The View (band)

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The View
The View onstage at Glasgow SECC
Background information
Origin	Dundee, Scotland
Genre(s)	Indie Rock
Years active	2005 – Present
Label(s)	Two Thumbs 1965 Records (Sony BMG/Columbia)
Website	www.theviewareonfire.com
Members
Kyle Falconer Kieren Webster Peter Reilly Steven Morrison

The View are a four piece indie rock/punk rock band from Dryburgh, a small district in Dundee. They have been active in the music scene since early 2005, supporting more renowned acts including Babyshambles, Primal Scream and The Undertones. The band initially based themselves at The Bayview pub in the Menzieshill district of Dundee, not too far from their native Dryburgh. From this pub, the band took their name. Shortly after they moved to The Doghouse, a respected music venue in Dundee's city centre, where they came to the attention of local music promoters, management and ever-growing fan-base.

The band are currently signed to 1965 Records and their debut single, "Wasted Little DJs", was released 7 August 2006. The single entered the UK MTV/NME video charts on 9 July 2006.^[1] and climbed to top this chart the same day it reached 15 in the UK singles chart on 13 August 2006.^[2]

1 History
2 Debut album and singles
3 Major Appearances
4 First UK Headlining Tour
5 Trivia
6 Discography
7 References
8 External links
- 8.1 Fansites

[edit] History

[edit] Origin

Members of the band attended St. John's High School, a Roman Catholic Secondary School in Dundee. There they performed, at school talent contests, a mixture of their own songs and covers. After leaving school the band set up base in a backroom at The Bayview Pub, where they began to write and rehearse new material. This pub also gave the band their name.

[edit] The Doghouse

Shortly after, the band moved their base to The Doghouse, another pub, but also a respected music venue in Dundee's city centre. In the band's own words they "began to live a Monkees style existence, living and rehearsing in an old backstage room at the Doghouse".^[3]

The band's first known appearance on The Doghouse stage was on 13 March 2005 when they made an unplanned appearance to play a few songs at the end of local band K.I.A.'s set. Notably this was made possible by the early departure from the stage of this band's drummer, Ray Mayhew, an ex-member of Sigue Sigue Sputnik.

For the video accompanying the band's third single, Same Jeans, all the scenes of The View on stage were filmed at The Doghouse.

[edit] Lemuria and Two Thumbs

The band continued to write, rehearse and play The Doghouse and other venues. Gathering an ever-growing army of fans wherever they played. Local promoter John (Lemuria) More, who was also Entertainments Manager at The Doghouse, introduced the band to current manager, Grant Dickson, and record producer, Robin Wynn Evans, and the three worked together with The View and other local acts, under the name of John's existing promotions company, Lemuria. Grant and Robin later split from John to form Two Thumbs. Both Two Thumbs and Lemuria continued to work with The View following the split with Two Thumbs taking on band management.

[edit] Early Recordings

A live performance and band interview was professionally filmed at The Doghouse on 29 October 2005 (known as the "Halloween footage" as it took place on the nearest Saturday to Halloween) as part of a Lemuria video session night. From this performance, live recordings of "Posh Boys" and "Comin' Down" were made widely available for download.

After just their second billed gig at The Doghouse, they were signed to local Dundee record label Two Thumbs and released the, self titled, The View EP in early 2006. Alongside the EP, the band recorded a complete demo album at T-Pot studios in Perthshire and this was made available for download from the band's Two Thumbs management website. Videos were also made available to accompany the T-Pot recordings of "Face for the Radio" and "Wasted Little DJs".

[edit] Babyshambles Support

Prior to a gig in Dundee by the band Babyshambles, The View handed over a demo CD and busked to an amused and impressed Pete Doherty, who asked the band to play a set in support of his own band's performance later that night. A few months later Doherty asked the The View to support a national Babyshambles tour. This was to give the band much needed national live exposure.

On 27 February 2006, drummer Steve was arrested with Doherty, driving the wrong way down a one-way street in Birmingham. No charges were brought relating to drug possession despite media speculation given Doherty's reputation. Although not in the way the band might have wanted, this incident gave the band considerably more publicity.

