Gene. Perennial mid-afternoon act on the NME stage of the nineties. Martin Rossiter a second-rate Morrissey with his controversial interviews. That memorable quote ‘they chose the only time in history when sounding like the Smiths was a bad idea’. There at the birth of indie landfill. Except now. I’ve listened to Olympian and Drawn To the Deep End and they are great. Just great. Much better than I thought at the time. I’m not saying if they were starting today they’d have been world-conquering, but Steve Mason’s guitar lines, Rossiter’s vocals and the all-round sturdiness of the songwriting have aged surprisingly well. Other bands please who were second-raters at the time who have now become firm favourites.
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moseleymoles says
This is a different category from second-rate bands with one first-rate track.
Rigid Digit says
The Bluetones.
Rickenbaker welding jangly Britpop wannabes, but their second album Return To The Last Chance Saloon is mighty fine
I quite like a bit of Shed Seven too
Paul Wad says
The Bluetones first album is one of my favourite albums. It’s fab.
Moose the Mooche says
Talking to Clarry is the best song to be named after dialogue from The Archers since Frank Zappa’s Oh No.
davebigpicture says
Zappa was a Geordie?
Moose the Mooche says
Why aye. You must remember his albums Freak Oot, Overneet Sensation, Gateshead the Hard Way and Will You Not Shurrup and Play Yer Guitar Yaboogaman.
Bamber says
Great live band, touring and playing festivals this summer. Now managed by Alan McGee. My favourite track is currently this “In a broken dream” influenced number…
Moose the Mooche says
My Life Story…. a bit of a joke then, with Jake Shillingford’s little Bill Haley kiss-curl.
But a brilliant band, especially the second album The Golden Mile.
exilepj says
a superb live band too Moose … now stripped down to a five piece but still carrying it off … also just realised I have used the word stripped in response to a post by you … oops
Moose the Mooche says
It’s this humid weather, you know.
Colin H says
Someone’s bound to mention Stray so I’ll get it out of the way early – second-, if not third-raters back in the day, firm favourites at the AW now, it seems.
exilepj says
Martin Rossiter’s solo album ‘The Defenestration of St Martin’ is also well worth an investigation
metal mickey says
Actually saw him promoting this album at the London Borderline, just him and a pianist, very good indeed… and I had a chat with him after the gig and he was a real gent, always nice to see…
Mike_H says
Being compared to third-rate does not make second-rate any better. It is possible (but unusual) for second-rate bands and artists to become first-rate, but just seeming so is not enough unless you lower your standards.
Sewer Robot says
That’s certainly one explanation, but I think there is such a thing as a band emerging at at a time when there is a glut of one particular type of music or when one or two acts are getting all the oxygen, and then later, when people are crying out for a decent power pop/noisy guitar/British reggae band, people take the time to really explore (and Spotify etc is your mate* here) the work of some chancers branded as second rate and be pleasantly surprised.
(Also, could be you have an actual mate who’s never stopped banging on about them and you finally yield)
moseleymoles says
Absolutely I think every artist gets two shots at reputation: one when they’re hot, the next big thing, selling out, number one. And one way after all the fuss has died down.
H.P. Saucecraft says
Pale Fountains. Now we have forgot the baggy shorts, their albums are pretty enjoyable.
metal mickey says
“Olympian” is a great album, always thought so, though Gene were generally rather too obvious in lifting The Smiths’ template wholesale, from their sound to their sleeves, and even making their 2nd album a “Hatful of Hollow”-type odds & sods collection…
My own “second raters” I’d promote to division one would be Sigue Sigue Sputnik, who are far more enjoyable shorn of the hype, and make much more sense now in an internet/cosplay world, and also BowWowWow, unfeasably raucous and thrilling, especially when not being compared to Adam & The Ants and worrying about what Malcolm McLaren will say next… the recent BWW box set is just fantastic…
Paul Wad says
I once went to see Gene, supported by Stephen Duffy, at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. I had a ticket to see them the next night somewhere else in London, but Duffy wasn’t the support act for that one, so I swapped tickets with a tout. I ended up sat on the second row on the balcony down the side of the stage.
