Former HURRICANE *1 frontman ALEX LOWE makes his solo debut at the LONDON WATER RATS on December 18, NME.COM can reveal.
Playing with his new group, The Alex Lowe Band, tickets are available through the usual outlets, and via [url=]www.skipmusic.com.
Since Hurricane *1 split, following guitarist Andy Bell’s departure to play bass for Oasis, Lowe has been living in a caravan in the Scottish Highlands and rehearsing his new band in a rural Women’s Institute Hall. However, his comeback debut single ‘Take Me Back’ has already been released and is topping the chart – in Japan.
Lowe, who fronted Hurricane *1 for three and half years, is living in the caravan in Blairgowrie, Perthshire on a plot of land owned by his grandmother. Living simply, he drives to nearby Marlee Hall, run by Kinloch Women’s Rural Institute, where his group, The Alex Lowe Band, rehearses.
“The ladies in the WRI are great,” he told Scotland’s Sunday Mail. “Sometimes they give us scones and tea.”
Lowe moved to Sony/Epic in Japan signed after the collapse of Hurricane *1. He sent them a demo and was signed to a three-album deal after he sent them a demo tape. The first fruit of the deal is ‘Take Me Back’, a track he had originally wanted to drop from comeback album ‘Dreamcatcher’.
“‘Take Me Back’ is Japan’s Number One in terms of airplay – DJs there have been playing it constantly,” he explained. “I’m finding this a bit funny because it was a song I had planned to dump from the album.”
The album is set for release in Japan later this year. Lowe has already started work on the follow-up ‘Boys United Never Die Young’.
Post Britpop, Alex Lowe was pitched by observers as the new Liam Gallagher. Animosity between the pair, who were label mates at the now defunct Creation label, led to a long-running spat which ended in a reported punch-up in a London club.