The Shallow Call

Salt. Chemicals. Apathy. Subsidence. Northwich is a town notable for little, but it was here that The Shallow Call drifted out of school and into a band. Brought together through a love of The Smiths, Clash, Love, Phil Spector and a shared bemusement with life in their little home, they began to write songs about casual sex and casual violence, pithy odes to small-town syndrome rapscallions who’ve probably spilt more than you’ll ever drink. Oh, and the fact that bands don’t tend to bother writing good lyrics any more, right ?

Early demos were produced by Steve Powell (The La’s, Shack, The Coral), and were garnered their first commercial release on the Power Overload compilation through Manchester’s High Voltage label. By 2007, an increasingly loyal following and raucous outings with The Enemy, Reverend & The Makers and The Paddingtons culminated in their debut release proper. Entitled Frank Bruno, it was an iron-fisted, velvet-gloved analysis of Englishness, of self-deprecation and of misplaced faith in lovable, eccentric, glorious failures. Clint Boon, Jim Gellatly (XFM Manchester & Scotland respectively) and Colin Murray (Radio 1) collectively swooned. Steve Lamacq saw fit to name it his Single Of The Week, calling it 'some of the most well-observed pieces of lyric-writing I’ve heard in years, quite special indeed'. No-one in London really liked it, but the band didn’t seem to mind.

Fellow Northwich inhabitants The Charlatans would go on to invite the band as support at a sold out gig at the Manchester Ritz, and legendary bass player Martin Blunt would produce their second single Where We All Hang Around, aided by the ubiquitous Jim Spencer (New Order, Johnny Marr). Recorded at The Charlatans’ own Big Mushroom studio, the single would go on to be described by celebrated Manc music journalist John Robb as 'a blur of sweat, passion and windmill limbs, like the soundtrack to a generation'.