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Published: 20 Nov 2009
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FABIO CAPELLO may have banned his players from recording a World Cup song.
But that hasn't stopped a wave of unofficial tracks - with KID BRITISH's cover of the classic Three Lions the pick of the bunch.
It's so good Umbro has asked them to release it as an unofficial track.
England's Italian boss doesn't want the likes of WAYNE ROONEY and JOHN TERRY to have any distractions.
An FA spokesman said: "There won't be an official song, because the England management want the sole focus to be football."
I'm a fan of Three Lions, but for me JOHN GORDON SINCLAIR's We Have A Dream for Scotland's World Cup campaign in Spain in 1982 is the best.
Three Lions was first released by DAVID BADDIEL and FRANK SKINNER as the official anthem of the England team for Euro '96. It was also brought out two years later for the World Cup in France.
I'm told the Manchester band are in the early stages with the tune and would gladly welcome Baddiel and Skinner's help. Surely, it won't take long to think up new lyrics.
Off the top of my head: Tackle by WAYNE, A flick from JERMAIN, BECKHAM belting the ball, And CROUCHY dancing...
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/2738429/Kid-British-in-World-Cup-fever.html#ixzz0XVAQDT61
- The Sun Newspaper
IF you've not yet heard of Kid British, it's likely they'll feature on your sounds of the summer playlist before August is out.
The Mancunian foursome are hot on the London scene right now and made quite an impact when they played live at Cargo in London last night.
Taking to the stage, the first thing you notice is how unique each band member is, both in style and sound.
Adio, Sean, Simeon, & James do a seamless job of sharing vocals and are more akin to four solo acts collaborating as one.
Their sound is a combination of 80's Ska, infectious beats and witty Just Jack-esq lyrics. If Madness and Run DMC had ever shared a stage, their indie/pop/rock sound could have been the result.
Hearing one of their tracks for the first time is a little like listening to an old favourite that you'd forgotten the words to.
Elizabeth and Sunny Days are upbeat, catchy and packed with cool, honest lyrics.
Our House is Dadless samples Madness's 80's anthem, Our House, and though it could never rival the original, the lads don't do a half bad job of reviving it.
Their stage presence is joy inducing, and as they hop and skip around one another you can't help wanting to jump up and join them.
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/music/caught_live/2465534/Kid-British-play-live-at-Cargo-in-London-Caught-Live-The-Sun-review-Kid-British.html#ixzz0W2A5TPP3
- The Sun Newspaper
Who are they?
A four-piece from Manchester, Kid British write breezy and outrageously hook-ridden rude-boy ska-pop that will, judging by the four tracks on their album sampler, soon be all over radio and riding high in the charts. Their debut single, Elizabeth, an account of British currency, bearing the head of our monarch, but increasingly elusive as payday becomes a distant memory, is just this side of being infuriating. The other three songs are equally immediate and modish in the extreme (plenty of 1970s soft-pop buttons are pushed), combining Madness, Small Faces, Blur, Kaiser Chiefs — and ELO. You’ll need to be particularly strong to resist this lot. - The Times
The Specials are set to embark on a UK reunion tour this May. But ahead of this, one of the ska legends appears to be practicing onstage elsewhere...
Kid British received the seal of approval when founding Specials member Lynval Golding crashed the Manchester newcomers' recent gig at London's Borderline by joining them onstage (March 12).
Apparently The Specials' guitarist became a fan of the Manc Gorillaz after his daughter discovered them on Facebook - this event has since sparked talks of support slots – though Kid British already have a gruelling schedule ahead as they tour with The Enemy this spring. - NME
Mancunian foursome Kid British fuse ska, indie and rap – and the results are something special, says Chris Mugan
What is in a name? Every band knows that coming up with one is fraught with difficulty, as Seymour realised before they became Blur. Now take this Mancunian indie-rap hybrid, with one word that suggests youth and another their identity. They may not have set out to represent a generation, but with a mix of backgrounds, colours and tastes, the foursome of a producer and three vocalists certainly fit the bill. Sat around a table at a sleek west London hotel, Kid British give every impression of knowing what to expect.
