Click here to watch ‘Bathroom Gurgle’ by Late of the Pier
Forming in Castle Donnington in 2005, Late of the Pier were four school friends, Samuel Eastgate (vocals, guitar), Sam Potter (synths, sampler), Andrew Faley (bass), and Ross Dawson (drums) – or, as they called themselves: Samuel Dust, Jack Paradise, Francis Dudley Dance, and Red Dog Consuela.
With social media and streaming in its infancy, people had messy lives – partying went relentlessly unchecked and anything was possible....
Click here to watch ‘Bathroom Gurgle’ by Late of the Pier
Forming in Castle Donnington in 2005, Late of the Pier were four school friends, Samuel Eastgate (vocals, guitar), Sam Potter (synths, sampler), Andrew Faley (bass), and Ross Dawson (drums) – or, as they called themselves: Samuel Dust, Jack Paradise, Francis Dudley Dance, and Red Dog Consuela.
With social media and streaming in its infancy, people had messy lives – partying went relentlessly unchecked and anything was possible. You might share a toilet cubicle with Amy Winehouse and split a cab fare with a z list celeb without thinking to document it. People were still spending any money they had on going ‘out out’. There were no pop-up gastro experiences, tattoos were still Chinese mottos, the only vegan option was asking for salad pitta and chips after you checked the chippie didn’t cook the battered sausage in the same oil. The provincial towns of the UK were loaded with DIY music makers excitedly experimenting with gear they found in someone’s loft. It never occurred to anyone to sell it online. You’d get your pals round and make something with the treasures you’d find to try and make life more interesting for yourselves. Most parents would not mind – they had a music interest themselves. This is how you would end up with bands like Late of the Pier.
2008 marked the end of an era of blind optimism in the music business. The seismic tremors of the credit crunch were underway. Venture capitalists grabbed Caesar hair-cut music executives by the ankles and yanked them abruptly into the rapidly opening crevasse which was ripping across companies like EMI Music. The Parlophone imprint was home to one album – 2008’s ‘Fantasy Black Channel’ by Late of the Pier. Caught in this metaphorical ice flow – this album became a landmark, frozen in time. They marked a new dawn of genre binaries, art and energy. Its young creators would later grow up through the Domino roster to become Soft Hair, LA Priest and perform song-writing duties with Domino artists like Franz Ferdinand and Xenoula.
Wrestling free from usual genre constraints, Late of the Pier‘s only album release was hotly tipped at the time. Put out through EMI Music on Parlophone’s A&R structure it released on the imprint Phantasy Sound – the label founded by DJ Erol Alkan. Based in Hoxton, the area was just on the turn to gentrification – clinging on to it’s lively arts scene. Alkan produced this album. One half of psychedelic rock group Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve (BTWS), it’s worth mentioning that the wizzard sleeve sound encapsulated the post 9/11 New York new wave sound of the mid 00s. People were tiring of 4 piece bands and tongue-in-cheek novelty rock bands. People were looking for something authentic, expressive and joyful. Unusual rhythmic patterns were popularised by a wave of Brazilian music. The music scene was bubbling with baile funk and burgeoning British hip hop – hints of fresh new music buds were appearing. BTWS had remixed Peter Bjorn and John, Midlake, Simian Mobile Disco, Franz Ferdinand, The Chemical Brothers and Goldfrapp. Their mixes filled the impromptu dancefloors of bohemian dive bars across Europe.
Late of the Pier shows were the most sought after to attend at a time when people could be bothered to go out. The band would crush onto small stages in silver hoods and robes of ‘neon grey’. It was almost impossible to ever describe their music or remember their song titles. Their music consumed synth pop, glam rock, IDM and thrash metal. Someone told me I had to go see this band – ‘they use wooden planks in their set mate, you gotta check em out‘. We did all pile down to UCL union bar in London to ‘check em out’. Late of the Pier kept everyone happy from the indie band guys to glam rock fashionistas.
“Starting off like Haircut 100, this morphs into ‘Mechanical Animals’-era Marilyn Manson, followed by The Strokes’ ‘12.51’ riff, then ‘There, There’ by Radiohead, through to MGMT and Gary Numan. Just when you think it’s over, Rage Against the Machine metal-funk appears with added cock-rock guitar. Thus it is everything ace ever, distilled into a pendant of liquid-pop platinum.” NME 1st August 2008
Whilst the band never officially split, Sam Eastgate aka Samuel Dust now better known as La Priest, worked with Sam Potter aka Jack Paradise on Fantasy Black Channel’s tenth anniversary in 2018 by creating a pamphlet for Rough Trade Books titled Ecstatic Data Sets: The Chorismos Apeiron Scanner (2028 Edition) a manual for a music-making machine of the near future.
This entry is dedicated to the memory of drummer, Ross Dawson.
DAZED: remembering Late of the Pier – one of the UK’s most forward thinking bands
THIS DOMINO DISCOVERY WAS WRITTEN BY LYNDEN CAMPBELL
