FEATURE:
Spotlight
IN THIS PHOTO: Afflecks Palace (Peter Darling, Peter Redshaw, J. Fender and Dan Stapleton)
Afflecks Palace
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I have included a few bands…
in this Spotlight feature. Today, I want to focus on Afflecks Palace. They are a band who have been gathering attention and momentum since the end of last year. With their music being championed by stations such as BBC Radio 6 Music, it will not be long until the rising northern band are selling out big venues. I am going to quote a couple of fairly recent interviews/features very soon. Before that, this site reviewed the band’s E.P., Everything Is an Attempt to Be Human, last year:
“Afflecks is a place in Manchester’s hip Northern Quarter with a history: in 1989 it joined the Hacienda as the city’s epicentre of the famous/infamous Second Summer Of Love, with tenants Eastern Bloc supplying the records and neighbours Identity keeping The Stone Roses in flares.
No prizes for guessing then where Afflecks Palace come from, and being dubbed by some as the ‘sound of nu-Madchester’ cements those associations. But these are some large bell bottoms to fill, the road back from Spike Island being littered with over-hyped cover bands and the ghosts of what feels like almost the last time it was OK to have a good time.
Formed in 2019, the quartet’s obvious retro-sheen is thankfully not just authentic but filled with blissed out melodies and a fluidity that underpins the old era’s two rules: first dance, and then be good to each other.
Their second EP, Everything Is An Attempt To Be Human, helps with both; opener Pink Skies is flecked with gentle wah-wah and peaceful psychedelic melodies, reminiscent for scene veterans of the briefly famous Mock Turtles, while the tumbling Ripley Jean…well, bangs the drums.
It’s not all trips and flips though; the title-track is just that little bit more fish-eye lensed, drowning in reverb and closer to rocks being thrown than rock n roll, as lyrically it strides through the tear gas and goes up against the man, while the best is saved ‘til last, It All Comes Around drifting in a parallel universe but with a chorus constantly looking for a rabble to rouse”.
A lot of people have been talking excitedly about Manchester’s Afflecks Palace. Their combination of easy hooks, nods to 1960s’ sounds and something distinctly their own makes them an interesting proposition. With two successful E.P.s under their belt, many are wondering whether an album will come later in the year. The Manchester Evening News spoke with the band back in June
“It was February last year, just weeks before the pandemic hit, that up-and-coming Manchester band Affleck's Palace played their first proper gig at a sold-out Band on the Wall.
Yet, in other ways, the timing was perfect.
The months since could well prove to have been the making of the band, who are taking the local music scene by storm but whose lead singer was, just a couple of years ago, driving tower cranes on building sites.
The four-piece, who have been dubbed as 'Nu Madchester' and who claim to be channeling the 'spirit of Spike Island', have seen their popularity and the buzz around them grow during a long year of lockdowns.
They have had thousands of online streams each month, and vinyl copies of their two EPs have sold out, as have tickets for a nationwide tour planned for this Autumn, whilst major radio stations have begun spinning their tracks ahead of the release of their debut album.
And, they say they are now proudly flying the flag for the city's music heritage as they look to make their big breakthrough.
The group say this has all been done 'organically' and 'from the ground up' without big industry support.
In fact the formation of the band itself was just as organic, coming about following a jamming session between frontman, singer, co-songwriter and producer James Fender (his real name, not a stage name) and guitarist Dan Stapleton.
"We'd been playing in cover bands for years really, just dossing around. It was for fun really" James, known as J, tells the Manchester Evening News .
We met through friends, friends of friends, and at gigs. And to be honest we never had any aspirations to form an original band.
"The guitarist and I were just jamming for a laugh.
"He played me the riff to one of our songs, Forever Young, and I said it was exceptional and I really wanted to write a song around it.
"His partner was pregnant and I thought it would be amazing if he could have a tune to play to his daughter in later life and say 'I wrote that.'
"So I went away and wrote the rest of the tune around his riff.
"We put it out on my label and didn't have any ambition to go beyond that, but when we did there was a massive reaction”.
Although there are quite a few promising young bands emerging at the moment, there is particular interest around Afflecks Palace. The sheer buzz the band have accumulated so far means that their upcoming gigs (check out their social media channels for details) will be very busy! I am keen to see just how far they can go.
Before wrapping up, I want to source from Louder than War. They were keen to explore a band who have a bit of old-skool Manchester bagginess at their heart:
“The band’s dreamy northern psychedelia sees them immersed in the classic hallmarks of the city – even their name is taken from the heartbeat of the alternative shopping arcade where styles were forged and dreams were made in the city centre. They dress in classic baggy and even sport a bucket hat or two and their music is tripped out hooky jangle guitars and hazy stoned vocals and lysergic backwards guitars . It could be the Stone Roses in 1987 or The Smiths in 1984 but what is crucial is that they sound like Afflecks Palace 2021 and their beautiful melodies and slip sliding tripped out escapism works perfectly. It might be a sound that has been buried in the mainstream media but it’s eternally popular on the streets of Manchester and beyond when its done this well. They sound like they have been crate digging in the second hand record stores of Afflecks Palace itself and getting immersed in sixties west coast, early Creation Records and the kind of records that Alan McGee still swoons over.
Afflecks Palace have somehow made it work. They already sound classic and could well be shifting 40 000 tickets for Heaton park within 12 months. Every song is a sweet, slightly stoned anthem dripping with fragile beauty of imagination and a world to get lost in”.
Go and spend some time with one of Britain’s hottest propositions. They have an exciting sound and a determination that should see them continue to build their fanbase. I love what they are doing. If you have not found Afflecks Palace, then go and show some love…
AND seize the day.
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