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Tiny Dancers
If I was a betting man, I'd say that Tiny Dancers are sick of Elton John jokes already, particularly ones about holding them close.
None of that, then, instead let's focus on a band who look set to redefine what people expect from Sheffield music. Of course, hailing variously from South Kirkby, South Elmsall and Brierley, three villages set between Doncaster and Wakefield, they're not strictly a Sheffield outfit at all.
"I get a little bit embarrassed when people call us a Sheffield band," admits singer David Kay, "I don't feel like we're a part of the scene at all, we don't really know any of those bands. We're happy to keep ourselves to ourselves".
Growing up in these former mining villages, music was one of the few escapes from the monotony of daily life for the Tiny Dancers. Perhaps this is why their songs tend to veer away from reality and head firmly in pursuit of the ethereal.
Take the moody opening to the lead track from debut EP 'Lions and Tigers and Lions', '20 to 9' for instance, or the hazy brilliance of 'Sun Goes Down'. Neither reflect anything about the band's geographical origins, sharing more in common with the vibes of a mid-60s California than a rainy afternoon in Doncaster.
Tiny Dancers formed in February 2005, but the members have all played in various bands since they were teenagers. They started off rehearsing in Kay's basement in Hunters Bar, Sheffield (the area immortalised by Alex Turner in 'Fake Tales Of San Francisco') before moving to a practice room in the city centre.
"It started sounding really good, much better than the other bands I'd been in, and I felt comfortable playing with the others," remembers Kay, "we all knew it was the direction we wanted to go in, it just clicked. At that point we weren't bothered about doing gigs, we were just playing for ourselves".
It wasn't long before the owner of that rehearsal space, Karen Wosskow, took the band under her wing and became their manager. After more practice and recording, they played a gig at Sheffield venue The Fez Club, where Wosskow promoted, and began to develop their live act. If you've seen them, you'll know that it's no ordinary show.
The band use props to customise the stage including Russian dolls, a television broadcasting static and a large toy tiger called Boston (in who's honour the EP is named). It makes for quite a spectacle, as does the face paint and cape combination Kay has taken to sporting recently.
"We want everyone to feel like they're at a party," explains Kay, "we're serious about our music, but when you play live it's good to try and break down that barrier. Most venues look the same, so we try to personalise them".
It's certainly one way of getting noticed, and for Tiny Dancers it seemed to do the trick: after just four gigs, they found themselves signed to industry behemoths Parlophone and touring with the likes of Richard Ashcroft and Bob Dylan.
"We used to do a Dylan tribute night so going from that to taking the same stage as him as a peer... it was amazing. A dream come true," says Kay, "we hung out with Flaming Lips, and got to dress up and go onstage with them. It was a dream lineup, them and Dylan... an awesome day".
Rest assured that once their John Leckie produced debut LP lands in the middle of 2007, there'll be plenty more than fit that description.
Tiny Dancers are: David Kay (vocals/guitar), Chris Etherington (guitar), Glover (keyboards), Dez Walthey (bass), Duncan Morrison (drums)
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