LINE-UP:
18:00 doors open
19:00 The Stamp
20:00 The View
21:30 end
As they are about everything, The View talk a straightforward talk about why they chose Albert Hammond Jr and Gus Oberg to produce their vibrant, ambitious, rollickingly tuneful new album, ‘Ropewalk’. “’Cause he’s in The Strokes!” laughs bass player Kieren Webster. “And he seemed really hungry for it.”
“His dad’s a songwriter,” adds singer/guitarist Kyle Falconer, aware that Albert Hammond Sr was a hugely successful artist in the Sixties and Seventies, “plus he’s made lots of albums with The Strokes. So it’s like he knows songs inside-out. So it felt like a massive compliment to have him wanting to work with us. A lot of producers just like the actual sound, but he and Gus sat down and went through all the songs one by one. We’d never done that before.”
It felt like the right time to take that in-depth approach. For one thing, 2015 is the band’s tenth anniversary. It’s been a decade since The View exploded out of Dundee, a rag-tag teenage mob of guitar-scorching rock’n’rollers, buoyed by a brace of instantly anthemic tunes and a huge, loyal following. As singles like Wasted Little DJs and Superstar Tradesman stormed into the charts, followed by debut album Hats Off To The Buskers entering the charts at Number One and nabbing a Mercury nomination.
But they learned, quickly, on the job. They had to. Three singles from Hats Off To The Buskers hit the Top 20, with Same Jeans rising as far at Number Three. They toured incessantly, wrote constantly, and released four albums in six years. The View had come so far, so fast that they had enough material for a Best Of, 2013’s Seven Year Setlist. They were still only in their mid-twenties.
That line-in-the-sand compilation is another reason for The View approaching their fifth studio album with fresh purpose. With new management watching their backs – they’re now looked after by the same team who look after the rejuvenated Libertines – Falconer, Webster, guitarist Pete Reilly and drummer Steve Morrison decided to both dig deep and also, for the first time, cede some creative control to a producer.
The song Marriage is the lead single, which Falconer had in mind already for six years.
The album was recorded in only three weeks in November in Hamburg and mix in New York by Justin Gerrish, who worked together with Vampire Weekend.
On ‘Ropewalk’, the sparkling results speak for themselves. Ten years young, The View are on fire all over again.
In Prague they were in 2012. On the 6th of February they are coming back to present their Czech fans their new album Ropewalk.
“…the tunes are brilliant” Independent
“Silky smooth rock ‘n roll…what Fleetwood Mac would sound like?now” The Scottish Sun
“it’s bloody brilliant!” NME
“very accomplished and mature- a band who seem to have finally grown into their sound” Glasswerk
Read more
