Growing up as a bored teenager, I was always slightly disappointed that (from the little I knew) only Shawaddywaddy came from the city of my birth, Leicester. Oh, and Englebert Humperdink, who my Mum claimed she once saw in a cafe. That was until I was watching the Chart Show, and suddenly these leather-trousered, Rickenbacker-toting long haired lads fired into the brilliant, theatrical indie rock of ‘Like Princes Do’. They literally saved my faith in my hometown, and I dutifully bought both the single and the album, Shakespeare Alabama.
Now, 30 years on, they’re not back, because technically they’ve never gone away. They’re just at the beginning of a new chapter. “We’ve never lost the spark,” says singer, songwriter and guitarist John Butler. “We’ve never stopped writing, recording and gigging. We’ve never let the setbacks encroach on our creativity. We’ve only ever judged ourselves by the standard to which we are performing. And we’ve pushed on through.”
This new chapter manifests itself with a new album, Let it Melt, and a new digital single, Suki / Scared of Time. The band still have that attitude, but Suki has this smokey reminiscence about it, while Scared of time is much more bar room. Both have intricate arrangements, with guitar lines and backing vocals weaving in and out of the mix, and both have this timeless, catchy quality about them.
Check the tracks out, here
