Do you remember when the King’s Of Leon were good?

1st two albums?

Aye! Two shit hot albums though..

No

Not to my ears…

DEMOCRACY FOR LEON.

Yeah, loved those first two albums and the third was OK.

Just first album for me when they all looked like hippies and the singer sounded like an older Eric Cartman

Do you remember when the King’s Of Leon were good?

You mean that one track that people dance to at parties?

Saw them in NYC at Madison Square Garden some years ago. Six rows from the stage. Wouldn’t consider myself a fan as such (tickets were a present for the lady) but they were bloody good.

You mean that one track that people dance to at parties?

Nope, that one is **** terrible

Stw does it again, only went back to that first album this week. Learning California Waiting on my guitar,that album was the soundtrack for a summer road trip to the alps and the following tour an early date with, the now, Mrs….. Can l get back my lonely life…. Happy Days

I just remembered, the first time she picked me up, in her MX5, she had that CD playing and l was impressed.

Yeah I loved those first two albums. Then sex on fire came out and everything since then has passed me buy. They were bloody good live though the one time I saw them- would’ve been the tour fir the third album.

Long time ago, as above first two albums were classics and had a sound like no other bands at the time, couple of decent tracks on third then….

that one track that people dance to at parties?

Sex on fire was the beginning of the end, don’t actually mind the tune but it was almost as if the record company was writing the albums from that point

Yes, yes I do.

I played Because Of The Times to death when it came out. Hardly played them since.

I remember them before the apostrophe.

Same with the killers, two singles then crap ever since for me.

As above, it was just the first album for me. They had their original Lynyrd Skynryd look to begin with then it seemed overnight they became sponsored by Topman. But to be fair to them, they’re massively successful, if they’d kept me happy they’d probably be scratching around in local boozers rather than swanning about in stadiums so what do I know!

Nope

I can’t think of them without recalling that old blog on Groove Armadas site about how spinal tap they all were.

The original blog is gone now, which is a shame, because it was quite long, very funny, and they didn’t even use the showers in the end anyway. It seemed that KOL also weren’t on speaking terms with each other, either, and all travelled in separate vehicles.

But here’s the news reports of the blog.

It’s hard to believe that someone actually phoned their agent and said “listen I know that Paul Weller, Kasabian, Florence, Stereophonics, Groove Armada + co are all sharing the artist village and facilities, but we require that you put a fence down the middle of the toilets and showers and put a large man there to keep them just for us.” But somebody did.”

https://www.clashmusic.com/news/groove-armada-vs-kings-of-leon

I remember being disappointed at their Hyde Park performance.

They’ve had some good songs since the first 2.5 albums, but no albums I’d want to sit through.

They were better when the production was poor. Then it got better, we could hear the words he was singing and they went huge. Good for them but I’ll always prefer the stuff we’re you can’t hear the lyrics.

Long time ago, as above first two albums were classics and had a sound like no other bands at the time, couple of decent tracks on third then….

Excellently put. 2001ish(?), when their first couple of singles were floating around XFM but not gaining much traction. The third album started to go a bit more stadium rock (also seen on RHCPs’ By the Way), and after that it was all downhill.

But that first album is a stone cold classic, and the second is top notch

Really it was all downhill after holy roller novocaine wasn’t it?

As above, early albums are great.
Listening to king of the rodeo always makes me smile after Bob Mortimer had it as a desert island disc.
He would play it in the car and him and the kids would take turns at singing along their own versions of the indecipherable lyrics 🙂

Thanks, reminded me to stick them on the stereo tonight.

Holy Roller Novocaine

Is that the ‘secret’ aka pain-in-the-arse-to-find track at the end of the first album?

Bought first album, found it rather samey, stopped listening to it. Wife bought some others – meh.

The original blog is gone now, which is a shame, because it was quite long, very funny, and they didn’t even use the showers in the end anyway. It seemed that KOL also weren’t on speaking terms with each other, either, and all travelled in separate vehicles.

Thankfully the internet never forgets 😂

https://web.archive.org/web/20101030042554if_/http://groovearmada.com/#blogs

Andy: Europe, England and the Kings’ Calvacade
Date added: 13.09.2010

The never ending improvements to the live set went on late into the night Wednesday. In fact, they went on until it was time to leave for Brussels.

Nevertheless, the trip was going smoothly enough until I took the lift down into the basement of Brussels airport to pick up a train to Hassalt – nearest station to the Pukkelpop festival.

