Long Way Home made history last week after becoming the first unsigned band to be asked to play 2 consecutive nights at the legendary London venue, 100 Club on Oxford Street. The lads had just came off stage after playing a blistering set to a packed club on Thursday 24th September when they were immediately asked to come back again the following night. The 100 Club has been host to legendary acts such as The Rolling Stones, Oasis, The Clash, Paul Weller, Primal Scream and Eric Clapton to name but a few. Long Way Home were playing on the Thursday night as part of winning Ayrplay 2009 and now look set to be regulars on the London circuit. Over 40 of the bands’ die-hard fans had made the long trip down from Scotland for Thursday nights performance and created an amazing atmosphere. But even though many had to travel back home and miss the second night, Long Way Home put in another devasting performance (Read more…)

PRIMAL SCREAM ruined their chance to make it big in America because of their drug addiction. Steven Van Zandt from Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band, said they could have been “biggest band in the world”. Van Zandt said he tried to bring Primal Scream to the States but added that but frontman Bobby Gillespie couldnt’ commit to a long tour because of his reliance on drugs. The rocker-turned-radio DJ said: “I tried to get Primal Scream to come over to America several times. I thought their album before this last one (2006’s Riot City Blues) was one of the greatest records in 10 years. “I begged them to come over. I had a whole tour for them. Their agent talked me out of it. He said: ‘They can’t do 20 shows.’ I’m like, ‘Come on, man. We do 20 shows a month’. “Primal Scream could be the biggest band in the world. They are fantastic when they make rock records - once every 10 years. But they can’t tour because of drug problems, or whatever. “I don’t have patience for it. I’m like, all right, you want to be a drug addict, go be a drug addict. Don’t waste my time.”

This period RTV Channel is broadcasting the View. Click here to learn more about the View.

Mercury Music Prize nominated, raw edged jock’n'roll teenage upstarts The View have just been added to the Snowbombing 10th Anniversary celebrations.

One of the most vibrant punk / pop / indie bands of the last few years, The View are famed for their succession of chart topping releases, and dizzying adrenalised stage appearances.

Dizzee Rascal, Fatboy Slim, Biffy Clyro, Kissy Sell Out, Grandmaster Flash and La Roux, (to name but a few) are also helping to celebrate in glistening style.

Snowbombing’s 10th Anniversary hits the picturesque postcard village of Mayrhofen in Austria between 29th March and 4th April.

SNOWBOMBING - WINTER’S LARGEST MUSIC FESTIVAL – WHY WAIT ‘TILL SUMMER!

WWW.SNOWBOMBING.COM

The View biography
Source: http://www.theviewareonfire.com/

Cast your mind back to 2005. While A&R men the length and breadth of the land were busy scouring the post-Franz landscape of Glasgow in search of the next great new Scottish band, what they sought lay a couple of hundred miles to the North East, in an oft-overlooked part of the country.

Musically, the history of Dundee isn’t exactly littered with success stories. Indeed, of the city’s two most notable additions to the pop canon - The Associates and The Average White Band - one’s tale ended in tragedy, while the other specialized in soul-funk. But all that is about to change with the advent of The View, the city of discovery’s newest and greatest white hopes. Four alarmingly young (average age: 18) friends from the Dryburgh area of the city, The View are comprised of Kyle, Keiren, Peter and Steve and formed from the ashes of an old covers band they formed at school, playing everything from Squeeze to The Sex Pistols. After deciding just over a year ago that their ambitions stretched considerably further than hawking ‘Up The Junction’ around the pubs and clubs of Dundee, they began writing and rehearsing their own songs in the backroom of their local, The Bayview Bar (hence the band’s name). When the band were thrown out of there - “I can’t remember exactly why,” recalls Peter, “But I think it had something to do with Kyle riding a scooter along the bar,” - they decamped to nearby venue The Doghouse, where they began living a “Monkees-like” existence, and the songs they were writing slowly began to take shape.

And what songs. From the ramshackle pop nuggets like ‘The Don’ and ‘Superstar Tradesman’ to the razor-sharp melodies of the ska-inflected ‘Skag Trendy’ , they may be grounded in the gutters of Dundonian council estates but nonetheless gaze intently at the stars. Marrying the forked tongue wit and guttersnipe humor of The Libertines with the melodic nous of The Buzzcocks and Oasis, each one is a mini-anthem in waiting, and none more so than ‘Superstar Tradesman’s singalong tale of council-estate drudgery.

“Your whole life,” explains Keiren, “People are always telling you, ‘Getyourself a trade, get yourself a job, it’s the only way to make any money’ and people end up giving up their other ambitions just to make some money. So you end up getting a trade to buy yourself a guitar and get a band together, but when you get home at the end of the day, you’re too tired to play the thing. You see it happening to so many people.”

Armed with an album’s worth of great tunes, it didn’t take them long to build up a following around the city, and after only their second gig, local indie label Two Thumbs declared that they wanted to release an EP with the band. Interest outside the city, however, was harder to come by - at least until former Rough Trade A&R man James Endeacott stumbled across their early demos and since, things have been moving at breakneck speed for The View.

