..
Rydell.
Eight years. Eight years of emotion, honesty and rejection.
Born from the ashes of Couch Potatoes, a skate-core band who evolved into a
sort of proto-emo band, I can remember it taking six months to find a
drummer. I remember the first practice, just before christmas 1996. It was
snowing as we loaded our gear into the Youth Center. We had a vague idea
that we wanted to fuse the lyrical approach of acts like Suede and the
Smiths with a more stripped down version of the music of bands like Texas is
the Reason, Samuel, Elliot, etc and other heroes of the day. It was January
before we had a finished song and our first show was in April.
Initially embraced by the scene, scoring choice support slots from day one,
due largely to the lack of other bands and our reputation from our previous
bands (within the first year I remember supporting Sparkmarker, Starmarket,
Blue Tip, Kerosene 454, Metroshifter and more leading lights of the time).
Always ahead of trends within the scene, Rydell beat "emo" by some years and
on their initial appearance on the South-East scene, confounded reviewers.
"Farside? Sense Field?". The bands we now so easily associate with the "E"
word didn't slip so easily off the tongue then.
Then banished by that scene, spending years in exile, alone, crafting that
final album that was the sound they had strived to achieve all those years.
We were a band without a home. Our adopted hometown's Hardcore scene, for we
were from all over the South-East, had long since died. While we should have
been one of the towns most respected bands, bringing post-hardcore back on
the map, we were mocked and ignored by the towns only music venue.
And it didn't end there. In one of Rydell's final years we played 4 shows
all year. Four. And not for the lack of trying. There were simply too many
bands, too few venues and promoters, and we were not considered worth giving
the time to by the powers that be: the almighty Fracture 'zine / forum, the
well known HC promoters of the time, the kids...
It wasn't all bad of course. We had some of the most fun times anyone could
imagine. We toured all over Europe with Hot Water Music before anyone in the
UK had heard of them. I remember coming back from that tour raving about
this amazing band and nobody batting an eyelid (this would have been around
the time of HWM's "Forever & Counting"). I remember great shows with bands
like Pale, Reno kid, Sunfactor, Babies Three, Jets Vs Sharks, One time
Champion...
And then there's the split 7" we did with Hot Water Music. It sold nearly
6000 copies you know. But despite all these kids buying it, it seemed the
general consensus was "Why are Rydell on a split with this awesome band?".
The answer is largely because two wonderful people called Dennis and Emre
who ran a little label called Scene Police liked us and what were doing. For
that we can never thank them enough.
Rydell's history can be split into an BC / AD: we were originally a four
piece with myself struggling to play second guitar and sing, and then on the
Millennium Mark joined on guitar, and we went through a fantastic period for
the band, we got "signed", we wrote a whole album very quickly, we were
oozing creativity out of every pore, "My Life In Motion", "Collapser", Why
Couldn't We Have Met...", all written in a single session...
Rydells early recordings, made in a converted railway arch with the ever
patient Charlie Macintosh, had come out well: crisp, crunchy, not too bass heavy.
For Per Ardua... we were in a real studio, with a budget and a lot of time.
The recording of the first album destroyed my voice. I mean really
damaged it. It wasn't the same for years, I used to sing in a gruff hardcore
voice every night of the week. After the album I couldn't. I could do maybe
half a set before it started going. I blame two things: Trying too hard to
mix "real singing" with harsh vocals, and being pushed too hard in the
studio on the fist day to get the chorus of "The Plot Is Lost" just right.
My heart also sank a little when the actual album came out because the
layout and cover were so far from what i had imagined. Despite sending
numerous ideas to Headhunter's design department (by post!) they seemed to
have just done their own thing with the design. In those pre-internet days a
proof copy from the USA was not an option.
Therefore my memories of the period have been tainted somewhat by the
experience, but for the most part it was an intesely creative time and a
real learning experience for us as a band. After recording the album we had the chance to go on tour to the USA and really push what we could do. But because of the 9/11 disaster our planned US tour fell through and our label all but vanished.
Kerrang Magazine actually said that "Per Ardua..." was "the Best British Emo
Album Ever". Seriously. In these days of emo like My Chemical Fallout
Prophets its hard to believe I know. If we'd scored a headline like that a
couple of years later we would probably be millionaires now! But in 2001 a
tag line like that didn't count for much.
So we went away and over the next couple of years, every wednesday night to
be precise, we quietly crafted what would become "Hard On The Trail". I
think our second and final album is everything we wanted it to be. It
sounded just right, thanks to the fantastic John Hannon. It looked good, the
layout was great, thanks to Verity. The songs were strong and interesting,
developed through literally years of playing. Its a shame we had called it a
day six months before the album actually came out!
Just like any relationship, if you put a lot of yourself into something you
care about then eventually you're going to find it frustrating that other
people don't feel the same way. But when you find some people who do share
your belief its amazing. so thanks to my bro's in the band and everyone who
ever gave a damn about the music Rydell made.
Cheers!
Miles Booker, London, 2006.
