Member Since: 23/01/2006
Band Website: For nerds...
Band Members: The band is fronted by Peter Stebbing & he has the pleasure of being joined by Helen Michaelides on piano, Chris Prior on bass and Andy Dunn on drums. Former band members have included: Dave Hyde (drums, now in The Futureheads), Allison Clough (bass, once in Comatose and Mavis, now a teacher), Richard Amundsen (guitar, now in This Ain't Vegas), David "Jaff" Craig (bass, piano, guitar, attitude, now in The Futureheads), Nick Jackson (drums, now working in London), Sarah McKeown (bass and piano, once in Rosita, now a teacher), Peter Brewis (drums, now, in Field Music) and Dave Brewis (bass, class, style, now in Field Music).
Influences: Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers, The Pixies, Bob Dylan, The Band, Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith, The Velvet Underground, Third Planetarium, The Futureheads (!), Field Music (!), The Golden Virgins, AC/DC, Robert Johnson, The Sonics, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Joni Mitchell, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Greil Marcus, The Ramones, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Animal Collective, Bruce Springsteen...this list could go on forever!
Sounds Like: "Tender, bittersweet sentiments are delivered with ferocity and passion... These guys aren't acting. This shit is lifeblood." Great comments yet again from the NME in our first live review, September 2006 "A triumphant homecoming...from the top 10 hit in waiting Television to Silent Movie Curse, it was like a greatest hits set." The Crack enjoys our first shows in the cold North for over a year, September 2006 "Peter Stebbing is a fantastic songwriter, and sings songs about characters as varied as sound engineers, silent movie stars and trapeze artists." NME names drops while mentioning notable highlights of the Sunderland scene, August 2006 "Sempre liderats per Peter Stebbing, practiquen una barreja de pop-folk i post-punk. De Johnny Cash a The Velvet Underground, per exemple." Nos EnvÃa Farelli Produccions: on our Barcelona shows - we don't know what it means but we love them, July 2006
"Watching their considered, intellectual pop is like getting stoned with the school nerd; awkward, revealing and brilliant because of it." www.new-noise.net constructs beautiful compliments, July 2006
"Radar demo of the year (so far) - this is Chuck Berry singing Leonard Cohen songs, or Johnny Cash if he'd been bullied at school." NME raves about Silent Movie Curse EP, April 2006
"Brilliant nerd-pop from Sunderland, with reference points as diverse as proto Boston punkers The Modern Lovers, NY art stars Talking Heads and spoke word grump Alan Bennet. Needless to say, the end result is both whimsically idiosyncratic and ever so slightly special." NME loving Television EP, February 2006 "In an ecletic line up, The Amateur Dramatics are of a pop sensibility and they play songs of an irrepressibly catchy nature...The band appear to be on the way up." The Crack again giving us a great review, May 2005 "[Television] begins as something of a Velvet Underground pastiche and becomes yet more kooky and irrepressibly catchy", Repeat Review loves "Television" on the Twice The Town You'll Ever Be compilation, March 2005 "It's the sound of Mark E Smith and Justine Frischmann's illegitimate love child throwing Elvis Shapes before a dusty mirror...they simply couldn't be more alluring if they tried." The Crack tells it how it is way back when, February 2003