They watched as their small gathering of followers grew into a mobile army, following them the length of the land on support slots and headline shows. And they stood agog as they found themselves at the centre of a record company bidding war that finally ended when they recently signed to James Endeacott’s new label, 1965 Records.

“He’s just a brilliant person,” explains Peter as to why they signed to 1965, “You can sign to someone for money, but we signed to James’ label because he’s a totally genuine guy who’s really enthusiastic about what we do. It’s all about the people for us, not whether someone’s a big shot or not. The other people we spoke to were all like ‘We’re from such-and-such a label, we could make you huge’, but James would just be down the front at our gigs jumping up and down, shouting ‘I love you boys! I love you boys!’”

They were soon whisked off to record their debut album with legendary producer Owen Morris, renowned for his work with the likes of Oasis and The Verve, where their eyes were quickly opened to the excesses of rock n’ roll.

“When James told people that he was sending us off to record with Owen,” laughs Peter, “Everyone apparently said to him, ‘Why the hell are you sending the boys off to work with him? He’s mental!’ and he replied by saying, ‘Well, Owen’s mental - but the boys are fucking insane!’”

Kyle concurs, “Every time people were a bit down in the studio, or something wasn’t working properly, he’d be like, ‘Right boys, let’s head off down the strip club!’ Then another time it came up in conversation that I’d never drank champagne before and he stopped the session, dragged us out to a Chinese restaurant and told the waiter to give me as much champagne as I wanted! He’s a lovely guy, but a crazy bastard. I mean, we like a drink, but…”

After they’d got the strippers, champagne and stimulants out of the way, however, the band managed to record a truly great debut album, as yet unnamed but due to be unleashed on the world this autumn. Meanwhile, however, the band’s popularity has been quietly snowballing, with Bobby Gillespie recently declaring The View his new favorite band after they’d supported Primal Scream on a handful of recent dates, and their debut UK festival appearance at last month’s Radio 1’s Big Weekend Festival in Dundee, where the band’s hometown crowd packed out the tent they were playing in.

“I feel like it’s just meant to happen for us right now,” says Peter. “A small band from Dundee play two gigs and sign to a small Dundee label, a couple of months later they sign to a bigger label, then there’s a major music festival in Dundee for the first time - and we’re on the bill! Not only that, but people are going mad for us. It’s just meant to be. We used to read books about The Libertines and think to ourselves, ‘I’d love it if James Endeacott signed us,’ then a couple of weeks later, he’s on the phone offering us a record contract. It’s been totally weird.”

It’s only going to get weirder. Boasting an album of incredible songs, and ever-growing band of believers, the rest of the UK is about to find out what the residents of Dundee have known for some time (and have no qualms about making it audibly clear throughout every gig the band ever play) - The View Are On Fire!

The band recently completed a sold-out headline tour of the U.K. including a home-town show at Dundee’s Caird Halll and a rapturous gig at London’s Koko. Having also completed a mammoth ‘back-to-basics’ 36-date tour of the UK last autumn, the band are set to head to Europe in March for a series of gigs.

The full list of dates in May are as follows:

MAY
14th Glasgow Academy
15th Manchester Academy
16th London Forum

Tickets for the shows go on sale at 10am on Tuesday 3rd March. The Manchester tickets are priced at £14 and the London & Glasgow shows are £15. Tickets are available below now.

The band also release a new single, Temptation Dice, through 1965 Records on Monday April 13th 2009 and will be available on 7′ & download.

Taken from their second critically acclaimed album, Which Bitch? which was released in February and reached number 4 in the U.K. albums chart, the single was recorded at Monnow Valley studios in Wales during the summer of 2008 as part of the album sessions with acclaimed producer Owen Morris, who also worked on their platinum selling debut album Hats Off To The Buskers.

Their website, www.theviewareonfire.co.uk, was also the most visited music site in the U.K. in January and their track Wasteland will soundtrack Nike’s new football ad campaign starring Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole and Fernando Torres debuting in February.

The View are: Kyle Falconer (vocals / guitar), Pete Reilly (guitar), Kieren Webster (vocals / bass) & Steve Morrison (drums).

More about the View.

The View (Dryburgh, Scotland) have been active in the music scene since early 2005, supporting more renowned acts including Babyshambles, Primal Scream and The Undertones. The band initially based themselves at The Bayview pub in the Menzieshill district of Dundee, not too far from their native Dryburgh. From this pub, the band took their name. Shortly after they moved to The Doghouse, a respected music venue in Dundee’s city centre, where they came to the attention of local music promoters, management and ever-growing fan-base. Currently signed to 1965 Records, the band’s debut single, “Wasted Little DJs”, was released 7 August 2006. The single entered the UK MTV/NME video charts on 9 July 2024 and climbed to top this chart the same day it reached 15 in the UK singles chart on 13 August 2006. They have recently released there first album, titled ‘Hats Off To The Buskers’ which entered the UK album chart at #1 and is so far the biggest selling album of 2007.

The View (Sydney, Australia) formed in March 2005. Now known as Planet of the Stereos, the band is a ubiquitous presence amongst Australia’s east-coast indie scene, building a cult following with strong support from Australian nationwide commercial radio and television networks. Recently the group were voted the winners of a prominent Australia-wide unsigned artist competition. According to the band, the name change was triggered by a shift in musical direction.