| Who they say they are: The Pipettes |
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| "I think we're a bit of a marmite band, and people who like what we do really like it" |
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CMU ALBUMS OF 2006: 'We Are The Pipettes'
released 28 Aug on Mempis Industries
I can't quite remember when I first came across Brighton's The Pipettes, but I first properly tuned into their music just ahead of the first Insomniacs Ball in the early Spring when I was sent a couple of their tracks to play during the Insomniacs bit of an edition of the CMU radio show. I was immediately hooked to their wonderful reinvention of the fifties and sixties girl group sound, that always infectious simple brand of pop music that is too often ignored these days. Despite making a very clear mental note to catch the girls when they took to the Insomniacs Ball stage, somehow I managed to miss them, which is why six months later I ran so fast from the Scissor Sisters' headline set at Bestival to make sure I caught them play their late night end-of-festival set there. It was worth the run - The Pipettes put on a brilliant live show with between-song banter that is as fun and entertaining as the songs they sing. All of which meant that when I got back to the office, post-Bestival, The Pipettes debut album went straight on the CD player - it having been on my desk for a few weeks by that point but, with me being in Scotland throughout August, I hadn't had chance to give it a proper play. And the great news is, the record is as good as the live show. 'We Are The Pipettes' is a wonderful, charming and incredibly infectious album - and while it, and pretty much every song on it, does owe a great deal to the girl groups of old that inspired the project (something the band themselves will freely admit to), the fact that the band's founder and head musician, Bobby Barry, had the idea to resurrect that sound at this very time, and the fact that he and his six collaborators (or seven if you count former and founding member Julia Clark-Lowes) have been able to create some great tunes that simultaneously sound like they belong to that era and this one, is why this is such a good album, and definitely one of CMU's favourite albums of 2006. |
Like many a good venture, The Pipettes began life via a chance meeting in a pub, although in this case none of the three faces of the band that we have all become familiar with in the last twelve months were actually involved in that meeting.
"Bobby [Barry, the band's guitarist and founder] had been DJing, and was a big fan of the fifties and sixties girl bands, and the girl band sound associated with Phil Spector," explains Becki, one of the three band members you would recognise, and therefore not a participant in this specific bit of the story. "He thought it was a shame that no one was making that kind of music any more; there were plenty of girl bands around, but none on that model. Then he met Julia [Clark-Lowes, fellow founding member, now departed], who had been reading that manual the KLF wrote about how to make a chart topping pop song". The result of that conversation was a joint mission to create a new girl band like the ones of the past Bobby liked so much. The two of them enlisted everyone they knew in the Brighton music scene, and so The Pipettes came into being.
"I discovered all those old girl groups myself through being in the band", Becki admits, she being one of the Brightonians enlisted onto the project. "I'd always wanted to be in a band, and had dabbled with a number of different instruments over the years. But if I'm being honest I didn't play so well, so a traditional band was probably never going to happen for me. And I'd done musicals as a teenager, and loved the performance as much as the music, so when I was first told about this project it sounded perfect".
"And once we got going", she continues, "I realised how many of the songs these fifties and sixties girls groups recorded I actually knew, even though I didn't necessarily know what they were called. And even though they're old songs I found they had a real timeless quality to them. I think people can empathise with those kind of songs instantly, even now - much more so that with rock or indie music of the past".
With three girls in place to front the group - Julia, Becki and Rose - and Bobby and three other musicians forming a backing band (sometimes referred to as The Cassettes) - The Pipettes were ready to start creating their own version of that timeless, classic girl group sound. "Julia and Bobby in particular had some theories and concepts for how things would work", Becki explains, "and they brought a couple of songs with them to the first rehearsal. But after that it became a pretty open forum, with everyone contributing to the songwriting process. In fact, given that the music we're making isn't really like any other contemporary genre, the ideas and sounds we all came with were incredibly coherent straight away".
Although a lot of what makes The Pipettes so great came about during those early rehearsals, the line up that actually recorded the band's debut album did not included founding member Julia. She left the band after eighteen months, amicably I think, to pursue other projects. "It was weird when Julia left" Becki admits, "partly because we lost one of our dependable songwriters, but also because we'd been gigging constantly for a year and half by that point, and we weren't sure we'd be able to find someone who could fit in at that relatively late stage. But then we met Gwen, who not only fitted in perfectly more or less straight away, but also brought a new edge and a real boost to the band".
By the time Gwen arrived on the scene The Pipettes had already started to build a following for themselves, both in hometown Brighton and further a field too. "All our friends in Brighton seem to be in bands," Becki says, "so it was never difficult to get support slots, not only in Brighton but elsewhere too, including London. We made steady progress and picked up some pretty hardcore fans along the way. I think we're a bit of a marmite band, and people who like what we do really like it".
On the back of that momentum the band signed to independent label Memphis Industries and work began on that wonderful debut album 'We Are The Pipettes'. "We never wanted to sign to a major, certainly not for our first record," Becki says of their label choice, "we had to have a label who wouldn't try to change the way we worked or sounded. And the good thing about Memphis Industries is we know they only sign bands they love, so they don't want to mess with your music once they've signed you. And that's what we wanted!"
You can fully understand the band's reasons for wanting to go the independent route, and in Memphis Industries they certainly chose a quality indie to work with. But that said, given the accessibility and possible mainstream appeal of The Pipettes' music, you can't help thinking that with a major record label budget and the right marketing support behind them these guys could become one of the big pop phenomena of this decade, which would be really exciting, even though it would probably result in a predictable barrage of copy cat acts. But, possibly because of their decision to go the indie route, 'We Are The Pipettes' was actually one of the quieter album releases of the year, a hidden gem if you like. But, with the band gaining an ever growing fanbase, through some media support and constant gigging, it will hopefully prove to be one of those real growers of an album. If so, the band's decision to stay indie, label wise, could pay off - the problem with those big major label pushes, of course, is that bands often only have one chance to make it, and if a bad marketing strategy fucks up the release they might never recover.
"Radio 1 don't really like us, but that's understandable", Becki continues, discussing how the band is going about growing its profile. "But Radio 2 have been brilliant, and we have had support from Xfm. But the gigs are most important. That's how we really connect with people. We're quite hard to categorise genre wise - we're not really 'indie', but we're more indie that most modern pop music. That sometimes makes it hard to find the right media, and especially radio stations, for our music. But at our gigs we are connecting directly with the people who like what we do".
Actually, The Pipettes aren't only a bit unusual in their sound. Many people think that tha band is just the three girls - because band founder Bobby and his fellow musicians never appear in publicity shots and are often out of view at gigs. Nevertheless, and even though the four musicians are sometimes referred to as 'The Cassettes', The Pipettes see themselves very much as a seven-piece band. "Being a band of seven with three singers was very much a deliberate thing, It doesn't happen very often, normally one singer fronts the band. But this way it works well. And with the rest of the band often lurking very much in the background, it often confuses people. And I kind of like that!"
And I like that too. And more so that Bobby and Julia's mission to do something totally different, yet at the same time very familiar, within the contemporary pop domain has given us an album as special as 'We Are The Pipettes'. Long live The Pipettes and all they doo wop do.
chris@unlimitedmedia.co.uk - published dec 2006