I checked the departures boards – Hassalt was nowhere to be seen.

Over at the ticket kiosk, I was told to change at Leuven. Back at the boards, there was no train to Leuven for an hour. But there was a train to Leuven Landen in 10 minutes. So I went back to the kiosk and asked the guy if Leuven Landen would work. He jumped to his feet in a rage.

“Are you a baby? Shall I take you by the hand? Do you have a problem? Leuven is all I say. That is it. Leuven. That is all. You make it complicated. Why? Idiot. So stupid…”

And so on.

While he was still in full swing, I went to the next kiosk, where the man said I could get the train to Leuven Landen, he agreed that his colleague was a bit out of order, but explained “he does this 2 or 3 times a day”.

Pukkelpop was the only chance I’ll ever have to hear Iron Maiden. Singer Bruce is still in great shape. From the four Maiden trucks and 11 Maiden tour buses, you get a full blown West End musical stage set. As far as I could make out it’s meant to be a rock and boulder moon-scape. Whatever it is, it makes the amps and guitarists look very small.

Best moment came when a 3 metre high monster wobbled onstage and acted out a play fight with the bass player, who fought it off with his guitar. This was soundtracked by Bruce in full opera-sized voice, eyes straight into the onstage camera, singing “scared of the dark”. The front rows of the audience held up the universal sign of Rock and shouted it back.

Despite being the headline act, Maiden apparently have a clause in the contract that says they won’t play after 9pm. Rock n roll. This might be because Bruce likes to do a John Travolta and become captain of the Maiden 747 the morning after.

So Blink 102 followed them and got round the “how to fill an extra 15 minutes when we don’t have enough songs” problem by strapping the drum kit to a platform that could rotate 360 degrees, allowing the drummer to do a long, upside-down solo.

It was a tough gig for us. We were playing in a dance only corner of the site, with the Boiler Room banging out the big tunes right next door and our tent full of people clearly up for a dance music explosion. The GA live gig is a bit more rock ‘n roll than that, so whilst the bigger bits went off, the tunes that weren’t absolutely banging left some ravers wanting more.

But at least the festival had the best dressing room we’ve seen in a while. Amongst the old 7″ singles, armchairs and other nice stuff was a frog , which Saint Saviour took with her. She put it above her bunk and it looked at me through the hole in my curtains all weekend.

The new Eco touring system means getting everyone on one bus. 17 people on this occasion. Throw in a pile of after show pizzas and a couple of crates of drinks from the dressing room and things get pretty congested. It was a messy and confused ride to Holland.

Last time we played Lowlands, it was the loudest cheer ever recorded at the festival. This time, you couldn’t get anywhere near the tent and we were set for another attempt at the record. Black Light gigs have been good in Holland. This was a no exception. A music loving crowd did us proud.

Overnight to Chelmsford, first of the V festivals. Walking about the site, we could see it was the kind of day when Scouting For Girls and Jason Derulo would be popular. This, together with distance to the tent we were playing and a pretty tough draw on the billing made us a little nervous about the numbers. But 10,000 people came along, and on that site, it’s a long way to come.

Escaped from the bus nightclub around 4. By 8am, we were parked in Staffordshire and I was getting cooked in the bunk. My bed goes across the front of the bus, so with the windscreen facing the sun and too hot to touch, the in-bunk temperature was approaching the mid 40s. I tried to wish it away for a while, but there was never any choice but to get out.

Over in the artist area there was already a queue for the washrooms. Having no shower gel with me, I made the most of the waiting time by decanting some of the toilet hand soap into an empty water bottle. But the waiting went on for a long while due to a faulty water supply. Every few minutes there were the cries of people stuck with shampoo in their eyes while the plumber pulled and pushed pipes round the back.

Then I noticed the empty shower block just the other side of some temporary fencing.

A couple of us found a gap in the barrier. Out of nowhere came a very large man. “Reserved for the Kings of Leon” he said, “and so is this half of the artist toilets”. It’s hard to believe that someone actually phoned their agent and said “listen I know that Paul Weller, Kasabian, Florence, Stereophonics, Groove Armada + co are all sharing the artist village and facilities, but we require that you put a fence down the middle of the toilets and showers and put a large man there to keep them just for us.” But somebody did.

Eventually I got scolded all over for a couple of minutes, though I was pleased with the success of the decanted hand soap.

