Downstairs I was waiting at the bar for Sunil who disappeared and a very trendy looking guy came up next to me attempting to get a drink. I asked him if he was in a band because he certainly looked like he was and it turned out I was correct. Apparently this guy, Gary, used to be in a band called Ballroom that was around during the height of 90s Britpop (my favorite era) when Blur, Suede and Menswe@r (fyi - that's not a link - they just do the a like that) were really popular. I actually thought he was possibly in Menswe@r before I spoke to him because he had their exact style going on. He told me they were signed to Blur's label, Mother, so I decided to do a bit of googling on the band today. I found one photo of them (Gary is the one that stands out, I'm guessing because he was the singer):
I also found an NME review from November 3rd, 1998 that says:
BALLROOM Day After Day (Mother)
U2 REALLY ARE EVIL BASTARDS. NO LONGER content to foist their nauseating bombast on the public once every few years, they are now filling in the gaps between their own records by releasing pompous toss by other acts on their Mother label.
Ballroom come straight from the same school of songwriting that brought us the bilious musings of Suede and the noxious, self-pitying shite of Morrissey at his least inspired. 'Day After Day', while not without redeeming features, is an album drunk on doomed romanticism which lies prostrate on pop's busy highway waiting to be splattered. Singer Gary Prosser has a raspy voice not unlike Crispin Longpig and a knack of writing miserable epic tunes but is seemingly unaware that there are white keys on a piano as well as black ones.
Hence, while in the context of more varied material, the title track and the similarly sullen 'Household Names' might have sounded rather mighty, mounted as they are in 35 minutes of supine foppishnes with string sections they are denied the opportunity to shine.
Ballroom then, as in plenty of room for balls.
4/10
Ouch! Maybe next time Gary.
Current Music: Menswe@r - Stardust (I've been inspired to listen to Nuisance now.)
5 comments:
Just for the record, MEnswe@r were never really popular.
I thought they weren't, but according to this singer guy they were?
they were a minor britpop band who faded away with most of the other bands around at that time
they had a few catch songs, i have their mp3s at home!
I think people didnt like them because they styled themselves like a boyband but played britpop. I actually used to love that cd which is somewhat scary if you listen to it in 2005.
that guy who said they were popular and big probably thought he was too! I remember liking one of their songs way back when
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