Second chances

You know when you first meet someone and you take an instant dislike to them? They could be the new kid at school, the try hard 'Gareth Keenan' at the company you have just joined or someone you bump into in a pub who wants to pretend they're a middle class gangsta' and will 'pop a cap in your ass' just for looking at their Chris Martin inspired fair trade jacket. It is very hard to change this initial opinion as you then look for reasons why you were right in the first place. I personally have enough friends as I write this article that I don't feel the need to re-evaluate what I think of people I do not warm to. A few get through the net and prove that I was wrong to doubt them, showing previously hidden qualities, but for the main, my first gut reaction is normally right on the money. Everyone deserves a chance though.

So, when I watched The Courteneers play in Manchester last year I was prepared to give them a chance. I had heard the hype surrounding them and everyone I knew was either raving about them or were 'Their biggest fan'. Even those that had not heard their music where informing me that they were supposed to be the next biggest thing. Bigger than even Oasis apparently! Now I'm not one for jumping on the musical band wagon and I actually enjoy turning left when everyone else turns right but the sheer fact that the nation was not idolising Alex Turner for once made me sit up and listen. My girlfriend got me a ticket and we were off to see them at one of the smaller, more intimate venues in Manchester.

What followed was an utter disgrace. Their lead singer Liam Fray, who had clearly put half of Columbia's gross national export up his nose before staggering onto the stage, spent the whole evening trying to be more like a young Liam Gallagher than Liam Gallagher himself manages these days. He had clearly watched the young Liam strut around the stage with a moody arrogance, bait the audience repeatedly and generally tick off every roll and roll cliche in the book and decided that this was the route he would take. After all, imitation is the most sincerest form of flattery so they say.

Except...

Liam Gallagher used to do it with charm. For all his failings on a personal level, Gallagher junior seemed to be the right person in the right place at the right time. His audience all wanted to 'have it big time' and were more than happy to raise a can of Stella stagewards as Liam led them into another monstrous sing a long. Unlike the modern bands before them, Oasis gripped the nation and appealed to both men and women, football louts and intellectuals and just about anyone else with a set of ears with their infectiously catching tunes, bad boy rock and roll personas and a soap opera family feud that played out weekly through the gossip magazines and tabloids.

Liam Fray on the other hand was the wrong side of acceptable arrogance, rude, surly, aggressive and simply too far gone on the cocktail of drugs he had clearly taken to actually care about whether he was in tune, in time or even on the stage. I actually walked out of the gig about halfway through as I was tired and bored of the moronic Fray announcing that all other bands were 'sh*t' and that we in the audience weren't as good as him.

I vowed that from that day on, I would not buy their albums and would bring up his sorry antics that night every time some baggy student came up to me in a pub and told me that Fray is going to be bigger than Lennon or McCartney.

So they released a single. Big deal. I would not be listening to it let alone buying it. Except that I heard it on the radio and without knowing who was singing it, enjoyed it. And enjoyed it a lot. Then the D.J. (clearly not Chris Moyles who actually never plays music but talks loudly for the entire length of his show) told me who it was. Damn. The Courteneers and I had enjoyed it. One nil to them but I was strong enough to ignore their album when it came out.

Except that someone brought it into work and insisted on playing it. And it was good. In fact, without sounding too Manchester or obviously trying to ape anyone else's sound like a lot of modern bands seem to do (you know who you are Kasabian), it was full of catchy, clever songs which had layers of both sound and emotion and showcased just how good his voice can be when he leaves the drugs alone. The lads at work all loved it as well and on that fateful day we must have played it half a dozen times. Game, set and match to Manchester's brightest new sons and long may they shine - it is important for a city like Manchester with it's rich musical heritage to have important bands that come forth and conquer the nation's hearts. The Courteneers have it in them to take on the UK and maybe the rest of the world as their stock is rising faster than a freezing cold monkey and I for one am happy to say that some people do deserve a second chance. Use it well Liam.