The Vinyl frontier continues into the Sunday Sun

In a dingy, dust-ridden corridor in The Mill rehearsal complex, Listen Up struggles to open the door to room 4C, the band inside caught up in the sound of their new EP ‘Sunday Sun’. After deliberating a while, I resort to kicking the door open to reveal The Vinyls furiously practising the songs they will be taking on tour early next month.

It is over two years since The Vinyls hit the local headlines with EP ‘Where The Boys Have Been’, an immediate success on which the band hope to improve this time round. Drummer Pete Lester told Listen Up:

“We sold over 900 copies of the last EP, 300 when it was released locally and a further 600 when it was reached Leeds, London and elsewhere – we even sold three copies on the Isle of Man.”

Shadows

As with most bands, American rich-kids ‘The Strokes’ excluded, the bills have to be paid and, when asked about jobs outside the band, anything from Civil Engineer to pimp is exchanged between band-mates. The group eventually only agree only on the fact that Pete works in HMV and Tony Bliss (Bassist) is on the dole – strange for a man who drives a sports car.

The band have clearly spent a good deal of their two years in the shadows writing and refining their sound, preparing for a new assault on the industry.

Cheap as chips

“The keyboard has become more of a filler than the lead instrument it has been in the past, we’re are more pleased with the sound now than before and we have spent a lot more getting it recorded.” Explains Singer/songwriter Andrew Harrison:

“The last EP was produced cheap as chips; the recording, pressing and packaging came to about two or three grand, this one has cost more just to record.”

Established

You may be wandering, if the band have been active all this time, why have they kept it so quiet? The answer is that The Vinyls are careful not to get attached to the ‘Preston Scene; and, being older and more established than the majority of local acts, they get the feeling they are not much liked.

“Us and Treehouse 3 have a laugh about it,” says Pete. “Despite being the most successful bands in Preston, we’re probably the most hated – although we don’t really care too much.

Bigger ideas

“We’re not into this whole Battle of the Bands scene, we’ve
got bigger ideas. There are a lot of prima donnas about
that think they have made it because they are onstage. There is a whole world out there, why just play here?”

As far as bigger ideas are concerned, The Vinyls are certainly realising their potential, with a number of big name companies voicing interest in their new EP.

“We’re in talks with Terra Firma, who manage Richard Ashcroft,” boasts Andy, “and Coda Marshal from Warner, f**king Warner, has apparently requested a copy, that’s got to be a good sign.”

For further information about The Vinyls new EP ‘Sunday Sun’ click here.

Written by Dan Jeoffroy

Photography: Dan Jeoffroy