Thank The Clord!

  It turns out Clor’s secret to keeping grounded when you’re in a group receiving pretty much flawless reviews is to take the piss relentlessly out of your fellow band members. When Max Taylor enters the room front man Barry Dobbin introduces him as sporting his “trademark look”. You could be forgiven for thinking he’s referring to the fairly original woolly red cardigan and polo shirt combo he’s sporting, but no such style is being commented on - instead it's merely his forgetfulness when it comes to doing up his flies. Blushing endearingly, he looks like a six former out of place in a staff room. When asked how old he is, a chorus of “seventeen” comes from the band. But no he demands to be taken seriously by claiming that actually he’s “nineteen and a half.”   Other members of the band aren’t left out of this affectionate banter - Bob Earland’s top is pulled down so we can inspect his fresh love bite, and at guitarist Luke Smith’s answer of “elastic bands” to what band’s have influenced them, looks of pure disgust are directed at him. But it’s all friendly fun and the close relationships they clearly have with each other is duly reflected on stage. They come across like a group of mates who just want to have fun playing music because it's what they really love, and by a happy coincidence they turn out to be pretty phenomenal at it.

For those not in the know, Clor have been playing together for two years, Barry, Rob and Luke, having “poached” drummer Harry Bennett and Max from playing with Roots Manuva. Coming from a variety of backgrounds such as working in a hospital as a medical secretary and a trainee art teacher, Luke’s job composing music for Gameboy is pretty damn legendary. After claiming he hated the job, he manages to speak at length about the technical side of it and it how educational it was for enough time for Gigwise's eyes to glaze over slightly. This probably has more to do the extent of my knowledge of Gameboys reaching only as far as the fact they once made one in pink, than his conversational skills.

On the back of one of the most well-received albums of the year, Clor are understandably being tipped as ‘the next big thing’. However, whether it’s modesty, honesty or an edge of naivety, the band seem dubious of this reaction from the media. “I honestly don’t think we’ll make it big like that” Barry says, “I think we’ll just simmer on nicely like this for a while.” Despite having a healthy following, the band seem put off by the idea of being in the headlines every week. Barry comments: “It would worry me if we became over celebrated, record companies love it if you’re always in the tabloids and stuff.” Mean as it may seem, they're just far too normal and nice to ever be that kind of band.   As a band, Clor are incredibly unpretentious, and the excitement in the way they talk about their love of playing venues like the windmill in Brixton, and their belief in the philosophy of sharing money fairly between everyone involved at gigs, leads to the feeling that the allures of corporate success are not going to tempt or mould this group. Just to prove the niceness, when speaking about roadies, they claim they feel awful about having people to lug their stuff around for them when there's five of them capable of doing the job, so usually they do it themselves. However, tonight they're hiding to do this interview with us,  because “if we don’t watch then we don’t feel so guilty”.