Features
The Long Blondes
February 10th 2005 is a date etched on this writer's memory, and not only because he witnessed The Long Blondes strutting their stuff for the first time on that fateful evening.
The rest is merely incidental for the purposes of this feature, but suffice to say the story wouldn't be out of place on the Blondes' soon-to-be-released debut LP. Like all the best pop records, 'Someone To Drive You Home' deals in the currency of love, loss, drama and passion, and unlike their most successful South Yorkshire contemporaries, The Long Blondes aren't trading in grim reality. Not for them the oppressive taxi ranks of the City Centre at 2am on a Friday night, or the greasy kebabs vomited into the gutter on the walk home. No, none of that.
Early interviews and biographies were peppered with endlessly repeatable quotes, talk of forming a fantasy pop group and emulating the style of famous blondes like Jean Harlow, Mae West, Edie Sedgwick, Nico and Nancy Sinatra. Musically, too, they dared to be different. Tired of watching the same old pedestrian indie-rock outfits week-in, week-out during their student days at the University of Sheffield, they boldly claimed not to listen to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, or Bob Dylan and forged their own literate, angular pop songs despite being, by their own admission, novices in the playing stakes. Even then, with barely thirty minutes of material and a slightly shambolic live show, there was something instantly captivating about watching a Long Blondes gig.
Next came a string of limited edition releases on Thee Sheffield Phonographic Corporation, Angular Records and Paul Epworth's Good and Evil imprint. The hype grew with each subsequent offering and the music industry predictably came calling. The biggest surprise was that they weren't signed immediately, but it soon became apparent that these 'Blondes weren't for turning. Rumours persisted that they wanted to record an album of wholly new material but the truth according to the band was that nobody wanted to take a risk on them. ?Like shy boys at the side of the school disco? was how guitarist Dorian Cox viewed the record execs who'd appear at all their London gigs before sloping off.
That all changed in April this year when Rough Trade took the plunge and it wasn't long before the band succumbed to Geoff Travis' advances. ?Just joining the roster of Rough Trade bands... I think it's what any band worth their salt would want to do,? gushed Cox. His songwriting partner and housemate Kate Jackson (she of NME Cool List 2006 'fame') was similarly excited when we spoke at the Summer Sundae festival in Leicester this year. ?We've finally been able to make a record. It's changed everything? she said, and it certainly did. No longer working in monotonous office jobs (or, in Jackson's case, Freshmans Boutique on Division Street) the band were free to venture into the studio with Steve Mackey, former Pulp bassist, and lay down their full length debut in just two and a half weeks.
Guess what? It confirms everything we've suspected all along: give them a decent studio and producer, and they'll turn out one hell of a record. It's glamorous, it's intelligent and it's sexy, but it's also far punchier than any of their recordings to date. The re-recorded versions of fan favourites 'Giddy Stratospheres', 'Lust In The Movies' and 'Separated By Motorways' improve upon the originals by some distance, adding substance to their hitherto rough edges, but newer songs like 'Heaven Help The New Girl' and 'You Could Have Both' stand up just as well alongside them in the tracklisting. The latter features a twin vocal from Jackson and Cox, in the spirit of The Velvet Underground's 'The Murder Mystery', and is another instant ear-pleaser. They've always said they're capable of it, now they've gone and done it: The Long Blondes' debut is a bona fide pop classic, and won't sit out of place even in a stable as well-bred as Rough Trade's. Congratulations, guys and girls... you got there in the end.
The Long Blondes are: Kate Jackson (vocals), Dorian Cox (guitar), Reenie Hollis (bass), Screech (drums) and Emma Chaplin (guitar/keyboard).
'Someone To Drive You Home' is out now on Rough Trade Records.
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