Kenickie

Last updated

Kenickie
Origin Sunderland, England
Genres Britpop, alternative rock, pop punk, power pop, indie pop
Years active1994–1998
Labels Slampt, Fierce Panda, EMIdisc, Warner Bros.
Past members Lauren Laverne
Marie du Santiago
Emmy-Kate Montrose
Johnny X

Kenickie were an English four-piece pop punk band from Sunderland. The band was formed in 1994 and consisted of lead vocalist, guitarist and lyricist Lauren Laverne (b. Lauren Gofton), drummer Johnny X (real name Pete Gofton, Lauren's brother), lead guitarist and occasional lead vocalist Marie du Santiago (b. Anne Marie Nixon) and bass guitarist Emmy-Kate Montrose (b. Emma Jackson). The band's name comes from their favourite character in the film Grease .

Contents

History

By the time Catsuit City (1995) was released on Slampt, Kenickie declined an offer by Alan McGee to sign to Creation. [1] The band opened the bill for the Ramones' final UK appearance at the Brixton Academy on 3 February 1996. Following the release of Skillex (1996) on Fierce Panda, Kenickie signed to Saint Etienne's EMI subsidiary, EMIDisc. [1] Kenickie registered in the UK Singles Chart, their highest position being No. 24 with the single "In Your Car", [2] which opened Top of the Pops on the 10 January 1997 edition. Their debut album, At The Club , peaked at No. 9 in the UK Albums Chart in May 1997. [2] Kenickie also contributed a song to the Gary Numan tribute album Random , released in June that year. That summer, they were scheduled to play Glastonbury; their set was postponed, due to rain, but took place later on the scheduled day.

After meeting them in New York, Courtney Love said:

They're a big bunch of sex, that band Kenickie. They're a big, raw-boned bunch of fucking sex — all three of them and the boy. I hope they get good. I hope we're a good example to them, I hope this record's huge and then the big labels will start sniffing around and then those big fucking raw-boned sexy Newcastle (sic) girls will be huge and have Number Ones and there will be an Amazon planet the way I want it. [3]

The band's second album, Get In , appeared in 1998. It was well received in the music press (NME generally praised the album [4] while Melody Maker rated it 8/10), but sold less well. Johnny X, who now referred to himself as Pete X, moved to guitar, with the live band augmented by Graham Christie (later of Data Panik) on drums and Dot Allen on keyboards.

Kenickie disbanded on 15 October 1998 after a London Astoria gig, where Lauren closed the night by saying "We were Kenickie ... a bunch of fuckwits".

After Kenickie

Lauren Laverne released one solo EP in 2000, Take These Flowers Away, and earlier that year sang on the Mint Royale single "Don't Falter", which reached No. 15 in the UK chart. [5] Laverne also was an uncredited vocalist on The Divine Comedy's 2004 single "Come Home Billy Bird", which reached No. 25 in the same chart. [6] Since then she has presented various radio shows on radio station Xfm, most notably the breakfast show, before quitting in April 2007. She moved into television, originally as a guest on early episodes of music quiz Never Mind the Buzzcocks . She earned her own weekly spot on Channel 4 music show Planet Pop and became presenter, with Myleene Klass, of ITV music programme cd:uk in 2005, and hosted Channel 4's music show Transmission with Steve Jones in 2006 and 2007. She currently presents the breakfast show on BBC 6 Music, and in 2018, she became the host of BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs . [7]

Du Santiago and Montrose started short-lived clubnight Shimmy in Gerrard Street, London before they went on to form a new band called Rosita, and released two singles before splitting up in September 2001. Du Santiago retired from music at this point before returning in 2007 as Marie Nixon [8]  as a member of The Cornshed Sisters. They have released two album so far, Tell Tales (2012) and Honey and Tar (2017). Nixon's four songwriting credits on the latter were the first new songs released by any of the three female Kenickie members since Laverne's EP seventeen years earlier. She is also former head of communications for the Northern region of the Arts Council. In Autumn 2012, she took up position as Chief Executive of the University of Sunderland Students' Union. [9]

Montrose as Emma Jackson formed synth trio The Pictures [10] after Rosita split and later edited journal The High Horse during 2005–2010 while occasionally playing with jam band Snakes And Ladders. She completed a PhD in sociology in 2010 at Goldsmiths University. After some time as a research fellow in Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow, [11] she returned to Goldsmiths in January 2015 as a lecturer in the Department of Sociology. [12]

Johnny X went on to record under the name J Xaverre. He toured with Peter Brewis of Field Music's new project The Week That Was and later played in Frankie & The Heartstrings.

The band's onetime touring keyboard player Tony O'Neill (known in the band as Elvis Wesley) is now an author, living in the United States.

