The Long Blondes

The Long Blondes were a five-piece English indie rock band from Sheffield, United Kingdom circa 2004. They released their debut album on Rough Trade Records named Someone To Drive You Home in November, 2006 after a string of critically-acclaimed singles. After an extended European tour, they entered the studio with DJ/producer Erol Alkan and started working on their second album in London. "Couples" was released in April 2008 in the UK.On October 20th The Long Blondes announced their split.

Band members

• Dorian Cox – lead guitar and keyboards
• Reenie Hollis (real name Kathryn Hollis) – bass guitar and backing vocals
• Emma Chaplin – rhythm guitar, keyboards and backing vocals
• Kate Jackson – lead vocals
• Screech Louder (real name Mark Turvey) – drums

Formation and early years

The band was formed in 2003 in Sheffield, UK. All the members were attending, or had attended university in the city. . The following quote appeared on their website and serves as an introduction to the Long Blondes; ”Our shared influences include The Mael Brothers, The Marx Brothers and The Bewlay Brothers. We do not listen to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors or Bob Dylan. We chose an instrument each and learnt to play it. Approximately three months after we formed, we played a victorious 25 minute set at Leeds Hi-Fi club. We inherit the aesthetics of early Roxy Music. We have a lot of influences, sometimes we sound a bit like them, sometimes we sound a lot like them. Sometimes we sound nothing like them at all" .

Career

The original goal of The Long Blondes was to form a fantasy pop group: Nico, Nancy Sinatra, Diana Dors and Barbara Windsor. Sexy and literate, flippant and heartbreaking all at once.

In 2004, The Long Blondes released 2 singles on Angular Records based in New Cross, London. In late 2005, the a further single "Separated by Motorways" was released through Paul Epworth's Good & Evil label. These releases were met with a positive critical reaction. In February 2006 they were recipients of the NME Philip Hall Radar Award (previously won by Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs) and were named by The Guardian and Vogue as "the best unsigned band in the UK".

Someone To Drive You Home

On April 13, 2006 they signed to Rough Trade Records and recorded their debut album, Someone to Drive You Home over the summer ready for its release on November 6. The album was produced by former Pulp bassist Steve Mackey. The album was preceded by their second single for the label, "Once and Never Again", which was released on October 23 and debuted at number 30 in the UK singles chart. The song was named the 15th best track of 2006 by NME. In June 2006, they released their first single for the label, "Weekend Without Makeup", which reached number 28. The predominant theme of the album is relationships from a female perspective, although 10 of the tracks on the album were written by male guitarist Dorian Cox. Themes dealt with include competition between females, isolation, sexual exploration and deceit. Influences of Pulp, Elastica, Morrissey and Blondie have been frequently quoted when the album is discussed in the media. The albums artwork is a painting by lead singer Kate Jackson; it is an image of Faye Dunaway in the film Bonnie and Clyde, with a Ford Cortina (Mark three) as her getaway car. They appeared at a number of UK festivals over summer 2006, including the Carling Weekend, Leicester's Summer Sundae and the Electric Picnic. In the summer of 2007, they played the Other Stage at Glastonbury and performed live at the Radar festival in Istanbul.

"Couples"

In October 2007, The Long Blondes started working on their second album with producer Erol Alkan in London. On December 19, 2007, it was announced that the new album's title would be "Couples". Before the album was released, all five members created their own cryptic promo videos "explaining" what the inspiration behind "Couples" was. The album was released on April 7, 2008, preceded by the first single from the album "Century" which was released on March 24, 2008. The album reached number 48 in the UK album chart. The album was well received by critics. Click Music for example gave the album a 4.5 out of 5 and said it was "a worthy contender for record of the year". The next song to be taken off "Couples" was "Guilt" and it was a 7" only release. The video for "Guilt" is set in a dog show. The band agreed to their suggestion to set the video in a dog show after receiving numerous literal interpretations of the lyrics. It was accompanied by one b-side called "Melvin Farr" which was based on Dirk Bogarde's character in the 1961 British film Victim. On the 9 June, the band posted on their official website that Dorian had fallen ill and that he had to be rushed to hospital, which meant that they had to cancel all their live appearances until the end of July. The band were due to play a support slot on Duran Duran's Red Carpet Massacre tour at the Birmingham NIA and the O2 Arena in London and on the John Peel stage at Glastonbury.

"Singles"

The Long Blondes are to release a compilation of their rare early 7" singles, which will be titled "Singles" on October 20, 2008 on Angular Recrods. The twelve-tracker collects all of the songs from the band's first four 7" vinyls, which were released by different labels including Thee Sheffield Phonographic Corporation and Angular Records. The version of Separated By Motorways differs from the vinyl version, as the group have opted to include the demo version instead. The compilation will also feature one unreleased song - Peterborough.

