Top 75 of 1997

1997 was the year I turned 19, starting the last year of my teens and my second year of my Maths degree at the University of Teesside. Musically, it was also the year that two bands who would later join my unholy triumvirate of favourite bands entered my life - Feeder and A.

It was the year I went to my first full weekend music festival at Reading (this was just before they would introduce the closer option for me of Leeds), with that great rock Sunday of Metallica, the year's big rock hype Marilyn Manson (plus surprise guest Jonathan Davis), Bush, 3 Colours Red and Feeder among others.  Not to mention a legendary headline set on the Saturday from the Manics with Nicky discarding their recent 'Man at C&A' image and busting out the camo dress.

My gig count for the year was 21, if you count Reading as one big gig, most of them coming from bands playing around the weekly indie night at Middlesbrough Arena.  Some of them were excellent, some of them were made up of fifth division indie bands, lost to the mists of time (I mean Travis, who are they?!).  The full list is below:

17/01/97 Groop Dogdrill, Soul Bossa (@Middlesbrough Arena)

31/01/97 Gold Blade, TC Hug (@Middlesbrough Arena)

07/02/97 Perfume, Spacemaid (@Middlesbrough Arena)

11/02/97 Suede, Mansun (@Middlesbrough Town Hall)

14/02/97 Space Monkeys, Hardbody (@Middlesbrough Arena)

21/02/97 Silver Sun, Grass Show, Montrose Avenue (@Middlesbrough Arena)

07/03/97 18 Wheeler, Formula One (@Middlesbrough Arena)

14/03/97 Speedy, Rude Club (@Middlesbrough Arena)

18/04/97 Travis, Spacemaid (@Middlesbrough Arena)

25/04/97 Smaller, Montrose Avenue (@Middlesbrough Arena)

09/05/97 Corduroy, Mantaray (@Middlesbrough Arena)

16/05/97 Jesus Jones, A (@Middlesbrough Arena)

23/05/97 Carter USM, Midget (@Middlesbrough Arena)

06/06/97 David Devant and his Spirit Wife, The Smiles (@Middlesbrough Arena)

13/06/97 The Hybirds (@Middlesbrough Arena)

01/07/97 Teenage Fanclub (@Newcastle HMV)

03/08/97 China Drum, Velma, Helter Skelter (@Stockton Festival)

22/08/97 Sick of it All, Symposium, James, Millencolin, Silver Sun, Kenickie, A, Incubus, Carrie, Strangelove + Suede, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Dust Junkys, Period Pains (@Reading Festival)

23/08/97 Manic Street Preachers, Space, Super Furry Animals, Republica, Gold Blade, My Life Story, Stereophonics + Wannadies, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Lemonheads, Rude Club (@Reading Festival)

24/08/97 Metallica, Marilyn Manson, Terrorvision, Bush, 3 Colours Red, Descendents, Dog Eat Dog, Feeder, Radish + Bis (@Reading Festival)

12/09/97 China Drum, Cable, Carrie (@Middlesbrough Arena)

18/10/97 3 Colours Red, Bullyrag (@Middlesbrough Arena)

06/12/97 Teen Spirit, White Negroes (@Middlesbrough Arena)

After me and my brother met Dave from China Drum at Stockton Festival in August, he got us in on the guest list for their Boro gig a month later, where we ended up meeting Gerry from Mega City Four who was roadie for Cable and I also had a chat with future Kerrang editor Paul Brannigan who was doing an on the road feature of the tour.

In terms of my own music I moved away from my two main solo bands during that year (in fact Spraypaint still haven't released anything since), completing the third Uranium album (my industrial act) and the only Vein album (grunge, some great songs that I must upload at some point) as well as two Pyf Belly Machine albums and a Personnel EP with my brother.

I also worked on some new metal-based ideas, basically picking several bands or sounds (Cradle of Filth, My Dying Bride, Napalm Death, Korn, Megadeth, Gabber with guitars - kind of an Atari Teenage Riot type thing) and recording two songs each in their style to see what came out.  The results can be found here with the two Cradle of Filth-style songs going under the name of Beneath Utopia, a name I swiftly moved across to take the place of my main metal band, then called Oakenshield.

