I remeber the first time that I saw The View. I was obsessed. I think it was August 2006. After hearing 'Wasted Little DJs' in May I was waiting for what felt like a year to actually see them. The rowdy rabble made the trip down to Tunbridge Wells where they DESTROYED the Forum - a converted public toilet to gig venue inhabited mainly by 90's grunge throwbacks and satanist goths...
Sweat dripped from the low ceilings in this cramped scum-box, bodies cascaded the heads of the onlookers like a human tidle-wave and there was a general sense of 'Fuck Everything' - brushing hair from their Stella soaked brow's everyone in the room had the same feeling. This is filthy, this is dirty, this is fucking amazing.
Prior to those little Dundonian upstarts was a local Kent band from Chatham, The Underground Heroes. Now for those of you who don't know Chatham, how shall I put this...well...it's a real fucking dive, Britain's own practical joke, a social mistake...yeah something like that. Apparently home to the 'chav', its Burberry clad inhabitants ain't the sort of characters who embody a sense of cultural heritage.
After a brief encounter with 1965 records that amounted to the release of one or two singles ('Stella...' and 'Skinny Twins') they went solo. Arranging their tours and shows pretty much on an independent basis, and why not? they've certainly got a bit of a cult following.
Their grotty Marlboro-munching antics and booze fuelled weekenders have a certain urban mystic to it. Far from dwelling on the negatives, the Heroes make the best of a bad situation by loading themselves up with cheap piss-like cider and trashing through some grotty gutter punk.
After a seven month or so hiatus the Heroes have had a little revamp. Their new website looks flashier than a scensters myspace page, they've gone a little less chav, now opting to sport Iron Maiden t-shirts and leather jackets rather than the previous Nicholson stripped garments, and they've returned optimistic and excitable, eager to get back out there and spit in the face of something delicate.
A recent blog posted on their myspace states this very enthusiasm. Titled 'This Is The Dawning...' there appears to be a certain air of epithany following them. Rather than embarking on a spiritual mission to 'find themselves' at a Buddist temple in Tibet they decided to lock themselves up in their new practice space and get down to some writing, recently deciding what should be done with all these old and new tracks:
we have been thinking about what to do with our now extensive catalogue of old songs and demos. The solution was/is to make them available to buy!!! How about that? Underground Heroes selling some music? The first installment of music will be ready and available to buy in digital and physical format by the way of a 5 track EP in October. This will consist of 3 old tracks, a new Demo and a "Wild-card". This maybe a live track, a home demo or something never heard! All going well we plan to release one of theses every 3 months. We haven't given up on our quest to put out a full proper album, but until then we want our music to be readily available and by doing this we can!
Excited? I am. This mini release series of e.p's will begin to paint the anarchist image of just how rambunctious this bunch of unruly chaps really are.
The words 'lad' and 'rock' and undoubtedly 'lad rock' are sure to surface soon enough. A stigma unwelcomed by pretty much everyone, but the only reason this analogy will arise is due to the small minded connotations related to songs that tell stories of something we all do, yet due to some fucked up social circle, may not admit. Getting tanked up, trying it on with girls and running out of dollar may seem a little 'ladish' to a handful of indie-musos who prefer a coffee to a can, but to me, I think it's a pretty accurate depiction of teenagers in this country. Plus, things only seem to adhere to such lad, oi oi correlations because people can sing their socks off to them. Since when has that been an negative thing? I can certainly see a lot more folks bellowing out to 'Chasing The Buzz' than they do at a Little Boots or Frank Music gig...
'Dolly Birds...' is rammed with youthful experimentation and 'Lost In Dundee' Rawley scopes out the highs and lows of a chaotic weekend in Scotland with their friends and fuck-ups alike. Then there's 'Brixton Stories'. An escalating anthem of the Heroe's fans and themselves. It's winy but hey, that's the beauty of it. Their brash, shoulder-barging swagger sounds so wrong under George's cockney squeak, but at the same time, it's hard to deny it's nothing but brilliant.
New track 'The Ripper' follows the same suit as Plan B's 'Suzanne' cover but takes a notable turn when they switch onto a metal-like solo that courses its destructive mannerisms mid-way through the track. Lavishly ramshackle they haven't changed their ways, just built on them, safe in the knowledge that they now have the technical capabilities to indulge in both the hardcore-punk scene and the indie scene.
I've got faith in the Heroes, and have done for a few years now. It's often that bands come and go, that much is true, but there's no getting rid of these Chatham hell raisers. They never 'went away' as such, just took a much deserved break. But yesterday was yesterday and today's a new dawn, a heroic dawn. Get ready. It's going to get ugly.
Download the not-stop jam of 'Tracksuit Bottoms And Polo Tops' below. Appreciate the lyrics and social acceptance because you might just end up liking them...
Download underground heroes - Tracksuit Bottoms And Polo Tops
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