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The View are on fire!
 UK
Music meet Dundee quartet The View in a Birmingham
pub close to the venue where they’re due to play that night alongside 747s and
Aussie rockers Jet. They’re all here
present and correct, if a little tired.
The
View are named after The Bayview Bar, their local where they used to rehearse
before being banned. Their debut single,
Wasted Little DJs, was released back in August which crashed into the charts at
number 15 and they haven’t looked back since.
“It’s exciting that it’s happened so fast,
but it’ll probably go away as quick as it came,” reckons guitarist Pete
Reilly.
Also
consisting of guitarist/vocalist Kyle Falconer, bassist Kieren Webster and
drummer Steve Morrison, the View were signed by former Rough Trade A & R
man James Endeacott, who had also previously snapped up The Libertines. They
also had a bit of a helping hand from former Libertine and Babyshambles
frontman Pete Doherty.
“I gave him a CD in Dundee and he must have
thought it was a good one and he let us play that night in Dundee.
He gets a bit of a hard time in the press,” explains Kieren who also sticks
up for the troubled rocker. “He never even gets written about that much
as far as his music is concerned. When they review the singles they only write
a couple of sentences and then the rest is about Kate Moss”.
There
has been a distinct lack of bands, so surely they’re now heroes in their home
town.
“I wouldn’t say ‘heroes’, but we’re a popular
band,” says Kieren. “We’re definitely flying the flag for rock
‘n’ roll bands Dundee bands anyway. There’s
been a couple of like pop bands, but no rock bands”.
They
may have not been around for long but already the View have gained notoriety in
the press for their various escapades one of which includes Steve nearly
getting arrested with Pete Doherty in Birmingham for driving the wrong way down
a one way street. No doubt their live gigs will become just as notorious.
“The Chatham
gig was really quite mad,” recalls Kieren. “We ended up getting mates who
were supporting us that night to come up and finish all the songs for us while
we went crowd surfing”.
The
filming of the video for their latest single Superstar Tradesman was certainly
no quiet affair. Not when it as filmed
in Kyle’s backyard in the Dryburgh area of Dundee. Something of a celebration, the video shoot
was packed with locals as extras.
“Most of the fans that came were friends and
family. I couldn’t even go up my own
stairs could I?” Kyle tells us. “There
were security guards there saying ‘don’t go in there, don’t go up the stairs’,
it was like ‘no, no, no we’re filming upstairs!’ But it was good, we’re happy with the outcome”.
But
are they really the cheeky scamps they’ve been portrayed as?
"We’re quite excitable youngsters compared to
other bands we know and stuff,” says Kieren. “We’d get a bit worried if that
was all people cared about, like that’s the reason they come to see us. We are
genuinely well behaved compared to most other bands”.
Their
debut album, the name of which they won’t divulge just yet, is due for release
in January. It was recorded with Owen
Morris who has also produced albums by Oasis and the Verve and described as a
“great guy. He is a nutter, but in a good way”.
“We wanted it like a live set. The album sounds like what the live set
sounds like,” starts Kieren.
“The set up helped. It wasn’t like we were in
separate rooms doing different things,” adds Pete. “We could all see each
other and we all made eye contact”.
“We didn’t even use headphones, we used big
speakers. People use their headphones but I didn’t have that restriction” chips
in Kyle.
Thanks
to the hype that’s surrounding them there will obviously be a huge
anticipation, not to mention expectation for their debut album.
”It’s done now and we really like it. You can
interpret it however you want to interpret it,” says Kieren. “You’ll
get some arseholes who’ll say it sounds like Libertines or whatever… If you’ve
got a guitar and a drum kit it’s gonna sound like a lot of the other bands”.
There’s
much to look forward to in the View camp. As well as their headline tour at the
end of the year, there’s also a support slot with Primal Scream. Having played gigged with the British rock
legends before, how do the young upstarts rate their chances of being able to
out party the masters?
“I don’t think so…” considers Steve.
“We’ll give it a good go though!” grins
Pete.
Superstar Tradesman is out on the
23rd October
For more info:
www.theviewareonfire.com
Words: Helen Duong
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the view rock 
