The Supernovas
London, England, United Kingdom | INDIE
Music
Press
SUPERNOVAS
City Of Smoke ****
Skank rock symphony from the actionpacked young punk/ mod crew completes an excellent opening trilogy of singles. Perceptive slice-of-life lyrics and ebullient powerpacked drive puts them in a London lineage of Small Faces, Kinks and Madness. No smoke without musical fire - and they have plenty. - The Mirror
They don’t make them like The Supernovas any more. The four-piece cut a Holloway swagger right through the poshest precinct in town but arrived at the shop on time, pint of Gaymers, Sherman button-downs, Fred Perry woollies and box-fresh Clarks Originals appropriately on tootsie.
It was the Clarks Originals campaign party the night before, and the band had the daunting task of opening to a music industry crowd – they rode it well and are invigorated, if suffering today.
They start with an eel & pie classic, ‘City Of Smoke’, "The girls all drink Bacardi, the boys all drink in rounds", a cheeky little number that cheered the store on yet another grizzled February Friday. Then came ‘Ace Face’, a song warning against the lure of “the pleasures of being a cocaine dealer on a pub on the Holloway road” [the band seem to be the blokes laughing at this guy, in case you’re wondering]. The band’s lead, Joei, borrow a something in looks from Pete Doherty, who they have supported before, although would’ve been a lot more at home in the at the Roxy, Covent Garden circa 1976 – Strummerville have chosen a group after their own heart.
Panashe, playing bass was dressed head-to-toe in black, while Rizo, on lead guitar and drummer Moses were looking needle-sharp - one in white-collared checked shirt and Moses Linton Kwesi Johnson’s gobbing image with goatee, pork pie hat and glasses.
Mod is a huge influence for Joei, who remembers his first big gig in 2002 to see Oasis at Finsbury Park “It was just down the road from my house and when I got there there were mods sitting on the grass everywhere. It was the first time that I ever properly felt like a mod, although it took quite a while after that until I started living like one.”
The Supernovas certainly hold their influences close, perhaps a shade too proudly, and when asked about this they feel compelled to bow to precedence – “Wasn’t it John Lennon who said Avant-Garde is French for bullshit?”
The Supernovas seldom tell the truth slant; in their following song they summed up the recession quicker than you can say ‘I play synth-pop to echo the alienation felt in credit crunch UK’; fat lunch-breaking desk clerks smiled above oversized tie knots as Joei sang “Stick your politics, gets on my tits I’m going home to paint my nails instead.”
The Supers have got a song called ‘Shot Down By The Fuzz’. Do people really say fuzz anymore? But that’s the kind of band they are – old-school, unaffected – a lot better than O The Children.
It’s certainly true that The Supernovas are perhaps too unselfconscious for their own good. However if they persevere, and insist on flicking the bird to glo-fi scenesters they’ll keep doing what they did today, and enouncing what we think in a straight, entertaining way Best-preserved slice of Cockney since the pickled onion
- Clash Magazine
Discography
Ace Face (Single) - Released 03.08.2009
Slaughter In The Gaza (Single) - Released 28.03.2010
City Of Smoke (Single) - Released 03.10.2010
Photos
Bio
Hailing from North London's Holloway Road, The Supernovas are a piece of Rock'n'Roll sanity in a world gone Electro crazy. Since finalising their band line-up in 2006, the boys have gained more stories to tell than many can muster in a lifetime!
After spotting the boys supporting Pete Doherty at the Rhythm Factory in Whitechapel one fateful night in December 2007, they were signed by 360 Degree Music in January 2009... Not before all of their equipment had been burned down in the Great Fire of Nambucca which had acted as a home, place of employment and rehearsal space to the boys for many years prior. Enter the band's fairy Godmother Strummerville, who enabled the boys to replace the equipment they'd lost via some generous funding.
That summer saw the release of their first single Ace Face, a story all about "the pleasures of being a cocaine dealer in a pub on the Holloway Road".
Following the release of the record, the band set off around the UK, with 2009 culminating in gigs alongside Babyshambles in Cardiff, Southampton and Manchester.
2010 was a year that was just as hectic as the last, with the boys releasing their second single Slaughter In The Gaza and then heading over to SXSW where they supported Billy Bragg for 2 nights and were spotted by the legendary Don Letts... And all of that before April!
That summer saw them launch afull-scale attack on the festival scene, with their most memorable shows being Latitude, Glastonbury and Vintage at Goodwood in particular. They had barely managed to shift the smell of suncream and cold baked beans before they were back in studio hammering out their third single City Of Smoke which was also remixed by their (by this point)mentor, Don Letts, who also premiered the new single on his BBC 6Music show. This was instantly followed by the Strummerville: Westway Round The UK Tour which took in nearly every corner of the country.
After ending the year with their debut UK television appearance on Channel 4's Strummerville Sessions, the boys started 2011with a week-long hibernation period in the Welsh hills, working on new material, the fruits of which they are showcasing at venues around the country NOW. This year has already seen them featured in clash Magazine, supporting Guillemotts and working with Clarks Originals on a number of projects.
So get down to one of their gigs and check them out soon because if the last 7 paragraphs are anything to go by, they wont hang around waiting!
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