This Is Not TV

Glasgow alt rockers and friends of David Gest Attic Lights have been bloody busy this year. Not content with releasing their debut album and a slew of singles, they’ve also taken time to pen what sounds suspiciously like a Christmas song. But this is not it. Sorry to build up the old expectations like.

‘Late Night Sunshine’ is the fifth single by my reckoning to be released form the album ‘Friday Night Lights’ and continues their quest in recalling a more innocent and immediate age of pop. Though the melody has just a smidgeon of Snow Patrol about it and the kind of mass appeal you associate with boy bands, the theme is a timeless play on love Romeo and Juliet style with lines like “I know I will go blind if I stare at you too long.” Not the only cause, mate.

Vulgarity aside, the double tracked vocals and apple-cheeked naivety is pure Bay City Rollers meets ELO, with the melody resting upon the shoulders of Kevin Sherry as the guitars construct a whimsy of chords and general mood music. Nothing too challenging, just simple pop that fades out to the line “you are the sun”. Doing what it says on the tin, old school.

Popularity: 2% [?]

You can’t beat David Gest for a bit of good copy, and it appears he’s getting all indie on us. After a chance meeting between him and Attic Lights’ manager, he agreed to record a monologue to go over their forthcoming single, Bring You Down. Should be interesting.

But El Gesto’s involvement doesn’t end there. The single, released on 21^st July, will be accompanied by a video featuring Kev from the Attic Lights, David Gest and his entourage of the Little People Of Davidland and the Chinese Girls With Herpes. Getting stranger by the minute.

Also making an appearance is a guzzerling alcoholic named Alke Hall who likes to bring her men down and a nutty hotel clerk named Prunetta Pitts (whose mother loved prunes!). Puns as well, by the sound of it.

Lead singer of the Attic Lights, Kevin Sherry, said, “We are thrilled to be working with David Gest. He is a true television legend and he is great fun. He also produced the highest rated musical special in television history ‘Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration’ – which is cool.” ‘Nuff said.

Additionally David has requested the band to appear on his forthcoming musical tour of the U.K. which will play to more than 100,000 people in October 2008. Entitled ‘David Gest…My Life! A Musical Concert Extravaganza,’ you can be certain it will be an understated affair and will also feature the, ahem, talents of Ashford and Simpson, Peabo Bryson and Peter Andre.

The full list of dates are as follows:

OCTOBER
4th Manchester Apollo
5th Blackpool Opera House
6th Liverpool, Philharmonic
7th Wolverhampton Civic Hall
9th Croydon Fairfield Hall
10th London Indigo2
11th London Indigo2
13th Cambridge Corn Exchange
14th London Indigo2

And More Dates To Be Announced Soon!

By way of reciprocity, Attic Lights have asked Gest and entourage to join them on stage at V Festival. Could get kinda crowded up there.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Just to get in a quick negative: this is probably one of the most inappropriately titled singles of the year. Right, carry on.

Glasgow’s Attic Lights indulge us with a bit of time travel as they drag us willingly back to a simpler time, a happier time, a randier time. Only this time we’ve got the last forty or so years of musical history at our disposal as well – like that bit in Back To The Future 2 when Biff gets the sporting almanac. Now we’re on the level.

Actually, without dressing it up, this is a very accomplished piece of pop epicry, ideal for a summer of love. The gently plucked solo electric intro blossoms into a full blown indie ballad, complete with Manics-inspired rhythms and Kev’s timid Glasgow brogue. The chorus ups the ante adopting a Proclaimers sing along sensibility with Beach Boy harmonies and the bridge dips into musical theatre, sixties psychedelia and mariarchi before thundering down the home straight in a flurry of strings and cleverly worded puns: “I’m hopelessly devoted and I’m voting for the hopeless.” It never goes over the top, though, and bears comparison to Arthur Lee’s Love and Willie Dowling’s Jackdaw 4. It’s like taking a bite into an apple and discovering it tastes of apple, chocolate, pear, wine and cake but in the kinda way that doesn’t make you sick. Kev and the gang have got an ear for a pop song, a head for structure and a heart to make the whole thing believable.

Popularity: 2% [?]