Keith Top Of The Pops – I Hate Your Band

A band that vows never to rehearse, sound check or keep the same line up from one night to the other

Sometimes the best things in life are spontaneous. The same could be said about the ludicrously named ‘Keith Top Of The Pops And His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All Star Backing Band’, or KTOTPAHMUICASBB , if you’re fond of acronyms.

The band formed on the spur of the moment at a New York Art Brut gig when the support act pulled out. Keith stepped up with some members of the headlining act to fill the void. As befits their ramshackle inception, Keith TOTP vow to never rehearse or sound check, and have a different line up every night; with sometimes as many as twenty four members!

Their sound is similarly crowded. On “I Hate Your Band’ they make a snarling, beery, Dionysian racket, as Keith’s acoustic guitar is gradually swamped in noise. The song dissolves into a glorious mess of handclaps, group chants and guitar squall, whilst Keith names and shames the subjects of his ire; “The Kooks, The Maccabees ….I Hate Your Band.”

“Once in a while you could do something new, maybe try a new chord”, he sings, whilst using at most four himself. The band obviously don’t take themselves, or anyone else, very seriously. A refreshing distraction from the plethora of po-faced Indie acts out there.

This bawdy, clamorous anti-band will be making enemies near you soon.