(Pic: The Longcut)
MTV2 Spanking New - Manchester University - 14.4.05
Zane Lowe and The Queens Of Noize aren't present, but the focus is on the bands tonight and none more so than local boys The Longcut. The adopted Mancs are on first due to a headline gig in Liverpool later tonight and where The Others have the 853's, the Longcut have the Acoustic Anarchy regulars to bring a near riot in the pit. The security looks on nervously as locals wonder whether the usual stage invasion will happen at the end of the set. It doesn't, but the Longcut bring a much needed rock'n'roll with their unique post rock disco.
The Kooks are the unknown quantity of the night and like all the best bands we love and hate them in equal measure. One of our spies informs us that their frontman Luke Pritchard is Katie Melua's former beau and when he bounds on stage like a deranged pissed up Suggs it's like WTF went on in a typical Melua / Pritchard night out. Musically they deliver Kaiser Chiefs esque pop tunes where every song rattles along like "I Predict A Riot" rather than "Oh My God". Like us, you'll either love or hate the Kooks.
The Mystery Jets are the most f**ked up band to arrive in recent years. A cross generational band with a grey haired, surprisingly youthful, man chuckling to himself bemused that everyone is taking them seriously. Centre stage his son bashes away on pots and pans and stage right the guitarist and bass player try to out sing the Futureheads. Its nuts and a buzz to watch and best of all they've got the tunes to match this insanity.
Clor look like a bunch of maths teachers getting down for the end of term talent show. Thankfully the music, apart from a few Kraftwerk motifs, is far from predictable and formulaic. Electro and rock fuse and the crowd dance in wild abandon. It's the sort of music you see in specialist stores under the heading - music for S&M fetish films and robot-eroticism!!!
Editors bring the emotion back with a performance eerily reminiscent of Joy Division. Tom Smith has a guitar string round his neck, but he can't resist the angular dysfunctional dancing of Ian Curtis. Current single "Munich" shows all the signs that they could become this years The Stills rather than go onto soaring fashionista style success, but this band have all the hallmarks of a long term classic band rather than a flash in the pan
Alex McCann
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MTV2 Spanking New airs the W/C 18th April
Also check out the MTV Base and MTV Hits Spanking
New shows as well
For exact times and repeat times
www.mtv.co.uk
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