This youthful quartet came together when knob-tweaker Sean Mbaya met three vocalists, then working under the moniker Action Manky, and they decided to pool their resources. The result is an effervescent blend of hip-hop, pop and ska that shows the UK musical melting pot at its best. Not that their new name is meant to suggest this, as Mbaya reveals, he was the original Kid British, a jobbing producer on the Manchester scene in a studio next to Badly Drawn Boy.
As a wannabe vocalist, his demo had found the tender hands of Take That manager Nigel Martin-Smith, the same week that 15-year-old Mbaya chose instead to work behind the mixing desk. "I didn't know who he was, just something to do with Take That." Since then, Mbaya has worked for artists in genres from indie to R&B, though it is his former neighbours in the studio complex that are more memorable, including his manager, who had founded live-dance pioneers Eskimos & Egypt, and First Cut, instrumental in shaping the sound of Lily Allen's first album.
Meanwhile, schoolmates James Mayer, Adio Marchant and Simeon McLean were ploughing their furrow at the city's garage and hip-hop clubs, inspired first by the London posses Heartless and So Solid Crew. Mayer reminisces: "At that time we weren't thinking of getting anywhere with it, but then we started taking things more seriously." They progressed towards hip-hop, taking their cue from UK names such as Klashnekoff, as well as the big guns Jay-Z and Nas. Most pertinent, though, was the rule-breaking style of Outkast.
"We've only ever been pop and that's continued with what we're doing now," McLean explains. "R&B and hip-hop was pop at the time, which is why we went along that route." Action's then manager suggested they work with Mbaya, a collaboration that brought dividends. The foursome first called themselves Kid British And The Action Manky, but then shortened the name. Mbaya was nicknamed Kid by the older lads he hung round with, and Mayer saw the name's potential. "When you look at it, Kid British means a bit more. We're going to get classed as a mixed-race band, so it makes sense."
While the quartet didn't set out to make state-of-the-nation pronouncements, they recognise that they do write about topics – fatherless families, street gangs – that will get picked up as social commentary. "Rum Boys" is about bored kids carrying out petty vandalism. "It's not like we sit down and say 'let's make a statement', it's just what we saw growing up," Mayer says. "I was a bit crazy when I was young, but these guys take it to another level," McLean admits. "We were the same, at least I was." Vandalism? "Well, a bit, but I wasn't in a gang, I was just having fun."
While their producer comes from a more well-to-do part of town, Action Manky's former members can see how music gave them an outlet for their teenage energy. Mayer says, "I'd stay in my bedroom DJing, when some of my friends were out doing, like, stuff." "When you're young, the only people you see getting anywhere are either playing football or making music," the hitherto quiet Marchant adds. "It's either that or go to work." Thanks to Manchester's compact music scene, Mbaya saw how artists progressed. "The city's still buzzing, there's music around us all the time, and people trying to make it in one style or many."
Kid British spent much of 2007 honing their sound. Mbaya introduced to them the idea of rapping and then singing over real instruments, starting with his own bass guitar track on "Sunny Days", followed by an update of a Madness hit that they call "Our House is Dadless".
While Mbaya successfully avoided getting a job, his bandmates struggled: Mayer getting up at 3am to work at Manchester airport, Marchant in a furniture store and McLean as a trainee fireman. Still, they clicked instantly and have not looked back. Mayer says, "The first time we worked with Sean as a producer, we'd give him directions and he'd give us suggestions about our vocals and that's continued. Half the album has come from ideas that we already had, half is from his backing tracks."
Mbaya brought in the drummer and guitarist that mean they can hold their own next month when they support The Enemy. Before that, their new EP shows an ear for pop hooks and breadth of subject matter, from the jokey "Lost in London" to the admonitory "She Will Leave". The album, though, promises to offer more unexpected delights, as McLean warns the best is yet to come: "We have our benchmark now. Separately, Sean and us were both working on similar styles – together we brought it to life". - The Independent
Discography
Elizabeth - 7" single
Leave London Ep - 3 trk EP
Our House is Dadless - digital single
It Was This Or Football.. (1st half) -
album release (part1)
Photos
Bio
The global economy is in freefall. House repossessions are at a high. But forget the credit crunch for a just a moment: Manchester four piece, Kid British are here to sprinkle some interest-free sunshine on what could be a bleak and bankrupt year.