That name change coincided with the first of my 5 appearances in national rock/metal magazines (he says in the style of Les McQueen), consisting of TWO demo reviews by Dan Silver in the October 1997 edition of Metal Hammer. Harsh but fair comments too.

But back onto chart matters again, 1997 was obviously a year of me digging deeper below the surface for new music, delving into the black metal world on the Feuersturm double CD compilation starring Emperor, Dark Funeral, Immortal and many more, plus the Cacophonous compilation The Unholy Bible, which introduced me to Bal-Sagoth, Abyssos, Vergelmer and more.  The 21st Century Media Blitz compilation was also a great introduction to The Gathering, who would eventually rise pretty high among my favourite bands, plus other-worldly metal from Strapping Young Lad and Samael.

But quite a lot of the chart came to be dominated by British rock bands, A, 3 Colours Red, Feeder, Silver Sun, Reef, Paradise Lost, Stereophonics and Ash all took either several places or prominent placings in the chart.  And my first festival was pretty influential too, 24 of my top 75 came from bands that played Reading festival, 30 more were on the shortlist.

The competition seemed even more ridiculous than usual this time, the songs that just missed out seemed more than deserving of a place but it wasn't to be.  So honourable mentions this time to the bands that made the shortlist but not the chart as follows: Chemical Brothers, James, The Ataris, Chumbawamba, In Flames, Nightwish, Rollins Band, Deftones, Sigh, China Drum, Dimmu Borgir, Blackstar and Coal Chamber.

1. Foo Fighters - Everlong

2. A - No. 1

3. Paradise Lost - Say Just Words

4. 3 Colours Red - Nuclear Holiday

5. Paradise Lost - One Second

6. Faith No More - Ashes to Ashes

7. 3 Colours Red - Sunny in England

8. Emperor - With Strength I Burn

9. Silver Sun - Lava

10. Mighty Mighty Bosstones - The Impression That I Get

11. The Gathering - The Earth Is My Witness

12. Stereophonics - Local Boy in the Photograph

13. A - Foghorn

14. A - Bad Idea

15. Will Haven - Mason

16. The Gathering - On Most Surfaces (Inuit)

17. Mindset - Nosebleed

18. Ash - A Life Less Ordinary

19. Life of Agony - Weeds

20. The Gathering - Third Chance

21. Shelter - Whole Wide World

22. Shelter - Refusal

23. Strapping Young Lad - All Hail the New Flesh

24. Mindset - ihateudon'tleaveme

25. Metallica - Fuel

26. Will Haven - I've Seen My Fate

27. Metallica - The Unforgiven II

28. 3 Colours Red - Pure

29. Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench

30. Napalm Death - Breed to Breathe

31. Green Day - Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

32. A - Cheeky Monkey

33. Paradise Lost - Another Day

34. Napalm Death - Lowpoint

35. Mindset - Psycho Sound Wave

36. Feeder - My Perfect Day

37. Symposium - Drink the Sunshine

38. Symposium - Fairweather Friend

39. Vergelmer - Her Harvest is my Prey

40. The Gathering - Nighttime Birds

41. Machine Head - Struck a Nerve

42. Abyssos - As The Sky Turns Black Again (Love Eternal)

43. Machine Head - Take My Scars

44. Megadeth - Trust

45. Silver Sun - Dumb

46. Foo Fighters - My Hero

47. Feeder - Tangerine

48. Green Day - Redundant

49. A - Winter of 96

50. A - Out of Tune

51. Green Day - Nice Guys Finish Last

52. Feeder - Cement

53. Emperor - The Loss and Curse of Reverence

54. Metallica - The Memory Remains

55. The Prodigy - Breathe

56. Rammstein - Du Hast

57. Silverchair - Abuse Me

58. Reef - Come Back Brighter

59. Reef - Place Your Hands

60. Supergrass - Richard III

61. Blur - Song 2

62. Charlatans - One to Another

63. Machine Head - Ten Ton Hammer

64. Paradise Lost - Cruel One

65. Metallica - Prince Charming

66. Lacuna Coil - Falling

67. Emperor - Ye Entrancemperium

68. Will Haven - Foreign Film

69. Immortal - Mountains of Might

70. Strapping Young Lad - Underneath the Waves

71. Silver Sun - Wonderful

72. Faith No More - Last Cup of Sorrow

73. Feeder - Polythene Girl

74. Feeder - Crash

75. Helmet - Like I Care

Beneath Utopia.....(Music Career part 3)