Duffy was great. It was weird seeing him play a big venue, after being used to seeing him in pubs and arts centres. Gene were great too. I really like their first album. But around halfway through the show Rossiter said he wanted to dedicate the next song to someone special in the audience and then suddenly a big spotlight shone on me. Well, not aimed at me, but it was on me and a little old lady in front of me. Seems I was sitting behind his dear old gran. Either way, it was one of the most uncomfortable few seconds I’ve ever spent at a gig.
Milkybarnick says
Gene were excellent – the more muscular sound of some of their later hits (Fighting Fit) was quite something. A second vote for Marion too who were genuinely exciting (and excellent live).
I’m going to add the Young Knives here – slighty weird and off kilter, but this is a magnificent tune.
Colin H says
I recall seeing Cactus World News of the Test once – they seemed *immediately* second-rate. So second-rate that you wonder why no one had told them up to that point. The Glasgowvegas of their day.
moseleymoles says
Sometimes second rate stays exactly that. I vividly remember bottom of the bill at the NME radar tour in the early 00’s was a certain Florence. Half an hour later we said’ she’s going to be a star’. Top of the bill? Glasvegas. We said ‘they’re not’.
SteveT says
Glasvegas were being pushed as the next big thing the first time I went to SXSW. The next time I went they were pushing The Joy Formidable – both are firmly still second rate.
The other one that was being pushed was The Ting Tings. They had their 5 minutes in the sun and were close to being first rate but fell away possibly because of ill judged decisions. After a stay in Germany they were going to call their next album Berlin Kunst.
It didn’t happen.
Leicester Bangs says
The Engineers never really got a fair shout. I think they’re ace.
monsignorbonehead says
I concur with both Gene and The Bluetones.
The first two Gene albums, and a lot of the odds and sods compilation, were top drawer. They went off the boil on #3.
I had forgotten about The Bluetones for a long, long time. Then, on a whim, I went to see Mark Morriss solo a few months back. He was great, and sent me diving back to his band’s back catalogue and also his ignored (by me at least) solo stuff, which is really good. Here’s a tune from the best one:
badartdog says
he does the music on David Walliams’s audiobooks.
Hamlet says
I was the perfect age for Britpop: 16 during the Blur v Oasis war. So much has changed in the music industry since then, not least the idea of music as a scene or fashion that people follow slavishly. It’d be nice to revisit some of the bands who were trampled underfoot by the cruder end of Britpop.
I had a mate at uni who loved Gene; he’d play We Could Be Kings (I think) a lot. I really liked it. They actually came and played at our uni, but I can’t say I thought much of them overall. That might say more about my 18-year-old self than their music, though. It’d be nice to give their stuff a spin now.
Shed Seven are a massive shout. I doubt they’ll ever be considered first-rate, but they were unlucky in the era they emerged in. If they’d come along in 2010, they’d have been massive (their Best Of has at least half a dozen really good tunes on).
Coldplay were very lucky when they emerged – if they’d come along in 1993, they’d have sunk down the loo with barely a flush required. Ditto the Arctic Monkeys: a third-rate Britpop band sustained because record companies now prefer insipid R’n’B, so any thin melody they can come up with sounds like the Beatles by comparison.
moseleymoles says
Timing is everything and you’ve got the AM’s success, out of proportion to their sometimes fine music, down.
Twang says
I was formulating a theory along these lines – perhaps they are not quite on trend so less successful, but actually have some real substance hence better later?
Mavis Diles says
Gene – We Could Be Kings… that’s one hell of a song I think. I hear it as someone trying to persuade himself not to commit suicide arguing from two different sides of a split personality. It’s very powerful, even if that’s not the intended meaning. It has an emotional heft to it that’s almost disturbing. He means it.