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This month, as you'll already know if you've looked at the Albums column, sees the release of Fierce Panda's ten year retrospective - "Decade". And, as its tracklisting shows, the roll call of bands who've come through its ranks and gone on to bigger and better things is an impressive one indeed - Idlewild, Embrace, Kenickie, 3 Colours Red, Coldplay, Hundred Reasons etc.
But what about the ones who didn't? Well, herein lies a story. For a few years back around 1998-9 sort of time, I used to DJ at KUBE, a student radio station in Stoke-on-Trent. Often the Fierce Panda releases were the ones that, as a budding Steve Lamacq wannabe, I'd keep my eyes peeled for - who knows what they'd be putting out this week.
There were more than a few bands who signed up to ver Panda who I happily playlisted for several weeks on my show and went round telling everyone who'd listen (all three of 'em) that these guys were gonna be the next big thing, honest guv, they'll be selling out Brixton Academy this time next year. In a couple of cases (Idlewild being the most notable) I was right. Sometimes, I got it half-right - the likes of China Drum, Seafood, Sing-Sing, the Rain Band and Simple Kid would all go on to modest success without setting the world alight. Most of the time I simply got it horribly wrong - the band would simply disappear without trace maybe after another couple of singles or even just after their first.
Here then, in a sort of twisted tribute to the great Panda, is a list of some of those bands who simply vanished, a tribute to the great forgotten heroes of yesteryear if you will. Read and learn, indie kids, read and learn...
SCARFO
THE LOWDOWN: Emerging at the same time as Placebo (the two groups were good friends and would often tour together in the early days), we first encountered Scarfo very on in the history of pre-"Vault" fanzine "Brain Stew" rather their rather fantastic "Lifeline" single (described by yours truly at the time as "panic gas attack punk-pop at its finest"). They supported Ash at Radio 1's Sound City '96 in Leeds and we were convinced they would go on to bigger things.
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?: Well, they moved across to Deceptive and...erm, it all sort of went seriously wrong. They put out a series of singles and a couple of albums, neither of which really lived up to that early promise. As Placebo went supernova so they continued to be stuck on the toilet circuit - having one of their albums slagged in the NME as sounding like "the new Ned's Atomic Dustbin" probably didn't help either. They finally split in 1998.
DWEEB
THE LOWDOWN: Ah yes, good ol' Dweeb. First emerged in 1996 with the bloody fantastic "Scooby Doo"/"Chartraider Spaceinvader" single - the former of which was 100 seconds of pure lo-fi with pop sensibilities at its finest. Fronted by sometime Kenickie acolyte Kris Dweeb, we were convinced that in the wake of Bis hitting it big in late '96 that Dweeb would follow suit very quickly.
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?: They signed to a major, had a couple of minor hits (including a re-recorded "Scooby Doo" which they shamefully extended to over two minutes with a pointless middle section) and an album before breaking up very suddenly in late 1997 due to two of them going off to University. Ah well...
CHEWY
THE LOWDOWN: So...how does the idea of a Swiss version of Ash grab you then? No, wait come back... We first got acquainted with Chewy via their rather fine debut single "Prime Time" in late '96 which namechecked Star Wars, Hangin' With Mr Cooper and Diff'rent Strokes and included the immortal couplet "Luke Skywalker was such a loser!/Princess Leia sucks Darth Vader!" Second single "All Over The Place" equally as good.- it sounded like Dinosaur Jr gone hyper. Debut mini-album duly followed.
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?: Dunno, it seems like they just broke that crucial year too late to really capitalise on the Britpop-punk scene they were arguably made for. As far as I'm aware, they never moved to a major finally putting out a proper album "Whattookyousolong?" on a Swiss indie a couple of years later. They may still be out there somewhere...
THE INTERPRETERS
THE LOWDOWN: Bloody fantastic mod-punk band from Philadelphia who put out a brace of singles on Fierce Panda in early '98 - "Shout" and "I Should've Known Better", both of which sounded like the Jam circa "In The City which was definitely a good thing. Your correspondant remembers seeing them live in Stoke and being so blown away he instantly proclaimed that they'd be in the Top 10 in a year's time. Erm...
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?: Disappeared without a trace following those two singles. An album, "Back In The USSA" apparently does exist somewhere across the Atlantic...
THE HIGH FIDELITY
THE LOWDOWN: Formed by the ex-Soup Dragons pair of Sean Dixon and Ross MacFarlane, these guys briefly looked like being the next big thing for a few months in 1998-99. Early releases "Addicted To A TV" and "Sick Of It All" (which featured on a Fierce Panda six-tracker) were fantastic slices of snotty speed-punk while subsequent singles "Come Again" and "2 Up/2 Down" (the latter a single of the week on Mark Radcliffe's show) showed they could write great catchy pop tunes with the best of 'em.
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?: Possibly due to staying on a minor label, the much-anticipated chart breakthrough just never materialised. A second album, "Omnichord", did appear in 2001 but since then, nothing.
VELOCETTE
THE LOWDOWN: Formed, unbelievably, by three girls who used to be in RiotGrrrl no-marks Comet Gain, Velocette used to specialise in lovely swirling epic indie not a million miles from sounding like a female Boo Radleys or a less drony version of early Lush. Following releasing "Bitterscene" on a Fierce Panda six-tracker, they put out a fine series of singles ("Get Yourself Together", "Spoilt Children", "Reborn") and a competent debut album "Fourfold Remedy". Things were looking promising...
