The Dead 60s

After a couple of years turning out pop-punk anthems that gained them relative success, including an appearance at No.8 in one of John  Peel’s Festive Fifties, Gordon describes the situation the band found themselves in as a “growing up” process, he says: “People think the change happened over night but it wasn't like that. We took loads of time out after getting bored with rock. We spent time listening to music, improving and learning how to become a band.”

 

While the band were always influenced by the likes of The Clash, Kraftwerk and Talk Talk to name but a few, they were also starting to acquire a taste for the sound that would see them now sit on the verge of mainstream success. “We ended up listening to loads of Old School Ska and Dub, stuff like Lee Perry and a lot of things off the Studio 1 label. We were getting into that and moving away from our earlier influences.”  

 

Not that they were forgetting completely what they’d done in the past, Gordon adds: “We’re still proud of all the bands we’ve been in but as we’ve grown up we’ve just moved away from all the rock stuff you get into as a kid.” And they still understand the importance of their musical heritage, especially being from Liverpool: “We’re proud of Liverpool,” Gordon says’ “It’s musical and cultural heritage is really important to us but we did feel the need to break away from it’s musical traditions in order not to get labelled just another Liverpool band.”

 

Like a certain other Liverpool band, The Dead 60s have recently tasted success across the pond in America with single ‘Riot Radio’ being the highest new entry in the Billboard singles charts during one week in May. Having supported Garbage on their North American tour in April/May Gordon says the band are really excited, and surprised, by their progress in the States. “It’s gone really well so far. We’ve just come off two months of touring, travelling round and round.”

 

“Supporting a band like Garbage it takes a while for the fans to get it, with us being completely different in terms of sound to them. But after a while they’ve started too really get in to it and we’ve had some good reactions.” The band have also succeeded where many a bigger act has failed in gaining a positive feedback from the notoriously hard to crack radio stations in America. “It just seems to have happened for us,” says Gordon, “and the radio reaction has been really good for us so far.”

 

With all that touring you’d think they’d be too ****ed to be partaking in any extra curricular activities but you’d be wrong. The customary rock n' roll run in with the police took place on in the middle of the New Mexican Desert, Gordon takes up the story: “We were just on a mad one, partying in the middle of the desert with loads of beer and some fireworks, which we were letting off. What we didn’t realise is that it’s illegal to let off fireworks without a license in New Mexico.”

 

“The police turned up and had us in a sort of line-up, threatening to arrest us and put us in jail for the night. Somehow we managed to blag it and talk them round, but it was a close one.” The band head back across the Atlantic next month when they’ll support The Bravery, on their US tour, something that will be good for the band Gordon believes: “Supporting bands that sound completely different to you isn’t a problem. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of kids at The Bravery shows so that should get us noticed by a different audience to the one that was at the Garbage shows.”

 

The band are set to release their debut self titled album in the UK this September after a recording process that saw the band produce a record better than they could ever have hoped for. “We’re really pleased with the record,” says Gordon, “Just to get this amazing opportunity was great. We’d go into the studio and do three week sessions, then take a break where we’d play a couple of live shows. It was a continual process of developing the record; things would be moved round and changed a lot till the sound developed. It really turned out a lot better than we hoped.”

 

In a strange set of circumstances the album has already been released in America, Canada and Japan but fans in the UK will have to wait that little bit longer. Apparently because of their success in America the band were unable to tour and promote the album during the period before the original proposed release date in late June. Something they were not too happy about: “We were gutted we couldn’t get the record out for the summer, but there was really nothing we could do.” Sighs Gordon.

 

However, fans can console themselves with the news that the band won’t wait too long before releasing their second album with new material already in the pipeline and plans to return to the studio before the end of this year. As with their debut record the band will probably record the follow up in the Ranch studios in their native Liverpool, Gordon says: “We’ve already written some new stuff and we’re really looking forward to getting it down. We hope to get into the studio by December and maybe record the album by the end of 2005, to release next year.”

 

As a band they decided that after their debut album is released they'll call a halt to the continuous touring that has seen them criss-crossing the Atlantic on numerous occasions since the beginning of the year, Gordon adds: “We don’t want to tour too much because we don’t want to kill off the creative process we’ve got going at the moment. We’ll tour the UK to promote the album but we really want to get back into the studio.”

 

Having received harsh criticism from certain sections of the music fraternity in their hometown for their supposed miraculous reincarnation (rumours persist that the band approached record labels asking them what they could do to get signed and then simply followed their instructions) you would expect The Dead 60s to be bitter about the treatment they have received, but if Ben Gordon is anything to go by actually they are the complete opposite. They are a band looking forward to a world full of opportunities rather than looking back in anger at the insular scene of back biting they have left behind.