Weekly > Reviews
Friends Of Ken - Underground, Stoke
Friends of Ken are an underground band. They’ve been playing around Stoke for six years now, starting with gigs where they were lucky to bring along ten of their mates, and have gradually been building and building. They’ve made their own records, true DIY releases burned-off on their computers and sold in local independent record stores and even a DVD film about the band.
They’ve found a niche for themselves, they’ve built a crowd. But it isn’t that they’ve fitted into any comfortable demographic, becoming the next big thing on a local scene. Their crowd is a mismatch of people, different to the crowd who turn up for the indie gigs around here. There’s a big Emo scene in Stoke, and FOK sort-of fit into it, but it seems like they’ve built their audience from an odd bunch of different people.
After years of hard work they’ve finally brokered themselves some sort of management deal. The down side is that it seems to have left them unable to play as often as they’d like to. You can tell this tonight – the band haven’t played live since a Tsunami appeal gig in January and they are desperate to get onstage and play the gig of their lives.
The front half of the venue doesn’t stop moving for the whole gig. It’s one big mass of people jumping up and down in time – arms, beer and camera phones being held-up and thrown into the air. FOK’s punk-pop tunes are perfect for this – they’re upbeat, nothing too complicated, it’s good time music. They’ve got a lot of Green Day in their older material, but newer tunes (some played for the first time tonight) come across as more grungey, more like The Pixies. ‘Rhapsody In Purple’ has a chorus that slides over a blunt, chugging guitar riff and a screech of “She is everything!â€?.
- Friends Of Ken
- Underground, Stoke (10th June, 2005)
- Category: Live
- Reviewed by: Chris Helsby
- Published on: 24 Jun 2005
- Comments: 0
- Beat Surrender Rating:
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Add to favouritesThen there’s the entertainment outside of the music. FOK don’t just stand and play, they fill the time between tunes with their own characters and personalities. The singer has a sampler hooked-up that he stamps on once in a while – the audience are treated to a clip of Big Brother’s commentator asking all the housemates to step outside and receive the death penalty, then coaxed into a rendition of Starship’s “We Built This City�.
Friends Of Ken are one of the hardest working bands around. They deserve success more than many, many others, both for the effort they have put in and the enjoyment that their audience get out. The irony is that whatever they may achieve in terms of a record deal and sales, this is where they do best – loud and laughing in front of a packed room of people.
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