bedroom antics.....

last december, in my first ever review for the Enfield Advertiser i brought you a review of a band i was extremely excited about.

sadly, Flamboyant Bella promptly imploded in the early part of 2010 when the male 3/4s of the band decided to take a break from rock star shenanigans in favour of furthering each of their respective educations.

Which left Flo Kirton with no band.

what didn't leave Flo was a passion to continue making music, which saw her experimenting with self-production, solo compositions, seeking collaborators and trying to avoid getting a real job.

playing a crucial contributing role within 'Flambo', Flo found herself with complete creative control of her output, but has found it hard keeping herself motivated without the structure of conventional band practises.

working from her bedroom recording demo tracks with a small set up of a PC and Logic studio has put Flo in the same position as so many other people out there that are hoping to break into the mainstream and make a name for herself, but has found that the reailty of affordable recording equipment and an over saturated internet music culture is leaving her jaded.

'Due to the new-found accessibility in entering the music industry, i'd say it makes it all the harder for a small town girl to make any impact at all these days. After all, everyone knows it's who you know, not what you know..' she told me.

and going from a treasured indie-pop band that were flirting with the prospect of stardom to being a girl that signs on every week, struggles with crashing software stunting her creativity and still dreams of 'making it' has seen a sense of cynism and bitterness creeping into Flo's songwriting  and also had an adverse effect of her views of the industry and her outlook of the world.

'Although i'm only 20, because of how young i was when stuff with Flamboyant Bella peaked, it's easy to feel like i've had my time to shine. I can only hope that how bitter i've become, will spur me on to better things, because one thing i have learnt is to not trust, rely on or try to make friends with 90% of the industry, 'cos all they tend to care about anymore is money and name-dropping.'

a minute silence

it is with a heavy heart that i report the sad demise of Flamboyant Bella.

 

readers of my blog will know that i have been a strong advocate of the young group's work and i am sad to say that i saw them far too few times as London seemed to be one of the places they very rarely seemed to pass through.

I covered their biggest ever London headline gig last february and they were also the subject of my first article for The Enfield Advertiser.

and although i was already aware of the horrible truth, the official news broke last week that it really was all over.

but fear not, while the boys are planning on furthering their education, Flo is more reluctant to give up the spotlight and has already been writing and begun looking for new band members.



so i guess since the band no longer exist, no-one will mind if i share this rarity with you, possibly my favourite flambo track, from the now hard to find 2006 self-released debut 'Practically Saintly'

Flamboyant Bella - Break Away

newsworthy

so did you see it? my first article for The Enfield Advertiser? well of course it was gonna be the music column, what else did you expect from me?

who hasn't seen it? why not, quick run and grab yourself a copy, page 26!
only 35p from our local shops for local people if you haven't had it through your door!

so is this the start of a new rock n roll lifestyle for me? will i be getting recognised in Nandos and Bar form? of course i'll sign your copy of the Enfield Advertiser!! please, no photos tho...

ok, onto the real stuff... i'll be doing my best in a kinda regular monthly-ish slot to expose people to bands that may have passed you by so far, now Flamboyant Bella are definetely no strangers to readers of my blog, but to the rest of enfield?

so lets start righting some wrongs.

here i present the 'director's cut' of the article, ok, some of the writing has a slight whiff of cheddar, but i'm trying to find my feet while ticking all the right boxes that the enfield advertiser reading demographic need ticked, it's a role i'll grow into.. stick with me!



Flamboyant Bella, Upstairs @ The Garage. 23.11.09
or as the paper titled it
For Teenage Kicks This Is Hard To Beat

If you haven't heard of Flamboyant Bella yet, fear not, you are probably not the only one, but lets fix that right now.

The Hertfordshire band have been picking up quite a following as they have bounced around the country getting teens dancing to their unique brand of sex, drugs and synth-pop.

These three guys and one girl are strong supporters of getting kids into their gigs, whether it is ensuring their shows are 14+, arranging special matinee gigs or playing at the Underage Festival earlier this year.

And in return, the youth of the nation have been showing their support for 'Flambo'.

It's perhaps a shame then that their gig last week fell upon a school night as the young four piece were back in North London headlining the intimate Upstairs section of the recently re-opened Highbury Garage venue.

The turn out fell short of previous outings in the capital but Flamboyant Bella still turned on the charm for the diminished yet dedicated crowd.

And it's easy to see why they could still get so excited, because this was nothing like a band playing to an empty room of shy, shuffling foot-tappers, everyone wanting to enjoy this gig was as close as they could possibly get and singing every word back to the band.

Their sound is hard to pin down, a unique amalgamation of pure pop spliced with post-Arctic Monkeys and Libertines indie, with shades of Friendly Fires, Klaxons and Kate Nash bleeding through while their lyrics are brash and acutely honest, yet always delivered with mix of humour and sincerety.

“call me politically incorrect, call me foul mouthed or call it tourettes” – the opening salvo of Sex for Procreation (sadly missing from the night's set) - is a fine example of their wit and attitude and an almost perfect summation of a band with tongue firmly in the cheek of a mouth that needs a good washing out.