Laverne is the last remaining member of the band to still use her Kenickie stage name; Nixon and Jackson last referred to themselves as Du Santiago and Montrose in early 2002 for a DJ appearance together at London clubnight Stay Beautiful. Pete Gofton had already ceased calling himself "Johnny X" during the band's lifetime due to an American rapper at the time using the name.

Legacy

Kenickie have been credited as having inspired a wave of mainstream female guitar bands that emerged in the wake of their split, including 21st Century Girls, Hepburn and Thunderbugs. [13] They were also cited as an influence on a generation of female alternative bands, such as Chicks, Angelica, Cheetara (who covered Come Out 2Nite) and Vyvyan, some of whom were associated with the Club Rampage/Club P*rnstar "Bratpop" scene. [14] [15]

Discography

Studio albums

Radio sessions album

Singles/EPs

Compilation appearances

Videography

YearSongDirectorNotes
1996"Punka"
(UK video)
Featured the band performing the song in the lounge of the real-life Nixon family home.
"Millionaire Sweeper"
1997"In Your Car"
(UK video)
Björn Lindgren
"Nightlife"
"In Your Car"
(US video)
Dani Jacobs Filmed on location in a Hollywood movie car storage facility. Both this and the next video feature a mannequin substituting for Johnny X who was unavailable for the US promotional tour on which both were filmed.
"Punka"
(US video)
Dani Jacobs Also filmed on location in Hollywood, featured the band as film stars on set for the shoot of a big-budget remake of the above 1996 video of the song (still with the same concept, complete with movie set replica of the Nixon family lounge)
1998"I Would Fix You"Video later satirised in an episode of Smack the Pony series 1 as "Colours" by 'Kinkee'
"Stay in the Sun"Filmed on location on the coast of Spain. Features Laverne at the wheel of a motorboat with DuSantiago and Montrose as passengers.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Party</span> Welsh-British musical group

World Party were a British musical group, which was essentially the solo project of its sole member, Karl Wallinger. He started the band in 1986 in London after leaving the Waterboys.

<i>Get In</i> 1998 studio album by Kenickie

Get In is the second and final studio album by the British alternative rock band Kenickie. It was released on 25 August 1998 and reached number thirty-two on the UK Albums Chart. Get In includes the singles "I Would Fix You" and "Stay in the Sun".

<i>At the Club</i> (album) 1997 studio album by Kenickie

At the Club is the debut studio album by the British band Kenickie. It was released in 1997 and reached number nine on the UK Albums Chart. At the Club includes the singles "Punka", "Millionaire Sweeper", "In Your Car", "Nightlife" and "Come Out 2nite", the lead track from the group's second EP, Skillex. "How I Was Made" and an earlier stage of recording of "Acetone" also previously appeared on Skillex; the latter recording had also been used as part of an acoustic Peel Session in February 1996 and therefore appears on the band's BBC Peel Sessions CD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lauren Laverne</span> English radio DJ, model, television presenter

Lauren Cecilia Fisher, known professionally as Lauren Laverne, is an English radio DJ, model, television presenter, author and singer. She was the lead singer and additional guitarist in the alternative rock band Kenickie. The group's album At The Club reached the top 10, although her greatest chart success came when she performed vocals on Mint Royale's single "Don't Falter". Laverne has presented numerous television programmes, including 10 O'Clock Live for Channel 4, and The Culture Show and coverage of the Glastonbury Festival for the BBC. She has also written a published novel entitled Candypop: Candy and the Broken Biscuits. She presents the breakfast show on BBC Radio 6 Music, and in 2018 became the host of the long-running radio show Desert Island Discs.

South are an English rock band. The band consisted of lead singer Joel Cadbury, Brett Shaw, and Jamie McDonald. Each member was a multi-instrumentalist and they shared duties on guitars, bass, percussion, keyboards.

Clea were an English girl group whose members met on the television show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002. Chloe Morgan, Lynsey Brown, Emma Beard and Aimee Kearsley decided to form a band after they were voted off the series. The name 'Clea' is an acronym of the first letter of each member's name.

Fierce Panda Records is a London-based independent record label, with its first release in February 1994. It also produced a small number of releases that year by now famous artists such as Ash, The Bluetones, Baby Bird and Supergrass. Fierce Panda is also credited with releases by Acres of Lions, Air Traffic, Art Brut, The Blackout, Boy Kill Boy, Coldplay, Death Cab for Cutie, Desperate Journalist, Embrace, Goldheart Assembly, Hundred Reasons, Kenickie, Seafood, Keane, Placebo, The Polyphonic Spree and Shitdisco.

Rosita was an English band formed by Marie Du Santiago and Emmy-Kate Montrose, formerly one-half of the band Kenickie, in the immediate aftermath of Kenickie's split in October 1998. Although mainly remembered as a Kenickie offshoot, they received regular coverage in their own right in the weekly UK music press, their second single, "Santa Poca's Dream" was a UK Independent Singles Chart Top 20 hit, and one of its bonus tracks, "Demon", was used as the soundtrack to a television advertisement for Leyland DAF Vans.

