Fix Monday

Indie/pop quartet Fix Monday are fitting representation for Leamington Spa – this band are truly top draw! Their elaborate vocal harmonies are second to none (reminiscent of Queen and Elbow) and are coupled with terrific songs. Well travelled, well put together and well worth the entry price alone! - www.myspace.com/musicboxcoventry

Wiry Indie Rock with Posies-sized harmonies and a pop minded ear on the melodies; dreamy lines melt into the stabbed guitars and create something, well, something rather exciting! - www.subba-cultcha.com

The trouble with starting off a night so strongly is that a lot of the bands can then seem a little bit of a let down. Happily we had a fix for that...Fix Monday in fact (clever link eh? I'm a professional...don't try this at home...it could all go horribly wrong). Fix Monday are special, life affirming even. They've got some lovely vocal dynamics going on in the band (have a listen to I Change for example), the best moment by far though was when the band came off the stage and performed an acapella track. I love stuff like that. It's hairs on the back of the neck time. Despite a few chatterers (why go to gigs and talk?do you not understand the concept...you go to a gig to LISTEN to the bands....aaaaggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh) and a DJ with twitchy fingers it was a truly great moment. - The Hearing Aid

Fix Monday...on a Wednesday
I wasn’t going to go to this gig but I made the mistake of watching one of the headline band’s videos and that was that…hooked. Oh dear. I’m going to have to gig detox soon or else my ears will fall off. First up, Fix Monday. I wish someone would. Then they could get on with fixing Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday too. Friday, Saturday and Sunday I can live with most of the time, you can leave them as is. A quick glance back through the history books reveals that I was particularly impressed with this lot last time I saw them. I used the phrase ‘life affirming’ even. Bless my cotton socks. With songs like ‘This Will Make My Life Better’ and ‘I Change’ there’s certainly a cheery positivity about the band that was perhaps a little lacking in The Twilight Sad’s brilliant but rather more wrist slitting gig on Monday night.

Tonight The Monday’s (not the Happy Monday’s as the drummer helpfully pointed out) were as joyously charming as before, making good use of harmonies particularly on their reverse stage invasion, when the entire band decamps into the audience to deliver a beautiful a’capella number. They certainly fixed Wednesday for me. - The Hearing Aid

...

First up though electro drum n’bassers China Red...or at least it should’ve been. It seems that their lead singer Sam is stuck in a volcano somewhere. Shame, I was rather looking forward to a bit of d n’b. I placated myself with a rather fine Cosmopolitan Cocktail made by a delightful young lady on the bar and settled down for another fix of Fix Monday instead, an instantly loveable bunch of chaps with a set stuffed full of optimistic tunes that bring a smile to the face and a tap to the toe (the perfect cure for water on the knee...). I’ve been lucky enough to see ‘em a fair few times over the last year or so and they never fail to impress. ‘This Will Make My Life Better’ and ‘I Change’ (with its delicious harmony bits) remain my favourites, but a newer, rockier track ‘Rise’ came off really well tonight and their regular a’capella “reverse stage invasion” (where the whole band decamp from the stage to the audience) version ‘Of The People You Meet’ remained spine tingingly great. On top of being lovely people (I had the pleasure of chatting to a couple of them after the gig), the band seem to be putting in that little extra effort (badges and cards all over the venue and decent website rather than just the obligatory My Space page) in everything they do. Their latest thang is to recruit the audience to film particular songs in their set then use the resulting footage to make a video. It’s a neat idea and the ones I’ve watched work surprisingly well. - The Hearing Aid

So I wasn’t in the best mood. As a first-timer to The Flapper, I had gotten totally lost, and I’d made the mistake of walking down Broad Street alone after 8pm. But when I finally got there, it was all worth it. Despite the fact that I’d ended up walking the wrong way down the canal, I was still an hour early to the gig, but I managed to strike up a conversation with a couple of folks outside. The atmosphere was relaxed and there was a really good mix of people.

