September 2005 sees the return of arguably Britain’s most under-rated songwriters Lowgold with a new offering on their own label Dedtedrecords. The double album Keep Music Miserable is a monstrous package featuring new tracks, rarities and the band’s entire b-side back catalogue. However, this new release is the chilled water bottle at the end a hot slog through the music industry wastelands…
“’If it bleeds we can kill it’. It doesn't, therefore you can't” states Darren Ford of his own band. Formed in 1997 by Ford, Dan Symons and Miles Willey, Lowgold were lauded as the great new hope of British songwriters. By 2003 after the horrors of the bankruptcy years on Nude and the underwhelming re-signing to Sanctuary Records, Lowgold felt abused and enveloped by “a sense of inevitable tragedy.” Ford describes the floundering of second album Welcome To Winners as “like watching a misunderstood fat kid swim too far out to sea. Sanctuary decided Tubby wasn't worth saving and the lifeboat stayed in the harbour.”
“Why won't Lowgold just die?” asks a rhetorical Willey, “because the members are still alive. Bands don't die - people do.” And so a powerful feeling of self preservation suddenly kicked in. It’s strangely prophetic that the last song on Welcome To Winners is ‘Save Yourself’ as that’s exactly what they’ve done. Thus the concept of a well organised, self-governing label, stripping luxuries to the bone but still maintaining potent quality control procedures, came from the minds of Symons and his cousin Jon Gilbert. Dedtedrecords had risen. “It’s an old saying but it’s never had a more pertinent example; if you want something done properly, do it yourself” comments Symons. “Jon and I talked about setting a little label up for years and suddenly the opportunity arose to show that although Ted is dead, Lowgold certainly is not.”
As the project slowly took shape Keep Music Miserable evolved into a statement of survival and pride.
“Yeah some will cry ‘why bother?’” proclaims Symons. “Well, personally I feel wronged by what’s happened and, if after all this time to reflect I thought our failure was down to not being good enough or because we wrote crap songs, I’d be the first to stop humiliating myself! The fact is these songs are great, even the old ones stand up against anything I’ve heard recently.”
Lowgold fans also had their part to play. “As far as I was concerned it was all over, in fact, I don’t think I’d even seen Darren or Miles for months let alone play instruments with them. But then I checked out our message board for the first time in nearly a year – I was overwhelmed by what I saw; people asking what we were doing, requesting where they could get certain tracks, wanting us to play live again. It was a real inspiration and I realised how in denial I was.”
Dedted is finally the self-conceived new beginning Lowgold has sought since Nude’s collapse in 2001 and, let’s be honest, by Christ they deserve it. Unsurprisingly Keep Music Miserable is lyrically sombre, but somehow hopeful and strangely uplifting. Lowgold are the perfect cup of sonic tea – predominantly warm and comforting, hot when required and possessing the ability to give the listener a jolting pain in the nervous system as a reminder that life isn’t all biscuits and slippers. |