In March and April 1996, when I really should have been swotting up for my A levels, I finally felt happy enough with my musical "skills" to branch out into playing metal.  The first song that I wrote was called 'The Last to Die' - it was about war, it sounded like Bolt Thrower and I put on my best Karl Willetts voice complete with Brummie accent, noticing any pattern yet?  After deciding on the suitably metal name of Oakenshield, another 5 songs were recorded with a similar sound and listening to them today I can safely say that, while being a little generic, they stand the test of time pretty well.  'Something You Can't Have', which had the same general rhythm as Carcass' 'Corporal Jigsore Quandary', is still a particular favourite.  My cover art, based on the Hero Quest board game, maybe not so good.

It only took until August and September of the same year to follow those songs up with a full album, 'Something to Fear'.  By then I was incorporating influences from my other favourite bands of the moment, such as Fear Factory, Paradise Lost and mid-90s Napalm Death, but still the over-riding influence was Bolt Thrower.  I'm actually less keen on this album I think, although there are still some decent songs.  Maybe quality control was an issue.

About a year after that I decided to send some of my songs to Metal Hammer for review in the Demos section....a name change was required.  During 1997 I recorded a host of metal songs in different styles under different names, two songs each, to experiment basically.  I had Post Mortem who sounded like My Dying Bride, Whirlwind (Megadeth), Carnage (grindcore), Download (Korn) and Beneath Utopia (Cradle of Filth).  Now that last one is a good name I thought, what would be lurking underneath the perfect world?  Musically speaking, exactly the kind of stuff that I was playing.  None of the other band names went any further (I would find out later that some of them were already bands), but Beneath Utopia was now the new, improved name of Oakenshield.

So, I sent my demo of Beneath Utopia, and also my pop punk band Spraypaint, to Metal Hammer and to my surprise they actually reviewed both of them!  Both got 4/10 in the October 1997 issue, which was probably fair in retrospect, but there were some encouraging comments in the reviews.  I got a bit of interest, with a feature in a zine called Zeitgeist and a couple of songs (one from each band) played on French radio!  Maybe fame was around the corner?

It wasn't obviously, but I pressed on regardless.  From July 1998 through to May 1999 (my final year at university) I recorded the songs that would become 'Underdog'.  They were definitely the best songs I had recorded so far and I was keen to push them out as far as they could go.  The sound still wasn't amazing, which hindered things in comparison to other bands, but it was decent enough.  The next national exposure was through a new section in Kerrang! for unsigned bands called Scumscene, I think I was in either the first or second edition of that in the March 4 2000 issue.  I have the magazine buried somewhere but rather than spend hours digging it out I have a copy of what was written:

PARADISE UNDERGROUND

BENEATH UTOPIA are a one-man operation, fronted and indeed, backed and middled by Ian Lipthorne.  He's looking to appear on any fresh talent compilation albums anyone might be planning, and he describes his sonics as: "The brutality of Napalm Death wrapped up in 'Draconian Times'-era Paradise Lost."  If you bung Ian a blank tape plus £1 p&p, you'll receive an hour's worth of Paradise..., which strangely includes a metal version of A-ha's 'The Sun Only Shines On TV'.  

They could at least have got my name right, it's not difficult.  In the September 2 2000 issue of Kerrang! I managed to get featured again, as Scumscene was coming to the end of its stint in the magazine.

EAR BASHING

ONE-MAN project BENEATH UTOPIA is currently recording new material, which, threatens main-and-only-man Ian Lipthorpe, "sounds like the aural equivalent of being battered with a blunt and a sharp instrument at the same time".  Ouch!  Ouch!  For Beneath Utopia's previous demo - which Ian likens to the further shell-like bruising of Napalm Death meets Paradise Lost - why not send a blank tape and an SAE to the following address:

As you can imagine this was good news for me, getting your name in a national magazine once would have been good, 3 times was awesome.  The Scumscene features got me in touch with Dan, the guitarist of Stoke band Razorwire, who was putting together a series of compilations called Kill Your Management.  Over the years I appeared 3 times - vol. 2 in 2001, vol. 5 in 2004 and vol. 7 in in 2006.  Nothing really came of them other than getting the name out there, but it was fun to be a part of it all.

