Pop Threat
By Andy RobertsThe Leeds four piece explain why they've never felt a part of the Leeds scene, but still have the opportunity to make it big
For the best part of a decade Led Zeppelin used to pack stadiums to the rafters in city after city over the pond. Yet arguably never courted the same manic fandom on their native shores.
Similarly, York's finest sons Shed Seven never reached the summit of the charts here like they did in Thailand. And lest we forget bubblegum indie-pop duo Shampoo who almost found the UK surplus to requirements after their hit 'Trouble' such was the massive demand for their snarly sub-punk chic over in Japan.
The rock world is littered with such geographical inconsistencies but LMS have found our very own example on our doorsteps in Leeds.
A largely undiscovered gem in their native city, the delightfully uncompromising Pop Threat are a criminally under-supported act when they play sporadically in local venues.
But believe us, this shouldn't be the case. For this four piece have a much larger following all over the country. Indeed, they've got fans that seem to go to great lengths just to see them. In fact they sort out most of the band's gigs meaning that here in Leeds they can seem rather elusive.
"When people out there like us, they really like us and they want to help." Says lead singer and chief swaggerer Caroline McChrystal.
"They're like organising gigs and things for us so we'd be foolish to say no...! So in effect we don't have to do too much work arranging tours. We just seem to invoke really strong feeling in people."
Guitar pyrotechnician Darren Lockwood takes up the theme:
"We don't just play any gig. What we try and do is wait until a gig is offered to us and try and make it a special event. We don't play a lot in Leeds, in fact we don't tend to do as well in Leeds than we do elsewhere, like Lincoln or Hull. We're playing Winchester tomorrow of all places..."
"We've never wanted to be part of any scene. We don't fit into any of the kind of skate punk stuff that a lot of bands do so the really elusive tag is quite true. It's kind of trying to distance yourself from any kind of scene that's going on - standing alone, that might be a kind of arrogant attitude, I don't know... we just seem to do a lot better outside of Leeds."
So the Pop Threat net has been spread far and wide since the band's inception back in 1999. All it took was their first demo to get airplay Radio One's Evening Session. Then Steve Lamacq's mate Simon Williams copped a listen and offered to put their track 'Falling Spike' on one of his legendary Fierce Panda compilation singles.
Darren picks up the tale. "It was crazy at the start. A track called 'Falling Spike' was recorded after we'd been a complete band for just about two months. We rushed in to record a demo of the first stuff that we wrote. And we knew all about Fierce Panda and thought they might like what we did, so we just stuck a CD in the post. Eventually we got phone call saying they'd really like to put the track on the Otter Than July compilation. By the time it came out we'd only been together about six months..."
Then there followed obligatory John Peel plays and even an appearance at the Leeds festival. Did the band feel things happened just a little too fast at that point?
"I think that it meant that we had expectations..." says Caroline realistically.
"It was ridiculous!" Concurs Darren. "It all happened a bit too fast and didn't give us chance to develop any really strong material. We have changed now from those early days - as then the emphasis was all on noisy guitars and long outros with the intention of trying to piss off as many people as possible. Nowadays we're trying to do things with more of a swagger..."
Ah, the noisy guitars, all part and parcel of the band's charm. There are easy comparisons to be made with bands like The Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Ride and Sonic Youth. The band have records in their collections that yoofs of today with ska-punk and nu-metal have no concept of. This makes the Pop Threat sound so much more compelling.
"Some really brilliant bands came out of the Shoegazing scene. When I was at school I was a big fan of Ride - the early stuff anyway, me and Juliet used to sit around at sixth form listening to that kind of stuff." Says Darren.
"It's just completely natural to do these noisy, fuzzy songs that doesn't seem as natural to other people and it surprises me. Maybe they've listened to The Beatles a bit too much - we're just trying to do something with a bit more power to it.
The band now strive to make sure they aren't tagged as hiding behind walls of squalling feedback, making up for some kind of deficiency.
"We've been accused of being a noisy band, like 'Pop Threat will actually have to write some songs'. So the things that we come up with now are a lot songier," reassures Darren.
"Lyrically, though we'll always have that dark edge. Thrashy pop songs are great, I'd like to mix in some of the elements of what we did earlier with what we do now. I miss ramming drumsticks under strings and stuff...
Talk soon turns to future plans and they sure are ambitious. A debut album on Mook Records, a compilation album of singles and UK tours it can't be long until they take up their already on the table offers of gigs overseas.
This isn't a mere pipe dream for them; they're the next priority. With famous fans like comedian Sean Hughes and an ethos of "Plug in, belt it out, no in-between song banter, keep it on for 25 minutes and if they like it, they like it and if they don't, we don't care!" the Japanese will love it, no trouble.