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?: Unfortunately, their label Wiija went bankrupt a matter of months after their album was released leaving the group without a means for releasing stuff. Since we've heard nothing from them since, it seems safe to say that their inability to find another label probably led to them splitting up.
LLAMA FARMERS
THE LOWDOWN: Supremely slouchy post-grunge teen punks from West London who put out two rather fine EP's, "Paper Eyes" and "Always Echoes" (though the best tracks on these, "PVC", "Jessica" and "Yellow" were to be found on the B-side) on Fierce Panda. Subsequently moved on to Beggars Banquet, notched up a minor hit with "Get The Keys And Go" and produced a promising enough debut album "Dead Letter Chorus".
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?: Unfortunately, they suffered from "second album" syndrome - their follow-up (the name of which escapes me at this moment) was a poor album with hardly any original ideas or memorable tunes (though the first single from it, "Same Song" was actually quite good which only made it even more of a disappointment)
BEAKER
THE LOWDOWN: Brilliantly insane group of lo-fi noise terrorists from Oxford who came to our attention via a brace of rather fantastic singles, "Backgarden" and "Monster" in 1998 which basically featured their female lead singer alternately singing and shrieking over tuneful lo-fi backing. Which is a lot better than it sounds, trust us.
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?: Again, nothing was subsequently heard from them which suggests they never got signed after leaving Fierce Panda. A sad loss.
INNER SLEEVE
THE LOWDOWN: Formed by a collection of ex-Slowdive and Chapterhouse types, they could've been absolutely terrible post-shoegazing no-mark crap. They weren't. First two singles, "Come Alive" and "Let Me Down" were brilliant slices of distorto-rock which got playlisted on my show a fair bit in 1998. They then put out a mini album, "Looking Up" which featured a mix of studio tracks and demos on Fierce Panda...
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?: ...and promptly split up soon afterwards. Singer Simon Scott subsequently turned up as drummer in briefly promising indie types Lowgold a couple of years later.
TWIST
THE LOWDOWN: All-girl punkers from Wolverhampton who either sounded like the West Midlands' answer to Hole or a female Idlewild circa "Hope Is Important" depending on your viewpoint. At their best (singles "Lay Low" and "Star") they sounded scarily brilliant - pure white hot bile-spewing anger at its best.
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?: Again, classic case of "right band, wrong time". Had they emerged either three years earlier (post-Hole) or two years later with nu-metal bringing rock back into the mainstream, they'd almost certainly have gone on to bigger things. As it was, they put out a mini-album "Magenta", another single and that was it. Not sure if they're still going or not.
THE GREAT OUTDOORS
THE LOWDOWN: None-more-indie types (who used to be mid-'80s types the Farmer Boys) from Norwich who released a quite brilliant single called "It Looks So Easy" which sounded like Belle & Sebastian covering the New Radicals' "You Only Get What You Give" (and that's much better than it sounds believe me) and got played very regularly on my radio show at the time...
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?:Not sure if it was a case of emerging at the wrong time, indie ghetto mentality or just a case of being genuinely unlucky but they just seemed to disappear after one further single. File under "where are they now?".
FRAFF
THE LOWDOWN: First emerged on the six-track "Otter Than July" (a-ha-ha-ha) EP in 1999 along with Mohobishopi and Rosita among others with the rather ace "You Tripped And Messed Up My Rugs" which sounded like some bizarre cross between Sparks and Nick Cave. We saw them live around the same time and curiously they looked exactly how they sounded. Bizarre...oh and they also had a song called "You'll Never Realise It Until Someone Smacks You In The Face". Respect.
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?: Promptly ended up scuttering around a series of minor labels releasing stuff you couldn't get hold of in Stoke-on-Trent. Could be that they're still going after all this time but I doubt it.
ROSITA
THE LOWDOWN: Formed by the ex-Kenickie trio of Marie, Emma and Debbie plus ex-These Animal Men guitar mangler Paddy Murray, they also featured on the "Otter Than July" EP with an average-ish track called "Sugar". However, it was enough to get them signed to Grand Royal subsidiary Zubazarretta for whom they released the absolutely brilliant "Santa Poca's Dream" single a few months later, easily as good as anything the girls had done in Kenickie previously.
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?: Sadly, Zubazarretta closed a matter of months after the single was released and, shamefully, the group couldn't find a new deal. Current whereabouts unknown.
MERCEDES
THE LOWDOWN: Another of those "big epic indie" groups, this time sounding like a cross between the Sundays and early Coldplay. Released a single on Fierce Panda called "Nailed" which was five minutes of swoonsomeness with a just-as-good B-side called "Big Guy".
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?: Another victim of the great indie Cold War of 1999, they simply never got signed, a shameful oversight by the record industry. May still be out there somewhere...
TENNER
THE LOWDOWN: Indie rockers from Bath whose "Where Do You Come From?" debut was enough to get them signed to Food, then home of Blur and Idlewild among others. Net result was the "Last Chance EP" containing the standout track "We Will Be Kings", an invigorating mix of Shed Seven's tunefulness and Marion's epic pretensions which promptly picked up serious airplay on my show and a "Brain Stew" single of the month award. We proclaimed at the time that "as Coldplay have done in 2000, so shall Tenner do in 2001"...
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?: ...which doubtless they would've done had Food not gone bust a mere matter of weeks later. Little has been heard from them since. Ah the good ol' BS curse eh kids?
Article written by Andy James