This provides the perfect soundtrack to everything being youthful, vibrant and fearless is all about, with the audience dancing around to songs with subject matter that you pray the youngest crowd members have no experience of.

Saving the filthiest for last, Flamboyant Bella finish with the rowdy Absolutely Wankered, that captures the excesses of the 'Skins generation' and has the excitable front rows leaping and chanting the expletive littered lyrics, bringing the short, sweet and suggestive set to a suitably climactic close.

out with the old, in with the new

and so life moves on

it doesn't seem so long ago that everyone was singing 'champagne supernova' in the school corridors and now that i think about it so much has been and gone since those days and i barely noticed the time pass by

and it feels stranger and stranger that i am only just noticing that i am getting older, and all of a sudden gig goers seem to be an awful lot younger

I haven't given up on youth yet... it's just that others are more youthful than me now




earlier this year i saw Flamboyant Bella play a 14+ gig at Islington Academy, where kids jumped around to the bands and inbetween sat around discussing who had started wearing bras and who looked old enough to get away with buying alcohol (no lie!!)

and all of this is a very roundabout way of introducing the newest Flamboyant Bella video, for new single 'Get A Reaction', a song that loads of kids are already aware of and you should be too

wonky

wonky pop, despite their brief existence, certainly know how to pick em, i am yet to make it along to a wonky pop night but everytime i spot an advert or flyer i am impressed with their pedigree, it pretty much does what it says on the tin, giving a slanted take on glorious pop in all its guises, and so far their sparkling resume has championed such rising stars as Sam Sparro, Littles Boots, Tinchy Styder and Esser to name but a smattering.

and heading up the latest role call for the wonky pop tour is much heralded white boy rapper, Example who seemed to be going from strength to strength until the death of his label home, The Beats. Example has remained an underground choice and recently dropped a free mixtape turning his back on hip-hop beats and heading full steam ahead for the dancefloor, i'm looking forward to seeing how this is reflected in future live shows.

joining Example and the wonky pop alumni for the forthcoming tour are personal favourites, Flamboyant Bella (yep, them again) and considering the impact they had on Islington Academy when they played earlier this year the teaming of the two should realy see the place going off like never before and seriously raise the profile of everyone involved.



The wonky pop tour, hits London, Islington Academy on 3rd of June.

Flamboyant Bella

why has more not been said of Flamboyant Bella's first London headline gig?

i've had a quick google around and seen nothing reporting on thursday night apart from a bunch of excited comments left on the band's myspace.

i'm gonna step up to right that little injustice right now, because it seemed to me that there were an awful lot of clued-up people already aware of Flamboyant Bella, enough that they haven't needed to kick around the backrooms of london bars and instead made a bee-line right for the Islington Academy, and although many bands choose to start small and build a fan-base around the capital Flamboyant Bella seemed to have had no problem in drawing a crowd.

Taking to the stage with debut single 'Touch', they were instantly able to make the crowd move with their jangly off-kilter take on indie, electro and pop. A young and devoted audience were all too willing to lose themselves to a bunch of songs, often about subjects that they realy shouldn't be old enough to have experienced, but Flamboyant Bella and their songs are a perfect soundtrack to everything that being youthful, vibrant and fearless is all about, whether you like it or not.

And although the songs references may read like a 'Skins' script the performance put in by the band comes across as good clean wholesome fun, perhaps it's the thrillingly beautiful dual male and female vocals or the fact that you can't help but want to dance to their glossy up-tempo pop gems that occasionly take a twist into rave, much to the audiences delight.

Just to look at the band between songs, you could tell that they were genuinely overwhelmed by the response and that so many people had turned up just for them, yet they never let this get in the way of playing a polished set of songs old and new, slow and fast before finally encoring with the rapturously recieved 'Absolutely Wankered'

and the only downsides that i'll try not to hold against them, they didn't play my favourite song 'Break Away', and all ages gigs make me feel old.

Special Thanks....

special thanks go to Biglife management, they not only didn't manage to get my tickets out in time for last nights gig, they then managed to also leave me off the guestlist, which i was meant to be on as they hadn't managed to get the tickets to me in time.

extra special non-ironic thanks go to the kind person on the door who managed to help us out a little.

when i eventually got in, it did prove to be a good gig, and as is becoming customary around here i'll try and do a brief write-up soonish.

honourable mentions also go to all the newsagents that seem to have shut early, meaning i couldn't top up my empty oyster, and the one newsagent that was open that told me his oyster machine was having difficulty connecting, and then directed me to another newsagents that was shut.

Wankered

tomorrow night, synth-pop upstarts and personal faves of mine, Flamboyant Bella finally put in an appearance in London, playing their first ever headliner in the capital at Islington Academy. I've had my eye on them for a long time now and had even planned to venture away from london in order to catch them live, only for the dates to clash with prior plans.

and cos everyone loves a freebie, they're currently offering up a download of newly-recorded Absolutely Wankered as a lil taster, via a handy little widgit



aren't technological advances great, i remember when widgets were only found in beer cans, now it can offer you a free download, show you a video and direct you to a bunch of websites. i love living in the future