[edit] Media Attention

NME cover with CD headline artists The View and Cool List 2006

It was during this period, the band came to the attention of BBC Radio 1 presenters Zane Lowe, Edith Bowman and Jo Whiley among others, and the band's live performance of "Wasted Little DJs" (later to be their first single) featured on Zane's 8 February 2006 show^[4], alongside established acts The Kooks and be Your Own PET. Soon after, tracks from the debut EP began to be played on Radio 1 and other local and national stations. In particular, Jim Gellatly, at Xfm Scotland, featured the band heavily on X-Posure Scotland, his new music show. A live acoustic session was recorded for the show broadcast 3 May 2006. Tracks featured were: "Face For The Radio", "Wasted Little DJs", "Superstar Tradesman" and "Same Jeans"^[5]

Co-writer and bassist Kieren, was voted No. 6 on the NME Cool List 2006 Top 50, in the issue dated 25 November 2006. The band take part in the NME Awards Tour 2007, beginning January 2007.^[6]

[edit] 1965 Records

In the spring of 2006, the band signed to James Endeacott's new record label 1965 Records, part of the Sony BMG group and linked to Columbia Records. A rare live version of "Screamin' n Shoutin'", recorded at Abertay University, headlined the NME/1965 Records cover CD featured with the NME issue dated 25 November 2006.

[edit] Debut album and singles

In the summer of 2006, they began to record their debut album with Owen Morris, who has previously produced albums by Oasis and The Verve. Taken from this forthcoming album, their first single, Wasted Little DJs, was released 7 August 2006. The single entered the UK top 75 at #73 on the week before full release, due to download sales alone, and climbed to #15 the following week.

Four weeks prior to release, on 9th July 2006, the single entered the UK MTV/NME video charts at Number 9^[7], climbing to Number 1 on 13 August 2006.^[8] The single was the BBC Radio 1 Colin and Edith show's record of the week for week commencing Monday, 10 July 2006 and entered the BBC Radio 1 daytime playlist on 12 July 2006.^[9]

The band followed up with their second single Superstar Tradesman, released 23 October 2006, also reaching #15 in the UK. Same Jeans will be the third single to be released before the album, before Dance Into The Night and Face For The Radio are scheduled to be the last releases from the album next year.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Major Appearances

Their biggest performance so far was at BBC Radio 1's One Big Weekend in Dundee on 14 May 2006 and this was followed, soon after, by their second major festival appearance at T in the Park on 8 July 2006. Both performances to general critical acclaim.^[10]^[11]^[12]

On 22 July 2006, the band appeared , live in the studio, in an 18 minute long segment of the Dermot O'Leary show on BBC Radio 2. This featured an interview with the band as well as live performances of "Face for the Radio" and a Ska version of the Squeeze classic "Up The Junction".^[13]

On 9 August 2006, the Zane Lowe show on BBC Radio 1, featured the band in a live session and interview. "Same Jeans" and "Up the Junction" were performed live from the famous Maida Vale studio.

On 11 August 2006, The View performed "Wasted Little DJs" live for the first time on national UK television, on the Channel 4 show "Transmission".

On 15 August 2006, the Janice Long show on Radio 2 featured the band live in the studio. The View performed acoustic versions of "Claudia", "Same Jeans" and "Superstar Tradesman".

On 26/27 August 2006, The View were a last minute addition to the Reading and Leeds Festivals. The fans' chant of "The View, The View, The View are on Fire!" could be heard ringing loudly around the packed tent.^[14]

On 26 October 2006 the band's complete 30 minute set for the BBC Electric Proms was broadcast live on Radio 1's Zane Lowe show.^[15]

On 10 November 2006 the band appeared on the BBC2 show Later with Jools Holland alongside Kasabian, Damien Rice and Smokey Robinson among others.

[edit] First UK Headlining Tour

In the Summer of 2006, the band began a UK wide headline tour. During this tour the band would also play dates with other major acts and feature in the MTV2 Europe Gonzo tour.^[16]^[17]. Documenting this, a half hour long special "On Tour With The View" was broadcast on MTV2 Europe on 18 November 2006.

During the Tour, The View played with the Underground Heroes at the Tap'n'Tin in Chatham. At the end of the night The View and Underground Heroes joined forces on a version of 'Same Jeans'. It was recorded and released on youtube. It was the highest rated music video for two days in a row. It can be seen here [1]. The union prompted the band to be called 'The Underground View'

[edit] Trivia

Prior to a performance at the Lounge on the Farm festival in Kent, Steve Morrison jumped out of a hotel window and suffered a hairline fracture of his right foot. Friend of the band and drummer with The Underground Heroes, Joe Dollimore, played drums for this performance. However, Steve recovered sufficiently to play future scheduled gigs.

The View were banned from the Bayview Pub (from which they took their name) for riding a scooter across the bar.^[18]