Style

Front-woman Kate Jackson was featured in The Guardian's style section and the NME cool list, moving from 39 in 2005 to 7 in 2006. When questioned about her place in the first NME list by The Guardian, Jackson remarked "Probably because they didn't have enough girls. It was so overrun with boring boys, they needed someone to bring a touch of glamour." Kate describes her style as "Bonnie Parker meets a Carry on girl".

Influences

The Long Blondes' songs reflect a number of influences, including 60s pop, Buzzcocks, The Fall, Ramones, post-punk and new wave. Traces of work by another Sheffield band, Pulp can also be seen in their recordings, their debut album was produced by Steve Mackey, bassist of Pulp. Jackson's vocals have been compared to Ari Up of The Slits, Deborah Harry of Blondie and those of Au Pairs. Dorian Cox's backing vocals are also similar to those of former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker. The music features angular guitars and prominent bass guitar lines. However, the band themselves claim somewhat more eclectic influences than their sound suggests, citing Burt Bacharach, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Chinn and Chapman, and Stock, Aitken and Waterman as influences . In 2004, the band named some of their actual influences and favourite bands. Emma's were The Smiths, The Sweet and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Reenie's were Belle and Sebastian, ELO and The Eagles. Dorian's were Abba and The Fall. Screech's were Scott Walker, The Slits and Captain Beaky. And Kate's were The Smiths, The Fall and Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood.

Lyrics

The Long Blondes' lyrics detail everyday life and relationships. For example, in 'Once And Never Again', the lyric goes "I know how it feels to be your age/Oh how I'd love to feel a girl your age/Once and never again" which infers that she would not like to be nineteen again, due to the emotional turmoil that the late-teen years inevitably bring. Some people have interpreted these lines as alluding to homosexual feelings between the singer and the subject.

• A link to lyrics from their first album, pre-album singles, b-sides and rarities Link

Film and music references

The Long blondes are known for referencing films, singers, starlets and artists in their music. Screech once said that Hitchcock was a big inspiration when it came to referencing films in their music, he said "the whole film noir thing is very important because it's stylish but there's depth to it as well".

• "You Could Have Both" namechecks American singer Scott Walker. The song also alludes to the Morrissey song "My Love Life", with the line "I know you love one person so why don't you love two, love?" being very similar to the line "I know that you love one, So why can't you love two?". The song also mentions C.C. 'Bud' Baxter from The Apartment.
• "Lust In The Movies" mentions underground actresses such as 60's art star Edie Sedgwick, American actress Arlene Dahl & French actress Anna Karina. Also the line Nag Nag Nag is a reference to a song by Sheffield band Cabaret Voltaire.
• "Autonomy Boy" mentions punk band Ramones.
• "Appropriation (By Any Other Name)" is a homage to Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo. It has been said that the song is told from Judy's perspective, due to lines such as "When I met you, I never wore dresses like that" & "You can't have me, make me act the same". Lead singer Kate Jackson painted two different portraits for the CD single and 7" Vinyl, they both depicted Kim Novak's characters Madeleine Elster and Judy Barton .
• "Darts" mentions british darts player Bobby George and darts commentator Sid Waddell.
• "Only Lovers Left Alive" is a homage to the 1950's film From Here To Eternity.
• The two front covers of Weekend Without Make-Up are paintings of Diana Dors.
• "Madame Ray" is inspired by Lee Miller, the photographer and muse of avent-garde artist Man Ray.
• "Five Ways To End It" mentions Carry On star Hattie Jacques and also the producer of the Carry On films, Peter Rogers.
• "I Liked The Boys" ends with "Not the most original sentiment iv'e ever heard, so what's new" which is a line from a radio show by Terry Wogan. Whilst recording the second album, they found an old radio recording form the 50's in one of the old reel-to-reel tape recorders and decided to use parts of the show in some of their songs.
• "Round The Hairpin" begins with a line by British comedian Kenny Everett.
• "I'm Going To Hell" ends with a line by Peter Sellers.
• "Erin O'Connor" is a homage to Erin O'Connor which also mentions fellow model, Lily Cole. It begins with a line by Ronnie Corbett and David Swift from the BBC play No Sex Please, We're British.

Before Couples was released, all five members created their own cryptic promo videos "explaining" what the inspiration behind "Couples" was. Kate explained who inspired the album cover, she found artist Richard Hamilton, videos by Abba, Lee Miller and Le Corbusier to be the main inspiration.