The Mitchell Brothers were a Ghanaian British rap duo from London, England. They consisted of cousins Owura "Tony" Nyanin from Manor Park and Kofi "Teddy" Hanson from Stockwell. They were the first signing to Mike Skinner's The Beats imprint and are sometimes known as the "geezers with skills".

The Mock Turtles are an English indie rock band, formed in Middleton, Greater Manchester, in 1985, who enjoyed some success in the early 1990s. Their most famous song "Can You Dig It?", which was released in the UK in 1991, charted at number 18. When the song was re-released in slightly remixed form in 2003, it again reached the Top 20 of the UK Singles Chart.

Scarfo were a British rock band, formed in Andover, England in 1994, by former art college students Jamie Hince, Nick Prior (bass), and Al Saunders (drums). Scarfo was the culmination of several other bands and lineups involving Hince and Saunders including Remember The Rabbits, and Electric Turkey Land. The line up for both these bands included long term friend of Hince, and fellow resident of the Newbury area, Wob Williams. Wob went on to play, like Hince, with the punk-folk ensemble Blyth Power.

Founded in 2000, J Xaverre is an English folktronica artist from Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England. Largely a solo creation by Pete Gofton, he has occasionally been joined by Lea Doherty (vocals) and the King of Woolworths member Jon Brooks.

Feline were an English alternative rock/pop group formed in Camden, London, in 1995. Their sound was described by journalist Mike Pattenden as "new goth", a mix of Eighties bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure with contemporary acts like The Smashing Pumpkins. Guitarist Drew Richards added, "[but] you won't catch us lying around on gravestones".

Peter Gofton is an English, Penge-based musician and record producer, who is well known on the music scene of the North East of England and has been involved with many artists either playing with them or producing. He is the former drummer and guitarist for Kenickie and former guitarist for Frankie & The Heartstrings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electrafixion</span> English alternative rock band

Electrafixion were an alternative rock band, formed by former Echo & the Bunnymen members Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant in 1994, joined by bass guitarist Leon de Sylva and drummer Tony McGuigan. They released one album, Burned, and four singles and EPs before splitting up in 1996, due to the reformation of the Bunnymen. A posthumous limited edition 7" single, "Baseball Bill" was released in 1997. When touring, the band included Julian Phillips on bass and his brother, George Phillips, on drums.

The Congregation was a British pop ensemble, formed by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway in England. In the United States it ws credited as The English Congregation.

The following is a comprehensive discography of the Stranglers, an English rock band.

Jack were a British alternative rock band formed in Cardiff, Wales, in 1992. Their orchestral pop was influenced by artists such as Scott Walker, David Bowie and Roxy Music, and drew comparisons to Tindersticks, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Suede and The Divine Comedy. The band attracted a cult following in the United Kingdom and continental Europe, particularly France, but they failed to match the commercial success of their britpop contemporaries. They split in 2002.

Carol Ann Holness, better known by her stage name Nancy Nova, is a singer and songwriter from London, who was largely active from 1978 to 1983. She is the daughter of former Blockbusters host Bob Holness and sister of Ros Holness, who was a member of 1980s new-wave group Toto Coelo.

A discography of the Welsh rock band Man.

References

  1. 1 2 Mackay, Emily (22 September 2015). "Cult heroes: Kenickie were a glitter-smeared chance not taken". Theguardian.com. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  2. 1 2 Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 299. ISBN   1-904994-10-5.
  3. "Kenickie Corner v3.0: By SŠott Wills". Freespace.virgin.net. Archived from the original on 10 September 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  4. "Make It Hot" - review of Get In by Kenickie, NME 1998
  5. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 369. ISBN   1-904994-10-5.
  6. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 158. ISBN   1-904994-10-5.
  7. "Kirsty Young to take time out from Desert Island Discs". BBC News . 30 August 2018.
  8. "The Cornshed Sisters - Memphis Industries". Memphis-industries.com. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  9. Davies, Hannah (3 August 2011). "Marie Nixon on life after girl band Kenickie - Features - Lifestyle". JournalLive. Archived from the original on 27 November 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  10. Sullivan, Caroline (3 January 2003). "Klang/The Pictures". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  11. "Dr Emma Jackson". University of Glasgow. Archived from the original on 14 September 2014. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
  12. "Jackson, Emma, Goldsmiths, University of London". Archived from the original on 7 March 2015. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  13. "But What of Us? UK Riot Grrrl – Part 3 - The F-Word". Thefword.org.uk. 13 January 2005. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  14. "MUSIC THAT TIME FORGOT: 1997". Repeatfanzine.co.uk. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  15. Teenage Rampage (Bratpop special cover feature), Melody Maker , 15 August 1998, pp. 20–22
  16. "Kenickie - The John Peel Sessions". Discogs. Retrieved 18 May 2021.