I’d listened to the tracks on Fix Monday’s Myspace before coming out and I was expecting a small, laid back gig, but when I entered the room, there was a good sized crowd and the name of the band was written in lights on the bass drum. The boys don’t claim to be anything other than an Indie Pop band, but they put on one hell of a show. There was a brilliant energy in the room, and the songs were still stuck in my head after they finished playing.

They kicked off the show with “Margaret Peterson” – an upbeat pop number which is on their Myspace , and which, as I was informed after the show, has a video currently in post production that should hit the internet in a couple of weeks. My personal favourite moment was halfway through the set when the band came off the stage to “invade” the audience. They came off the mics totally to sing “of the people you meet”, a cute little ditty, accompanied by guitar and the occasional hand claps. Beautiful harmonies added by the remaining band members made this song rather reminiscent of the Fleet Foxes... In a slightly heavier, less folk-y way. These boys know what they’re doing. The harmonies were spot on, and despite the nervous giggles emanating from the audience, it was clear they were enjoying being up close and personal with the band.

Overall, it was a really enjoyable night, and a great gig to start the summer season. I’d definitely recommend catching one of their upcoming shows if you get the chance.

For more details, check out their website:
www.myspace.com/fixmonday or
www.fixmonday.fm

By Robyn Kennedy - The Music Quarter

We like Mondays

Our final Band of the Month for 2008 is Coventry and Leamington's Fix Monday.
The quartet formed in early 2007 and, like many of our featured bands, Mike, Rhyd and Saf met at University.

Saf told us more about how they met: “Mike, Rhydian and myself all met at Warwick University. We've played together in various musical projects over the past few years, but our main concern was always a band called Slybob. After going through one drummer too many, we decided to put Slybob to rest and took some time out to decide how and if we wanted to proceed as a band.”

Luke joined the band in July 2007 after the departure of their original drummer.
And Fix Monday's previous identity, Slybob, were in fact a BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Band of the Month in January 2005.

This month also sees the release on their new single Margaret Peterson on their own label Sherpa Recordings. We have already played the track on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Introducing – as has our Introducing counterpart on BBC 6 Music, Tom Robinson.

And of course, we had to ask about the story behind their new single and who exactly is Margaret Peterson.

“Margaret Peterson Haddix is an American author who writes teen fiction. We had been using the working title Running Out Of Time for the single, as that is part of the lyrics of the first line, but we really felt it was a bit bland and obvious! So during one rehearsal we put Running Out Of Time into a search engine and it turns out Margaret Peterson Haddix had written a book by the same name.
“We thought the whole name might be a bit of a mouthful so we dropped the Haddix part and named the song Margaret Peterson; we had to really! By the way, the image used for the artwork isn't the lady in question.”

Despite their new music having a full electric sound, which is vaguely reminiscent of the music coming out of Manchester in the early '90's, they are also excellent at playing acoustic sets – as BBC Coventry & Warwickshire witnessed earlier this year at Taylor John’s House. We asked Saf what his favourite gig of 2008 has been:

“That's a tough one. We've had the pleasure of doing some great gigs this year. It's been particularly lovely playing acoustic sets at The Nursery Tavern and at Taylor John's. But probably my favourite gig was the Birmingham Barfly. The room is pretty big and impressive and the sound system is great. We played with a band called Gloria Cycles who were both really nice people and a great band.

“The best thing though was the turn out - a coach load of people come over from Leamington and Coventry to watch us as well as a good number from Birmingham. It means a lot when people make the effort to come out and see you play. That was really special.”

And finally, we asked Saf about his hopes for 2009:
“We're going to put together a four-track EP which will be our first physical release as Fix Monday and will be available around April/May time. In support of that we will be doing another big tour, hopefully reaching out to a few places a bit further away. Obviously we hope to write some new material; something which we're continuously doing.

“I think as well we're hoping that in 2009 we'll find someone who can take a managerial role with the band; someone with the right knowledge and contacts to take us to the next level.” - BBC Coventry and Warwickshire

"… lush harmonies, big guitars and great songs."
tom robinson, bbc 6 music - BBC 6 Music Introducing

"well catchy, we're liking that a lot... they're a great band."
kerrang! radio - Kerrang! Radio

"excellent."
roger lomas (grammy award winning producer) - Roger Lomas