The Dunwells will reward your Blind Sighted Faith: Given to Sound takes a look at their classy debut.
The Dunwell’s are a five piece from Leeds and their debut album Blind Sighted Faith came to our attention recently. Their website biography begins “utterly natural, there’s no more fitting description for the music as well as the story of their magical rise”… Given to Sound would like to take issue with that; for a kick off magic isn’t natural, it is a construct, it is sleight of hand and distraction to cover up what is actually occurring, deception, if you will. A lot of band’s do that, make a big noise to cover up what is in reality an alarming lack of talent.
This does not apply to The Dunwells. It isn’t a product of magic, it’s not a big loud noise to distract and deceive, it’s the product of hard work and obvious talent. While the band are in America on tour we consider it our public service duty to take you through the album so that when they return home, you can say you were warned.
Noel Gallagher releases the single ‘Dream On’ on March 12th. It’s the fourth single release from the album Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and as always with Mr Gallagher, the B-Side is worth a listen. It features a song which is included on his collaboration with the Amorphous Androgynous. The full album of 18 songs features completely new material and 3 re-workings of tracks featured on HFB (including this, Shoot A Hole Into The Sun, reworked from If I Had a Gun and played before Noel takes to the stage on his live tour). The song is also briefly featured in the Ride the Tiger video trilogy of If I Had a Gun, The Death of You and Me and AKA What A Life!
Daystar’s Simon Monaghan talks to Given to Sound about the band’s hopes for 2012, making a name on the national scene and… gravel.
The Manchester band Daystar have always been seemed like a band comfortable in their own skin; they have tipped their hat to the sounds that inspired them but at no point have they felt crushed by the ghosts of a Manchester sound. We liked that about them and we liked their self titled album, so much so that we urged you to part with actual money to buy it. Since Given to Sound shone a light on them last March, the boys have been busy trying to get the rest of the country to jump on their bandwagon.
In the past year they have moved on and their confidence has grown; confidence in the music and in the band, importantly they are full of ideas on how to progress it all. Daystar will not stop until the whole nation is singing from their hymn sheet and let’s just say, the nation might well be clearing its voice.
Lead singer Simon Monaghan recently caught us up on all things Daystar. It’s fair to say they’ve worked quite hard:
“We were the only band asked to play on TV for ESPN Talk of the Terrace for the second time which we were proud of”, Monaghan told us. The band has also been featured in the match day football programmes of Simon’s beloved Manchester United and the official magazine of Ste Wood’s favourite, Manchester City. The wider football world seems to be catching on to them as well; around half the teams in the Premier League have already played the band’s music on match day.
Daystar are working hard to achieve success and it’s not a manufactured affair; they have the tunes to make their musical statement and they play them live. When they do walk onto the stage they aren’t playing to one or two people either, make no mistake – the people are supporting this band: they won Pure FM’s Band Of 2011 because people voted in their thousands to make it happen.
The band release Don’t Need Thison March 12th, the third release from their self titled debut album. Here’s a random blast from the past, remember 1996’s Slight Return from The Bluetones? It’s a bit similar. Monaghan’s voice yearns delightfully at the chorus and the guitars keep the whole thing moving.
“The song is about the pretension and conformity of the murky underbelly of the Manchester club scene and the social whores who frequent it. It’s one of my favourite songs to sing live” says Simon.
When we covered the band last year we said we’d be interested to hear what a pissed off Daystar sounded like, what if the vocals snarled every now and again and the band let some songs go past the three minute mark? Some of the tracks were crying out to be extended because musically they pull you in. Maybe we influenced Simon as he told us about performing the song live; “We do an extended vocal at the end where the gravel in my voice really comes out!”
In all seriousness, Daystar deserve success. They have a growing fan base and they have the ear of some of the music’s big hitters such as the legend that is Clint Boon. Simon is ready to see where the band goes and has every right to have high hopes:
“Our hope for this year is to become well-known across the UK. We already have some national coverage but not enough so this year is when we hope to build on everything. Our plan is to be massive obviously and we believe we have the potential to do it.”
We can also confirm that they are also working on new material:
“We are working on the yet untitled new album and have five or six tunes pretty much ready to record and loads more ideas. We’re hoping to release something from it in the second half of the year.”
That’s that then, their star is ready to ascend and there will be lots of happy people around when it does, they can’t stay our local secret forever and they wouldn’t want to;
“We have learnt a lot over the last 2 years and grown as a band. When we show people what we have been working on we will spread like wildfire. That’s the plan.”
Daystar perform at This Feeling in Shoreditch tonight (24th February) and support The Rifles at the HMV Ritz on the 29th March. Check out Upcoming Gigs for more details. You can also buy the music here.
When Queen took to the stage at Wembley Stadium, they were the biggest live attraction in Britain if not the world, Freddie Mercury was at the top of his form, and the crowd at Wembley roared in his hands. The Live at Wembley Stadium ’86 DVD and CD set is, without doubt, pure class and worthy of a place in anyone’s record collection; in terms of live recordings, this is historic.
I’ve been watching and listening to this event since I was a kid. My parents had videos full of music videos and concerts and I must have watched them all to the point of wearing them out when I was younger. Dad taped this one from the Channel Four broadcast, it was taped after David Hepworth talked to David Hepworth on the Born in the USA tour and before a Prince’s Trust concert but…I digress. The point is, I didn’t have to re-listen / re-watch this to write any words about it and I make no apologies for saying it’s the absolute bollocks of live documents.
“I’d go back to the beginning tomorrow, as long as I ended up here today” – Noel Gallagher
Noel Gallagher’s plans to return to the music world with a whisper rather than a bang don’t seem to have worked. Since the Chief himself sat in the press conference in the summer and announced the debut album Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds everyone has been talking about it. In fact the lid was blown off the plans when another band tweeted about his presence at the studio in Los Angeles. So now, with the dust settled, the promotional interviews done and dusted and the tour underway, was the wait…the hype and the expectation worth it? Given to Sound answers with a resounding YES.
Given to Sounds 