Tag Archives: Darien Graham-Smith

The Red Queens | Music Profile

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The Red Queens don’t look like a regular wannabe pop band. They’re comfortably outside of the typical age bracket – frontman Darien Graham-Smith turns 40 next year – and their look can be described as “eclectic”, with influences ranging from punk to what one might call mature student chic.

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“When we meet other bands, there is sometimes a bit of a coolness gap,” admits Graham-Smith. “They’re all nineteen, with fresh faces and achingly fashionable outfits. And then I wander in looking like I’ve got lost on my way to Waitrose.”

 

“But when you come to the game at a slightly older age you have a different perspective on that sort of thing. Some of the bands may look fantastic and unworldly on stage, but often the audience doesn’t really know how to relate to that. We come on as ourselves and I think we have a much easier rapport with the crowd.”

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“It’s a similar story with the music: when you’re young, you’ve got everything to prove, and as a result the material can sometimes be a bit wilfully extreme, a bit hard to swallow. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. But I think a lot of the best-loved songs – the really universal ones that hang around for decades – are your classic pop songs with four chords and a catchy chorus. And that’s more what the Red Queens are about.”

 

It’s a theory the band has developed over two and a half years on London’s pub circuit, during which time the Red Queens have grown from the original duo of Graham-Smith and bassist/vocalist Terrie McCann into to a five-piece line-up with guitarist Tom Derry, keyboard player Felix Kirsch and, most recently, drummer Bobby McPherson. In July, the group is heading into the studio to record their debut EP with veteran producer Paul Tipler (previous clients include Elastica, Placebo and The Wonder Stuff), and after that who knows what may beckon. Check out www.redqueens.co.uk for videos, downloads and live dates.

 

The Red Queens play The Islington, Tolpuddle Street N1 0XT on 29 May 2014. Admission £5.

Are you an Owl?

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Owls. We all know them: pissy little hooters that flutter about at night, caning it on mice and relaying letters for wizards. But are you an owl? Or do you know someone who might be? It’s a growing problem, as our exclusive survey of people and owls showed: fewer than 40% of people who thought they might not be an owl were wrong.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Since 1990 there’s been a forty-fold uptick in owls who don’t know they’re people – a figure that’s more than halved in that time.

So what can you do if you think you might be an owl? First, you should know the warning signs. Can you rotate your head through more than 180° Celsius? Are you blind when you’re born? Can you see in the dark? Do you ever fly into a room, then realise you can’t remember why? If your answer to all of these questions was a piercing screech, you could be an owl.

But there’s no need to feel ashamed. Where once owls were considered second-class citizens, today they’re a staple of fashionable clubs and clothiers, with stars from Alexander Armstrong to Zinedine Zidane lining up to sing the praises of our tawny friends. So thus summer, don’t wear a frown — wear a fr“owl”n!

By Darien Graham-Smith.