Side projects

Before "Couples" was released, The Long Blondes decided to preview the new album under the name The Dead Eyed Bitches. The name of the "band" is part of a lyric from "Giddy Stratospheres". They only played a handful of gigs across the UK.

Reenie and Screech have a side band called The Bon Bon Club. Their debut single features three cover versions—"Lullaby" by The Cure, "Love Is Blind" by Pulp and "Romantic Rights" by Death From Above 1979. It was released through Thee Sheffield Phonographic Corporation on 23 June 2008. The 7" single was limited to 500 copies.

Discography

Albums

Year	Album information	Chart positions
		UK	UK Indie Chart
2006	Someone To Drive You Home 1st Studio Album Released: November 6 2006 Label: Rough Trade	44	1
2008	"Couples" 2nd Studio Album Released: April 7 2008 Label: Rough Trade	48	2

Compilations

Year	Album information	Chart positions
		UK	UK Indie Chart
2008	"Singles" Compilation album Released: October 20 2008 Label: Angular Records Leaked on the 9th of September.

Singles

Date	Single	Backed with	Record label	UK Chart position	Other details
July 2004	"New Idols"	"Long Blonde"	Thee Sheffield Phonographic Corporation		Double A Side 7" single
September 30, 2004	"Autonomy Boy"	"Long Blonde"	Filthy Little Angels		Split 7" single with The Boyfriends
November 29, 2004	"Giddy Stratospheres"	"Polly", "Darts"	Angular Recording Corporation		7" single
June 2005	"Giddy Stratospheres"	"Polly", "Autonomy Boy", "Darts"	What's Your Rupture?		12" EP
June 13, 2005	"Appropriation (By Any Other Name)"	"My Heart Is Out of Bounds", "Lust in the Movies"	Angular Recording Corporation	83	7" and CD single
December 12, 2005	"Separated By Motorways"	"Big Infatuation"	Good and Evil Records		7" single
June 26, 2006	"Weekend Without Makeup"	"Fulwood Babylon", "Platitudes", "Last Night On Northgate Street"	Rough Trade Records	28	2X7" and CD single
October 23, 2006	"Once And Never Again"	"Five Ways To End It", "The Whippet Fancier", "Who Are You To Her?"	Rough Trade Records	30	2X7" and CD single
February 5, 2007	"Giddy Stratospheres"	"All Bar One Girls", "Never To Be Repeated", "I'm Coping"	Rough Trade Records	37	2X7" and CD single
March 24, 2008	"Century"	"The Unbearable Lightness of Buildings"	Rough Trade Records		7" single and download
June 30, 2008	"Guilt"	"Melvin Farr", "Good As Gold", "Too Happy"	Rough Trade Records		7" single and download

Music videos

The Long Blondes are also known for their cheap and glamourous music videos. Their first proper music video was Appropriation (By Any Other Name) which was directed by Rupert Noble, a music video director they regularly made videos with after.

Date	Video	Director	Link
July 2004	New Idols	Reenie Hollis	Youtube link
September 2004	Autonomy Boy	Reenie Hollis	Youtube link
September 2004	Long Blonde	Reenie Hollis	Youtube link
November 2004	Giddy Stratospheres	Reenie Hollis	Youtube link
June 2005	Appropriation (By Any Other Name)	Rupert Noble	Youtube link
December 2005	Separated By Motorways	Rupert Noble	Youtube link
June 2006	Weekend Without Makeup	Gina Birch	Youtube link
October 2006	Once And Never Again	Rupert Noble	Youtube link
February 2007	Giddy Stratospheres	Rupert Noble	Youtube link
March 2008	Century	Minsu Song	Youtube link
June 2008	Guilt	Abby Warrilow	Youtube link

Awards and nominations

In 2006 The Long Blondes received the Philip Hall Radar Award honouring rising talent, which in previous years has accurately predicted big things for Kaiser Chiefs and Franz Ferdinand.

Year	Award	Category	Result
2006	NME Awards	Philip Hall Radar Award	Won

External links

• Vorlage:Official
• The Long Blondes bei Myspace
• Vorlage:Last.fm
• review at www.tinymixtapes.com

Interviews

• Kate Jackson, The Long Blondes The Guardian, December 19, 2005
• The Long Blondes Interview - Plan B magazine, June 2006
• The Long Blondes: Blondes have more fun Subculture magazine, October 2006
• Incendiary interview The Long Blondes Incendiary Mag, November 2007
• Interview with Dorian from the Long Blondes God Is In The TV Zine May 2008
• June 2008 Interview with L.A. Record

Video

• PUNKCAST#773 Vid of Long Blondes @ Cake Shop NYC - June 22 2005 (Realplayer, mp4)