Adventure Club is Oliver Williams and Ryan Davis. Friends since 13 years old, they met at school and instantly bonded over an almost psychotic interest in music.
The following years consisted of falling into bands and falling out with each other.
When they realised that no one else could get on with them they started gigging the pubs and clubs of Birmingham with two guitars and lots of songs. They called themselves alf-Alpha. People loved the songs, but wanted to hear a full band. So they got one, and stated gigging all over the county.Tired of paying out for demos they started recording themselves, and in 2003 released a single “The Imminent Feeling†on their own I Kill Spiders Records Label.
The band fell apart but the songs were getting better. The new batch sounded more positive musically. Lyrically the ideas had become more questioning, touching on themes of fear, love, being lost and trying to find your way in the world.
So, after facing many a demon, family bereavement and reading a lot of
Robert Louis Stevenson, Oliver and Ryan moved to the Island Of Herne to record and live in the wilderness for a year. Simply because there was literary nobody around, Ryan ended playing most of the instruments having, in some cases, to learn new ones in the process. Mean while, Oliver recorded and steered from the helm. The music recorded has become their first album “Wilderness Music.â€Adventure Club was born. Now, backed on stage by long time friends and Birmingham’s indie heroes, The Will to Rally, Adventure Club live is quite a experience. Ever been strapped to the north face of the Eiger?
You’re kind of getting there, at an Adventure Club show. Thrilling, sometimes scary always magical.Adventure Club, anyone can join. In fact you’re probably already a member. You just don’t know it yet.
“Adventure Club are a glorious experience…they produce some of the most gorgeous pop thrills I’ve heard in a long timeâ€- Bearos Records.
Reviews of "The Train"
Train Ride Home-Adventure Club, Re-Action Recordings
With a song title like 'Train Ride Home' Media Assassin must fight the urge to turn into a naff reincarnation of Richard Whitely and get in as many puns as humanly possible.
Tough one, the chorus of this song hits you like a proverbial locomotive in the face, sounding like a head on collision between Flaming Lips, Pulp and Sparks. This is how obscure pop should sound, it's quirky, kooky and has the excitment of exploring the edges of the universe wearing your pyjamas in a rubber dingy; i.e completely improbable, laughable to some but the ingredients of wild escapism for others.
Adventure Club show in this debut how they are capable of mesmerising the left-field masses with their ethereal shimmers and firework explosions of sound.
Yes, yes; all aboard the Adventure Express, blah blah, don't flush while stationed, blah blah, next stop Eccentricsville.
Andy Roberts
Rawkstar net
Adventure Club - The Train
Reviewed by Dave on ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /22nd May 2007
A soft bass driven opening leads into this explosive indie rock song, I must confess when I heard the jingly keyboard come in over the opening riff I though "Boo, I bet this sounds like Generic Indie Band Song #5" but I was pleasantly surprised to find that Adventure Club have decided to sound a little bit different.The vocals from Oliver Williams are strong, and Ryan Davies (who seems to be doing everything else) seems to turn his had to everything quite adeptly, like one of those annoying genius kids in school who would turn on a keyboard and play 'Flight of the Bumblebee' with his eyes closed and one hand tied behind his back.This Birmingham based duo are definitely ones to watch.
Gigwise
Adventure Club don't waste any time in blinding you with the power of their pop, launching into 'The Train's chugging chorus a mere 36 seconds into the song, a cathartic shout-along about the train ride home which sounds like a Pulpier version of early British Sea Power (no surprise, since Pulp and BSS producer Phil Vanall leant his hand to the Club's upcoming 'Wilderness Music' LP). At a little over two minutes long, you'll barely have to time to catch your breath before you realize lead singer Oliver Williams's name-checked Mona Lisa, morning afters and long distance relationships, all to an irresistibly insistent backbeat.
Ob-Scene
Articulate Indie-pop two piece Adventure club know how to pen a hook. They're very good at it. From the moment the twinkling piano embellishes the opening bass line you know this song is going to be the soundtrack to someone's dying love affair, somewhere. Wordsman Oliver Williams indulges in painful hindsight as he realises he 'should have waited 'til the morning after'. It's too late now bud…Lovely boy band harmonies and chiming Marr guitars make this song an anthem for the every guy who's ever cocked up a relationship, and doesn't have an aversion to unashamed pop.
Room 13
Adventure Club are the latest band to come out of the ever growing Birmingham music scene. They have an album out later in the year, but they've given us a glimpse of what to expect with the single 'The Train'.Their sound puts you in mind of classic British pop/rock such as Pulp. 'The Train' is a prime piece of pop that would easily be at home on the play lists of small and large radio stations a like. The song opens with a simple guitar tune and drum beat, which gradually builds up into a fast paced, multi layered, superb song. The lyrics aren't outstanding or very deep and meaningful but they are incredible catchy and after a couple of listens you'll have the chorus stuck in your head.If Adventure Club play their cards right they could have a very long and successful music career ahead of them.
The Sunday Experience
Adventure Club 'the Train' (Re-Action). Embarrassed to admit that Adventure Club are another band who so far have successfully managed to snuck below our normally well tuned radar. A Birmingham based duo whose accompanying press release sights various sound-a-like references such as Pulp, Suede and Roxy Music which to be fair we ere at a loss to see, hear or indeed find. That said 'the train' is a contagious cherry topped slice of affectionate buzz pop and serves as a rather fine taster for the duo's debut full length 'Wilderness Music' which should see the light of day later in the year. Falling exactly 29 seconds short of your classically delivered sub three minute pop model 'the train' is a jauntily simmering slab of prime time radio rollicking breezily invigorating crunching power pop that fizzes effervescently and takes you by the scruff of the neck onto a sinew straining rollercoaster ride thats riddled with sirens, driving plinky plonky keys and the kind of cut to the quick anguished tension that sizzles, smarts and stings in equal measures. Of course you need it, you want it and should have it if that is you want your record collection resembling the coolest thing in the neighbourhood
