The Johnsons - A Band Is Born (2/3) By Michelle Dee

(1/3), (2/3), (3/3),

The band made a collective decision to shy away from reproducing the current Indy sounds and looked to their own musical influences for direction. They knew the only way they could make an impact on the scene was to try and create something different from what was happening already. Bands such as the Beatles, The Clash and The Rolling Stones had shaped their lives; now these illustrious names began to shape their music too. They looked to their friends The Dirty Dreamers for inspiration; being a band who are not afraid to play outside the box, they were positive about the potential of the bands strong seventies rock sound.

All too soon, after hardly enough rehearsal time, the day arrived when they would have to perform for the first time in front of an audience. The Johnsons must have been shaking like coins in a tin can, when they saw the hundreds of people jammed into the Linnet and Lark on the 11TH January. The other bands had helped them during the sound-check earlier and offered them every encouragement; such is the spirit among many of the bands at the moment.

That night in front of the largest crowd for a pub gig, if not many club gigs, hundreds of pairs of eyes watched The Johnsons play alongside four established bands. Only a few months before they had been fans of these well known acts. For many there were two highlights that night in The Sesh; Turismo, playing a magical acoustic set and, The Johnsons, what a debut!

The band understands the importance of creating a strong following, but they want to avoid playing just the one genre. They are ready to take risks, try out new ideas, to attract as many different faces as possible to their gigs. One of the ideas is to create vocal harmonies on some of the tracks to make the songs more interesting and memorable. The Johnsons believe the key to getting themselves known, is to make every song stand out. No dead ducks for them then.

The new song Carnivore is such an example and they are getting good reactions from the crowd when they perform it live. Tim would like to see everyone moving and shaking, to know that the crowd are enjoying themselves. They are very aware of the buzz around the scene, and put that down to some of our local bands making waves and brushing the charts now and again. Before, local bands used to play out of town but things are changing. There is a growing market for quality, local music, and support from Raw Talent, The Sesh and others, who are passionate about homegrown sound.

The result of this means more and more bands are playing in their own back yards.

Danny says, that the local bands are being given a powerful kick up the proverbial by some of the bigger bands coming to play in Hull; the likes of Mystery Jets, Bloc Party, The Ordinary Boys and Kasabian, have all played Hull in the last six months. In any given week you could go see twelve local bands or more in the growing number of venues supporting live music. Now there's an idea, like the Twelve Tasks of Hercules, I shall endeavour to see and report on twelve bands in one week. At this moment a thought flashes across my synaptic pathways, didn't we have twelve acts at Rhythm Room in the one night? Hell it's been done already, anyone see all twelve acts...?

Continued next page (3/3)

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