I talk a lot on here (and anywhere else that will have me) about the sub-cultural underground and how the worse things get the more creative people become. So, after several shared creative spaces closed in a relatively short space of time on Teesside recently it was encouraging to see a number of previously disparate micro-scenes suddenly overlapping and collaborating and making use of anywhere and everywhere to continue to create. I even tried to get a hashtag trending after a suitably chaotic book launch upstairs in the old storeroom of an abandoned New Look in Middlesbrough that also included ramshackle music performance and improv art. Compere, author David Keenan, had declared on the night, “what the fuck is this, the back entrance to Farm Foods? THE UNDERGROUND IS REAL!” and I rejoiced.
The hashtag didn’t really take off and that’s fine, niche scenes will always stay underground because their potential audience is so small (cf. the No-Audience Underground) and the truth is many of those involved perennially drift off into the mundanities of teaching and accountancy shortly after graduating, meaning only a relatively small number of scenes ever exist long enough to do any more than leave a shallow pothole in the historical cultural road. All that is left is a small but hardcore few to educate the next wave of trailblazers, with a slew of their own new ideas while preaching to the same perpetually small audience. The circle of life.
However, something else is happening on Teesside right now, and weirdly in plain sight. Because a small audience is not necessarily a prerequisite to being underground (or vice versa). In the last few months I’ve seen more and more gig posters all over town (okay, my small corner of social media) featuring names like Maeve and the Trains, No Ripcord, Mascara’s Lies, The Rodneys, The Larches, Lucy Pottinger, The Wednesday Flowers, Ben Coaten and more. They aren’t hiding away in dingy basement clubs and although they are still only playing 40-cap venues to all their mates and a smattering of mams and dads while barely even promoting their shows themselves, they want to be huge and, most importantly, outside of any existing prescribed local creative bubble. They are already fiercely independent.
Photo credit: John Paul McQue
And, these new acts have no truck with BBC Introducing, Twisterella or Junior Kick Start per se, and they don’t care for prestigious support slots at KU or with The Kids Are Solid Gold. They ain’t playing that game, marra. However, thanks to names like White Noise and Dossers, and before them Komparrison, Be Quiet! Shout Loud and Benefits, the overground is very real and achievable to them. Reach for the stars and you might just hit the ceiling.
Think about how a lot of bands got people to look their way in, say, the 90s before social media became such a distraction – because this new influx love their 90s guitar music – and before ‘influencing’ became the new ‘people you know’ however that is for a separate paper. Anyway, they played gigs, tons of them and anywhere they could, and that’s how they eventually got records out. And they knew how to host a party too. Sound familiar? At a recent Rodneys gig at a packed Rhythms Bar in Middlesbrough there were no local faces from the perceived upper echelons of local music (although I suppose that is confusingly underground) and the vibe was more about rejecting the status quo than kowtowing to whoever is flavour of the month. Those in the beer garden weren’t there for a smoke either, it was the only place to get any fresh air as it was so busy inside. The 90s want their mojo back.
Paradoxically, and talking of flavour of the month, Perfect Chicken have recently leap-frogged all their peers in the first two years of their music lives onto the Twisterella 2024 line-up albeit while remaining steadfastly underground and putting a few noses out of joint as they do. This is partly because they are the most exciting Teesside act of the last five years and partly because, even at this early stage, they still want to dedicate their efforts to saving their local social club in Lazenby as long as it doesn’t clash with NE Volume Bar’s annual Battle of the Band’s contest. They already know where their bread is buttered and where they are picking up new fans outside of the closed confines of the Teesside psycho-billy scene. They might get around to a proper release at some point, as long as it doesn’t affect their Universal Chicken claim.
So, what I am suggesting (the horror) is that it’s not necessarily just enough to play a load of gigs to the same people who go to every show and then whinge you aren’t getting the big gigs.
Under the Hills Nearby 