Spot quiz. Guess the city from these quotes: “There’s loads of cool people there.” “It’s on the rise.” “It’s good for gigs and festivals.” “It’s cultural.”
One thousand points if you said “Hull”. Home of The Housemartins, The Paddingtons, Everything But The Girl and, um, that’s about it. But this misunderstood metropolis is a new epicentre of indie rock thanks to the city’s La’s-meets-The Black Keys hopefuls, Fronteers.
Hull’s struggling to come to terms with its new cultural respectability, though – even Fronteers’ early acoustic nights were prone to turn into Blues Brothers-style bar brawls. “We were playing a cover and this massive fight kicked off,” says guitarist James Taylor, “literally the whole place.”
Children of The Last Shadow Puppets and Oasis who’ve played together since school, Fronteers last year wrote debut single ‘Youth’, singer Andy Towse’s ode to a love affair going the way of the Tories’ tax-credit cuts. Since then they’ve penned a dozen songs, including full-of-life second single ‘It’s Up To Me Now’, and set their sights on indie-rock’s upper tier.
“It’s great to see people going to Catfish And The Bottlemen gigs, getting excited and really enjoying the songs,” says drummer Lloyd Tuton. “That’s what we want at our gigs.”
FRONTEERS: THE DETAILS
LISTEN:
‘It’s Up To Me Now’ is out now on Drawing Board Recordings
LIVE:
Nov 25 Joiners, Southampton
Nov 28 Welly, Hull
Nov 30 Sugarmill, Stoke-on-Trent
Dec 1 Cluny, Newcastle
Dec 3 Riverside Room, Newport
SOCIAL @fronteersband
FACT:
Their first gig was on New Year’s Eve 2014