May 2004,The Ritz, Manchester. A Certain Ratio have just finished a show stopping set at an emotional tribute night for the late and legendary Joy Division/New Order manager, Rob Gretton. Martin Moscrop,(ACR mainstay, producer of Manchester's first acid house record, amongst many other things), turns to two friends, Rob Bright and Paul Dering ;
"I've had something in mind for years... I want to start a label. And I want you two twats to be my A&R men."
One of the highlights of the night had been ACR's cover of Joy Division's 'Heart & Soul',guest-starring Peter Hook.
"That's sorted then. Find me some brilliant music."
Heart & Soul present two true originals - 0898 DAVE and KINGS HAVE LONG ARMS. Both have pedigree - 0898 Dave created the seminal 'Rubbish Monkey' single for Manchester's Repap label, his 'Somebody Else's Wife' LP is genius, and the new stuff we've heard is on another level. He is in a field of his own.
Adrian Flanegan, better known as Kings Have Long Arms, is known to the righteous few through a series of brilliant singles, such as 'Pigeons Carry My News' and 'Rock & Roll Is Dead', which featured The Human League's Phil Oakey. The KHLA live show is a whole other beast - an electro-pop carnival, which could well feature a Mexican wrestler in a gimp mask, Sherlock Holmes on the stylophone, a lion playing keyboards, and a massive all-in conga dance to the outrageous new single 'All Hail Satan'. Seeing is still not quite believing.
Both these artists combine electronic music, edgy humor and bags of good old-fashioned songwriting craft to fashion music that is quite unlike much else out there. 'Outsider Pop' is the best way we can describe it, vibrant music that owes nothing to style mags, focus groups or PR machinery. They write GREAT TUNES. With heart. And Soul.
This profile was edited with Thomas’ Myspace Editor V3.4
