ALFIE | the next big thing... |
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Alfie the Manchester quintet formed by singer Lee Gorton with guitarist Ian Smith, cellist Matt McGeever, bassist Sam Morris and drummer Sean Kelly. In the late 90's Gorton had started to become fed up with the local music scene. Alfie caught a break when their very first performance was at a gig that NME reporters were at looking at several different British music scenes, seeing the band, reviewing the show and printing a picture of the band in the weekly publication.
Soon afterwards the band met and befriended Damon Gough (better-know as Badly Drawn Boy). Damon quickly signed the group up to his newly founded Twisted Nerve label and Alfies career was born |
Alfie then started releasing EP's (Alfie EP, Bookends EP, Montevideo EP) on Twisted Nerve, however still relatively unknown and with limited vinyl only release it only went a short way to push them in to public view.
'If Your Happy With, You Need Do Noting' was released in March 2001 and saw Alfie become the latest group of young scallywags to come slouching out of Manchester. They seemed set on turning the world upside down. The album collected all the tracks from the three EP release plus throwing two new tracks in to the mix. This collection of EP's placed Alfie up with fellow Mancunian upstarts such as the Buzzcocks, Joy Divison, the Stone Roses and Oasis. |
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Almost one year later nearly to the day Alfie released their first album A Word In Your Ear a snug, cosy 10 tracks of fluffy folksy ramble that wouldn't say boo to the proverbial goose, but somehow, manages to blow all your preconceptions about winsome indie-pop out of the window. You'll hear the rural poetry of Nick Drake to the gutsy swagger of The Stone Roses standing proud at the heart of Alfie's design. This was where people started to take notice of Alfie.
During the following year Alfie broke away from Badly Drawn Boy and his Twisted Nerve label and signed to Regal Records. The follow up album 'Do You Imagine Things' was born with the lads having more studio time
and more
resources at their
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finger tips. Three singles came from the album, 'People' then 'Stuntman' which was a double release and finally 'No Need'. This album proved that making the move from Twisted to Regal was a good idea, where would they go from here?
As we get to present day we get to 'Crying At Teatime' which adds to Alfies back catalog of dependable, solid, likeable and above all listenable (something that most of their contempories aren't in a position to claim). The lack of dead wood in their songs has to be a true testament to the natural talent and a keen sense of how to make great pop records.
From the record sleeve down 'Crying At Teatime' totally encapsulates everything Alfie have been doing right and then
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sets the bar even higher! This is a quality album, ten tracks of good, solid guitar rock, with Lee Gordons wistful vocal performance a good counterpart to what would be bombastic in lesser hands. The first single from the album is one of the stand out tracks (if there is just one), 'Your Own Religion' is a great poppy tune that you can't fail to smile and tap your feet along with. A few listens and you'll be blown away by the feel good lyrics and the warm fuzzy feeling of the anthem.
I think that Alfie have a very bright future ahead of them going from little known to a watch out for them, they are going to take the scene by storm. |
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