Spent the day out and about on site, listening. Tinie Tempah had the tent packed beyond capacity and was 100% bounces and smiles behind his diamond crusted microphone. The drummer was unique in that he wore a rucksack and played standing up. Tinie is not to be confused with Temper Trap, who got off to a good start on the second stage, until it took their soundman 20 minutes to realise that the bass drum was twice the volume of anything else.

Back in Tinie’s tent later was Shaun Ryder. It was shambolic but poignant. Closing with Step On, he started in top form, his voice bringing back the old Manchester magic. Then he leant on the piano and slowly faded away. Who knows what he was thinking about. Nevertheless, the odd time he picked himself up enough for a “you’re twisting my melon kids”, or “call the cops”, it had more about it than all the polished wailings of the diva he had alongside him.

Tune of the day went to Chew Lips, even though I was the only person there to hear it. The girl can really, really sing, and she’s got a stage presence all of her own – like a super cool really awkward teenager. A lot of the set was a bit monotone, mainly because there was nothing live apart from a bit of bass guitar. But then they closed with a song called “Golden Key”, and I was holding back the tears.

Over on the main stage, Weller and his band were generating the only big rock n roll sound of the day. But he wasn’t too happy about only the Jam songs getting a response or the couple of bottles that came his way during the quieter tunes. There wasn’t a lot of tolerance for unfamiliar music anywhere that day, so he wasn’t alone.

White Lies were definitely the band of the afternoon. Big sound, big choruses. The only thing lacking was a big crowd.

Backstage again, we were outside the catering tent, about to cross the path back to the dressing rooms when loads of massive blokes in suits and shades came out of nowhere shouting “don’t move, don’t move, DO NOT move” whilst pushing people back to the sides of the track. Was it Obama?

Tom explained that he was just crossing over to the dressing room to start getting ready.

“No you’re not” said a big man.

“Yes I am” said tom.

Out came the enormous hand.

The conversation between tom and the big man got more heated. Then 4 blacked out range rovers came round the corner. One for each King of Leon. As it became clear what all this presidential fuss was about, tom gave the worldwide one fingered sign of dislike as the cars went past. The last one stopped. The drummer got out making “come on then” type gestures. “Come on then” tom gestured back. Instead, the drummer went back behind his bodyguards, and, pointing towards Tom, Paul Weller, and the various other musicians who were pinned by the side of the road, said “I want them removed.”

“You will be removed” said the big man.

“No we won’t”

The promoter came over, smoothed it over and apologised. Bearing in mind this was all happening backstage in the area shared by all the bands, it’s hard to see what the Kings thought they were protecting themselves from. Was Paul Weller going to hound them for autographs? Was Florence going to wrestle them to the ground? Or maybe Stereophonics were going to ask them to write “your sex is on fire” on an album sleeve?

Nevertheless, the Kings had 4 minutes before going onstage to enjoy all those showers and toilets they’d kept to themselves.

We had a great crowd for our gig. Hat off to Staffordshire. It was the gig of the weekend.

We came off stage into the van that would take us back round to the dressing room. As we weaved through thick woodland, a message came over the radio to the driver to pull off the road, repeat, “Pull Off The Road.” Guess who.

The Kings were on their way out.

So we waited, reluctantly, whilst getting pretty annoyed with our driver for stopping. A few of us got out, to give the Kings a fond farewell.

Eventually, a couple of buses for crew and entourage came round the corner, followed by the 4 individual range rovers. What a lonely existence.

Back in the artist area, there was a good vibe around the bar. 3 cases of champagne were sent over to GA HQ as a thanks for telling it straight to the Kings.

Andy Cato

It’s hard to believe that someone actually phoned their agent and said “listen I know that Paul Weller, Kasabian, Florence, Stereophonics, Groove Armada + co are all sharing the artist village and facilities, but we require that you put a fence down the middle of the toilets and showers and put a large man there to keep them just for us.” But somebody did.”

Sounds like the Manics at Glastonbury!
Spotted this bit in that long quote;

Tune of the day went to Chew Lips, even though I was the only person there to hear it. The girl can really, really sing, and she’s got a stage presence all of her own – like a super cool really awkward teenager.

I saw Chew Lips at the Fleece in Bristol, as first support for Howling Bells, she was followed by The Joy Formidable; pretty good evening, that was.
And no, I don’t really remember when the KoL were good, apart from Beautiful War, from Mechanical Bull; I rather like that song, it’s the only song of theirs I actually have in my library.