Wolverhampton's The Jack Fletcher Band pleased HMV Live & Local will live on - unsigned column
The recent news that the HMV branch at Merry Hill was being saved was met with delight by music fans right across the region.
Many still make pilgrimages to record shops to discover new acts and purchase their favourites rather than do it online.
An added caveat for the local music scene is the popular Live & Local showcases the Brierley Hill-based store hold each month to promote unsigned talent from across the Black Country, Staffordshire, Birmingham and wider West Midlands by giving them a platform to perform in an established store and have their records and merchandise stocked on the shelves.
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Held in conjunction with former unsigned column stars RawSound.tv - the online music magazine based out of Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter - many acts have had the pleasure of taking part and seeing their popularity and online following surge as they look for their big break.
One of those is Wolverhampton's The Jack Fletcher Band, who are chuffed that the successful showcases - which are also now being run in HMV's Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury stores following Merry Hill's success - are here to stay.
"We think it’s fantastic the Merry Hill store has been saved," said lead guitarist George Hadley. "The showcases have gone from strength to strength for RawSound.tv at this store and they’ve got some of the biggest unsigned West Midlands bands to play there, this can only be a good thing for both the bands and the store.
"RawSound.tv are absolute legends. We appeared on their online series a couple of years back and were the first to appear on their HMV sessions alongside local legend Alex Ohm [another former Unsigned column star from May 2017].
"We were mega proud to be a part of this and the sessions have gone from strength to strength too."
The band are obviously popular with local institutions, as Wolverhampton-based clothing and lifestyle band True Reverie have also called upon their services to play at a pop up shop. The event was held in the city centre's Stay Loose Records last August alongside DJ sets from the brand's founders Lindsay and Tim Baker - himself the frontman of fellow Wulfrunian band Lions of Dissent - and Stay Loose owner Ian Davies.
"It was good to play for True Reverie’s pop-up store day at Stay Loose Records," adds Hadley. "We managed an acoustic set in the street outside the shop which was great, lots of passers by and lots of exposure. Hopefully it got True Reverie some sales too. And Jack started his modelling career from that gig."
Fletcher writes the songs, sings and adds further guitar, while Henry Bradley provides bass and Tom Robinson bangs the drums.
"We’re all originally from Wednesfield and, apart from me, met at college," adds Hadley. "I knew Jack from our old bands.
"We’ve all got a big, diverse range of influences when it comes to songwriting. Jack takes his influences from Richard Ashcroft, Paul Weller and The Rifles, but also more modern artists like Tom Grennan. Henry has a pretty funky take on things with bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jamiroquai, whereas Tom is into his more classic stuff like Led Zeppelin and The Who.
"I like most music with guitars in, but mainly bluesy-based artists, not forgetting a bit of The Beatles."
But despite those varied and contrasting influences and loves, the dream artists they would love to support are in fact pretty similar.
"Jack’s dream artist to support would be Liam Gallagher right now 'cause he’s the main man. Henry’s would be The Who, but he wouldn’t survive it. Tom’s would be Oasis in the early years and mine would be the Foo Fighters at any point in their career."
They've got a couple of big live dates on the horizon they want to talk about. Starting tomorrow in their home city, they also include one night at Birmingham's The Night Owl in March where they will share a stage with the frontman of modern punk rockers IDLES - Joe Talbot - and Alan McGee, the man who discovered their 'dream support slot' band Oasis, Primal Scream, The Jesus And Mary Chain and many others. Another former Unsigned column act, West Bromwich's The Pagans Sons of Humanity, are also playing on the bill.
"Tomorrow we’re playing a set at The Mander Centre for WCR FM’s live day, so come down to that if you want to check out some top local talent," Hadley adds. "Definite Physical Change and [former The Voice star] Megan Reece will be playing too.
"After that our next single, Carousel, will be released on February 7 and we start our UK tour in support of this in Nottingham the next day - tickets can be found online. As part of the tour we headline The Slade Rooms on March 28. Tickets can be found for this at the Civic Halls box office, online, or from us tomorrow.
"Playing for Alan McGee again is gonna be great. We actually did a show with him in Stafford a few months ago [at Redrum in October]. He’s a great bloke who obviously has a load of stories to tell and a lot of advice for bands in our position.
"Hopefully he enjoys our set even more this time round and we’re sure he’ll be a big fan of The Pagans too. We got it by working hard, and the promotion company dropped us the question.
"We haven’t listened much to IDLES yet but we’ve been seeing and hearing a lot of good stuff online so we’ll have to do this soon. We have heard Danny Nedelko though, which is a modern punk anthem.
"After this we’re just gonna hammer the releases and the gigs and see where the year takes us."
The Jack Fletcher Band can be found on Twitter @jackfband and Facebook @jackfletcherband. Tickets to their Slade Rooms headline show can be bought from the Wolves Civic website for £6.75. Tickets for IDLES frontman Joe Talbot in conversation with Alan McGee featuring The Jack Fletcher Band and The Pagans S.o.H. at Birmingham's The Night Owl are priced at £16.75 for the next eight days before rising to £22.25 from Skiddle.