Around this time I was also asked to join a local band of college kids whose guitarist was leaving, after the singer heard my songs and liked them.  I guested on vocals on one song at three local pub gigs in Middlesbrough before joining....for one rehearsal.  They split up after that, but I had already realised from that one rehearsal that band life (as in playing with other people) is not for me.

In the meantime I had recorded and pressed my first CD, 'The World is Beautiful, Just Don't Look Down' (copies are still available!), in 2002 and I was very happy with how it came out.  The previous sound was still present and correct but an element of the first Raging Speedhorn and Haunted albums had crept in as they were big favourites at the time of recording.  I also pressed up some 4-track samplers to send out to magazines, labels etc.  This time it was Terrorizer who answered the call, printing two 6.5/10 reviews (Jan/Feb 03 and Mar 03 issues), which may as well have been 10/10 to me, again well chuffed with the exposure.  The second review had some rather bizarre reference points, which certainly weren't intentional, but it was interesting to see journalistic opinions.

 

The next album was a long time in the making, eventually emerging 6 whole years after the last one.  My brother moved out of the family home, taking his instruments and recording equipment with him, but I had a job by then so I gradually built up my own stock of instruments as well as a 24 track studio for recording.

Those 24 tracks, and the fact I was no longer recording on tape, made a vast difference to the sound.  I could record more than two tracks of guitar, I had room for keyboards, backing vocals, clean vocals, and I took full advantage.  The new drum machine made things clearer and more realistic, the 6 string bass increased the bottom end where required, rhythm guitar duties were always taken on by the Washburn flying V, leaving my favourite guitar to play, the black Ibanez, covering lead guitar and solos.  The 12 string of the triple neck was used sparingly for quieter moments.  By the way, using different guitars makes me feel like a different member of the band, therefore putting extra effort into being that person....weird I know.

'The Forgotten Art of Saying No' took me from 2006 to 2008 to record as I perfected the sound during evenings, weekends and holidays.  Even the songwriting process changed, one song 'Numb' was written entirely in my head on the bus to and from work over a period of weeks.  I then had to figure out how to play what I was hearing in my head, culminating in one sound being created with one hand playing keyboards and the other hand operating a pitchshifter pedal to create a rising crescendo!  Unlike last time when the CDs were pressed and designed locally, this time round the cover art was designed by a Finn living in Washington, USA, whose speciality was usually unreadable spiky black metal logos, and the CDs were pressed in Swindon!

I also collaborated with another person for the first time under the Beneath Utopia name, the lyrics and melodies for 'Lost in Winter's Sorrow' being written by my friend Elizabeth, then in Texas.  The original plan was for the song to be a male/female duet, but recording constraints meant that didn't work out.  The song was written when she sang a verse and a chorus to me over the internet, which I recorded and pieced the music around.  The haunting, much more accessible outcome was a big change from the usual BU sound.  Overall the sound was more accessible generally though, Paradise Lost references could be heard, as well as The Haunted, Cradle of Filth, Dark Funeral and Iron Maiden - all bands with a lot more melody to their sound than my previous influences like Bolt Thrower, Napalm Death and Raging Speedhorn.  Also, with effects, I could mask my clean singing to make me sound half decent!

I was busy networking and recruiting fans at this time through MySpace, which led to my first (and so far only) interview with a New York based zine, as well as putting the word out through compilations again.  'Numb' featured on an American compilation, 'Under Mournful Moonlight' (which I was never given a copy of) and a CD given away with UK-based Empty Playground magazine issue #5, while 'Settle for Less' was included on a Brazilian metal compilation, 'Tunnel of Death', being the only UK band alongside Brazilian, Portuguese and American bands.

I also collaborated with my Portuguese friend and singer/songwriter Antonieta in Dark Souls, playing guest guitar on most songs on her 2008 album 'Winter', which even spawned a video for the song 'Sunrise'.  My performance and general setting left a lot to be desired....

As for what's next, I'm still pretty much unknown, currently writing and recording some new songs, one has been hanging around for years now waiting to be finished....some day the new album will come.....probably.