There seems to be a thirst for nostalgia in the UK indie music scene – and much of it is coming via the alumni of Creation Records.
Long before Oasis and Primal Scream helped make Alan McGee’s bedroom label a worldwide success, The Loft blazed the trail, notching up an impressive list of firsts for Creation Records’ artists back in the mid-80s. First Creation band on TV, first to top the indie singles chart, first to be invited on to a major UK tour, and first Creation band to record a coveted BBC radio session – for Janice Long’s Radio One show in 1984.
Then they split up – mid-song, at the Hammersmith Palais in front of 3,000 people when seemingly on the verge of the Big Time.
However, the band have, presumably, put those tensions behind them, and reunited to claim their legacy as one of the UK’s most influential guitar bands of the 1980s. Having performed sporadically since the early noughties, the band have, finally, recorded their debut album.
“Time has been kind to us I think; where once the world felt impossible and threatening, we seem to have learned to be more careful of each other and focus on playing together,” says singer, guitarist and songwriter, Pete Astor.
Last year, after a sell-out show at London’s MOTH club and their appearance at Glas-Goes Pop festival, the group was invited by BBC 6 Music’s ‘Riley & Coe’ to record its fourth BBC session. Within six months the session was released by Precious Recordings of London on 10” vinyl.
Enter Hamburg-based, Tapete Records, who, hearing rumours about new Loft material, snapped up the album ‘Everything Changes, Everything Stays The Same’ and signed the band without hearing a single note.
“The Loft has always been just the four of us and it’s a real thrill to be writing and recording and playing across the UK with the band again,” says guitarist Andy Strickland, who is joined by fellow original members Astor, bassist Bill Prince, and drummer Dave Morgan, who enthuses: “ We’re having a blast.”
“It’s incredibly exciting to not only be setting out on tour again,” he adds, “but now with a brand new set of songs to play alongside some of our, ahem, ‘greatest hits’.”
‘Everything Changes Everything Stays The Same’ is out now on Tapete Records.
This article originally appeared in the Blackpool Gazette.
Also chief newshound at Jockrock
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