The Long Blondes
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| Background information | ||
| Origin |  Sheffield, England |
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| Genre(s) | Indie rock Indie pop |
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| Years active | 2004–present | |
| Label(s) | Rough Trade | |
| Website | http://www.thelongblondes.co.uk/ | |
| Members | ||
| Kate Jackson Dorian Cox Reenie Hollis Emma Chaplin Screech Louder |
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The Long Blondes are a 5-piece English indie rock band from Sheffield. They have a large underground following, with emphasis on their "glamorous punk" image, as coined by front-woman Kate Jackson. Jackson was featured in The Guardian's style section and the NME cool list, moving from 39 in 2005 to 7 in 2006. When questioned about her place in the first NME list by The Guardian, Jackson remarked "Probably because they didn't have enough girls. It was so overrun with boring boys, they needed someone to bring a touch of glamour."[1]
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[edit] Band members
- Dorian Cox - Lead guitar and keyboards.
- Reenie Hollis - Bass guitar and backing vocals
- Emma Chaplin - Rhythm guitar, Keyboards and backing vocals
- Kate Jackson - Lead vocals
- Screech Louder - Drums
[edit] Style
The Long Blondes' songs reflect a number of influences, including 60's pop, Buzzcocks, The Ramones, post-punk and New Wave. Traces of work by another Sheffield band, Pulp can also be seen in their recordings, their debut album was indeed produced by Steve Mackey, bassist of Pulp. The prominence of these various influences varies from song to song. Jackson's vocals have been compared to Ari Up of The Slits, Deborah Harry of Blondie and those of Au Pairs. Dorian Cox's backing vocals are also very similar to those of Jarvis Cocker. The music features angular guitars and prominent bass guitar lines. However, the band themselves claim somewhat more eclectic influences than their sound suggests, citing Burt Bacharach, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Chinn and Chapman, and Stock, Aitken and Waterman as influences. The band gained notoriety early on in their career for their bold proclamation "We do not listen to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors or Bob Dylan. We chose an instrument each and learnt to play it." This quote was first published on their website, and was seen as a comment on the derivative nature of the contemporary music scene.
[edit] Career
On April 13, 2006 they signed to Rough Trade Records[1] and recorded their long-awaited debut album, Someone to Drive You Home over the summer ready for its release on November 6. They worked with producer Steve Mackey on the album, who has previously worked with Pulp. The album was preceded by their second single for the label, "Once and Never Again", which was released on October 23rd and debuted at number 30 in the UK singles chart[2]. In June 2006 they released their first single for the label, "Weekend Without Makeup", which reached number 28. They appeared at a number of UK festivals over summer 2006, including the Carling Weekend, Leicester's Summer Sundae and Ireland's Electric Picnic.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Studio albums
- The Long Blondes "Giddy Stratospheres" (2007) (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- 30 second sample from The Long Blondes' "Giddy Stratosphere's" from the album Someone to Drive You Home.
- Problems listening to the file? See media help.
[edit] Singles
- Autonomy Boy / Long Blonde (split 7" with The Boyfriends) - Filthy Little Angels (Sept 2004)
- New Idols / Long Blonde - Thee Sheffield Phonographic Corporation
- Giddy Stratospheres (b/w Polly and Darts) - Angular Recording Corporation
- Giddy Stratospheres" (12" EP) - What's Your Rupture?
- Appropriation (By Any Other Name) (b/w My Heart is Out of Bounds & Lust in the Movies) - Angular Recording Corporation
- Separated By Motorways (b/w Big Infatuation) - Good and Evil
- Weekend Without Makeup - Rough Trade (UK #28)
- Once And Never Again - Rough Trade (UK #30)
- Giddy Stratospheres - Rough Trade (UK #37)
[edit] References
- ^ Fox, Imogen (2005-19-12). Kate Jackson, The Long Blondes. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2006-10-25.
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Interview With Kate & Emma @ Subculture Magazine / October 2006
- The Long Blondes @ Myspace.com
- Thee Sheffield Phonographic Corporation
- Angular Recording Corporation
- The Guardian interview with Kate Jackson about her image
- The Long Blondes - Someone To Drive You To The Dancefloor on stv spotlight
- PUNKCAST#773 Vid of Long Blondes @ Cake Shop NYC - Jun 22 2005
- Emma Chaplin and Dorian Cox interviewed over the band's influences and the aspirations
