early 2009. The electro indie bands Delphic and Two Door Cinema Club are also likely winners – both which sit on the achingly cool Kitsune French label and have toured under the Kitsune Maison umbrella during the year. Gold Panda and Joy Orbison are also really good bands, but its difficult to see them winning. Perhaps we’ll be surprised.

However, from the longlist, it’s hard to spot any immediate acts which will manage what some of the bands/artists from 2009’s longlist have. But then time will only tell whether Little Boots, Lady GaGa and White Lies will stand the test of longevity and this looks like a list more interested, largely, in critical acclaim than showing your posterior on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.

The glaring omissions? Perhaps Filthy Dukes and 65daysofstatic, definitely The Joy Formidable. Suggestions on a postcard. And by the way, the longlist in full is:

• Daisy Dares You
• Delphic
• Devlin
• The Drums
• Everything Everything
• Giggs
• Gold Panda
• Ellie Goulding
• Hurts
• Joy Orbison
• Marina And The Diamonds
• Owl City
• Rox
• Stornoway
• Two Door Cinema Club

Filed under: News, 65daysofstatic, BBC, BBC Sound of 2010, Bombay Bicycle Club, Delphic, Everything Everything, Filthy Dukes, Florence and the Machine, Foals, Gold Panda, Joy Orbison, Kitsune, Kitsune Maison, La Roux, Lady GaGa, Little Boots, Mumford and Sons, NME, Passion Pit, The Big Pink, The Drums, The Joy Formidable, The Maccabees, The Temper Trap, The Ting Tings, Two Door Cinema Club, Vampire Weekend, White Lies