"We want to bring a feel good factor with our music,” says 25 year-old Simeon Mclean - one quarter of the singing/songwriting quartet that also includes Adio Marchant (25), James Mayer (22) and studio ace, Sean Mbaya (25). “Everyone’s going on about there being a depression. People are talking about the climate like there’s an apocalypse coming, but you don't wanna hear that when you go out to see a band or put on some music as well!
We want to write about what we’ve experienced and what we understand. We think everyone needs to have bit of an escape.”
Certainly Kid British are well poised to lift the gloom this year. Having drawn on the street smart sound of pop heavyweights Blur and Madness, the four piece – who were recently polled above Oasis in a survey of Manchester’s best bands – have allied their songwriting craft to a ballsy hip hop production. The results are a rude boy mix of club-friendly beats and bedroom-styled harmonies as evidenced by their 3 track Leave London EP (2009). Imagine the Gorillas meeting The Specials, The Streets, Outkast and Blur in a wonderfully uplifting sonic soup!
Meanwhile, a riotous live sound has them earmarked as one of the must see new bands of 2009.
“We’re a product of the iPod generation,” says Mbaya. “We’ve been influenced by so many different bands from Nirvana through to The Beatles because music is constantly on shuffle. We like rap, reggae, jazz, indie, rock… and we bring all of those ideas to the music. It’s almost impossible to be original these days – people said we sounded like The Specials even before we heard them – so we don’t want to be pigeonholed to any sort of genre.”
They’re not just a bunch of pretty tunes, either – Kid British’s razor sharp lyrical wit has seen them compared to The Streets and Lily Allen among others. Or as UK broadsheet 'The Guardian' recently put it…. “They can also write tunes, really undeniable ones, the kind that sound strangely familiar on first listen, virtually every track on their debut album comes spring-loaded with a fantastic melody “
We don’t want to impose our views on people,” says Mayer. “We want our songs to be uplifting, we wrote the single, Lost In London after spending a couple of days in the capital. Everyone we asked for directions was a tourist, it was so funny. We wanted to capture the fun and excitement of living in a multi cultural society rather than making a heavy political statement.”
By 2008, after a UK industry scramble the band signed to the label that fought the hardest for their signature - Mercury records. They had played Glastonbury, and embarked on their first headline tour. A couple of months later they were recording an album with legendary producers Stephen Street (Blur, The Smiths) and Steve Dubb (Chemical Brothers) and Steve Power (Robbie Williams/feeder).
Already in 2009, they have released the limited edition ‘Leave London EP’ (which sold out pre-sale) and the first half of their debut album 'It was this or football'. The bands debut digital release - the single ‘Our House is Dadless’, a Madness sampling tale of modern UK living, was blasted out heavily on the BBC Radio 1 playlist this summer, amassing big support including the breakfast show’s very own Chris Moyles, and Radio 2’s Steve Wright - who played the record daily on his afternoon show. The record was selected as “single of the week” by major nationwide independent 'XFM radio' and also BBC Radio 1’s Scott Mills.
Live-wise 2009 has seen the band tour with with pop-punk urchins, The Enemy, Ska giants The Specials, and play virtually every UK summer festival, before ending the Autumn with their own UK headline tour.
Somewhere along the way they even managed to entertain controversial London mayor, Boris Johnson when an impromptu busking “tour” across the London Underground gathered at Westminster.
“We busked on the London Underground to celebrate the release of Leave London,” says Mayer. “We were at Westminster when suddenly Boris Johnson came past surrounded by aides. We carried on playing, but at first he seemed to think we were staging a protest. By the end there were tourists dancing. Somehow we even managed to put a smile on his face.”
To reflect its title, the band’s debut album ‘It Was This or Football’ will be released in two halves, the eagerly awaited ‘first half’ is now available to purchase/download, with the ‘second half’ to follow in 2010.
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