| CD REVIEW Frank Turner |
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Band: Frank Turner Frank Turner is an English folk singer-songwriter that was born on 28 December 1981 in Muharraq, Bahrain. His musical career started at school, and started with an alternative band called Kneejerk. The band self-released three albums and played several shows around the UK but broke up in 2001. 84/100 Jeroen. Band : Frank Turner England’s modern bard Frank Turner’s career started while he was still at school (born 1981, he was educated on a scholarship at Eton College, before getting a degree in History at the London School Of Economics) and seen him go through several genres. It all started with the alternative band Kneejerk, which played shows around the UK, and released 3 albums before disbanding in November 2001. That same year, and on an invitation of former Kneejerk drummer Ben Dawson, Turner joined London based Hardcore act Million Dead, which was to become a seminal legend in the scene. The band went on to release two albums before splitting up in 2005 due to “irrconsilable differences” within the band! Turner had done his first solo Folk Rock shows before the end of Million Dead, and after the split he felt it as a natural thing to try out his hand at bringing those songs more ernestly than before. At the time he stated “…when Million Dead finished, I wanted to stay on tour, but I didn’t want to go through the hassle of putting a band together!” Following a self-titled demo (2005) and a split EP with Rockers Rueben (already through Xtra Mile Recordings) came the May 2006 released EP Campfire Punkrock, which was promoted live by touring with American singer-songwriter Jonah Matranga. A split EP was issued in August 2006. Turner’s debut full-length Sleep Is For The Weak was issued in January 2007. In May (after extensive touring for the albbum) followed the EP The Real Damage. In October (after another tour with Matranga…and Jacob Golden) came the DVD All About The Destination. Turner then entered the studio to record his second full-length Love Ire & Song, which was released in late March 2008. Extensive touring followed in the UK with Andy Rourke and Chris T-T, and during Summer Turner did quite a few of the British festivals, most notably the at the Lock Up Stage of the Leeds and Reading festivals (he’d already been there with Million Dead ànd as a solo artist in support of his debut album), whence he took the audiences in huge sing-alongs! This festival weekend was the start of a wave of interest in Frank Turner (also thanks to the support of UK’s Radio 1 deejays Steve Lamacq and Mike Davies). Having noticed Frank’s performances, Less Than Jake’s Vinnie got in touch with Frank, asking to release The First Three Years (a collection of all early and previously unreleased material, live tracks and b-sides) on his UK-based vinyl label Paper And Plastick in December 2008. When “Long Live The Queen” (off Love Ire & Song) was released as a single in October, it shot up to Radio 1’s C-list, became (taken from the bio we got along our down-load copy of the albuml) “…Single Of The Week on Sara Cox’s show, and helped sell out Frank’s largest UK headline tour culminating in a bursting-over-capacity-finale at London’s Scala…”. Ensuing single “Reasons Not To Be An Idiot” (issued in January of this year) fared even better, making Radio 1’s B-list, 6Music’s A-list, and XFM’s daytime play-list! It also prompted a Live Lounge session for Sara Cox, a Hub session for George Lamb, and made iTunes Single Of The Week! Chuck Ragan took Turner (and Tim Barry) on his Revival Tour of the US, and The Gaslight Anthem invited him to join ‘em on ttheir UK tour at the beginning of this year. Eventually Turner’s brand of Folk songwriting, catchy melodies and Punk passion reached the ears of Epitaph Records’ Brett Gurewitz, whom went out to see Turner play at a show in Los Angeles, and immediately after got in contact. You might ask yourself, whàt might it have been that attracted Gurewitz so much…but the answer to that is readily available, as all you need to do is listen to Turner’s socio-political lyrics (that and the fact that the guy can write a mean song, darned)! The new album sees Turner in a more Rock geared direction, aided in this by his newly recruited live band consisting of Ben Lloyd (guitar, harmonica, mandolin), Matt Nasir (piano, organ, guitar, backing vocals), Tarrant Anderson (bass) and Nigel Powell (drums). Most of the 13 songs on the album get at least sóme (or more) electric guitar played in ‘em (except for album closer “Journey Of The Magi”, which is completely acoustic), and most songs also do get some piano (occasionally exchanged to organ). To me personally, it’s the songs that have the mandolin played in which get the highest Folk content! Which doesn’t necessarily mean that those are the most quiet tracks on the album. In between getting the promo and finally getting through the backlog of albums-to-review to get to this point in time, Turner’s added another track off the new album (which now makes the amount come to two) at myspace.com/frankturner. Together with the stuff posted off earlier releases, that makes enough for you to get an idea what to expect at a Frank Turner gig. Euhm…at the moment the band is touring the US (with The Gaslight Anthem). They’ll be back to tour the UK in mid October, but in early November the guys are back on the other side of the Atlantic for another leg of US gigs. 28 November starts the European tour in Amsterdam (Melkweg), and there’s a Belgian gig on October 30 at the AB club in Brussels. After that, it’s off to Scandinavia via Germany, and to Geneva (Switzerland), again through Germany. On October 19 Turner’s back on home soil! 90/100 Tony. |