It’s official - indie sleaze is back, baby! It’s long been touted that the chaotic spirit of Noughtiesindie – a particularly erratic period for music characterised by grown adults wearing Nintendo consoles as pendant necklaces, a landfill’s worth of used glow sticks and lots of fighting – could be due a return.
But the revival so far has mostly manifested in increasing numbers of newer bands referencing the musical touchstones of the era, and a renewed hunger for live shows and club nights following the shutterings of the pandemic. Until now...
Indie Sleaze 2.0 has also – so far – felt quite well behaved, and frankly it makes a pleasant change seeing everybody playing together nicely. Aside from a handful of slightly baffling performances from The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas at Primavera and Roskilde (and a since-deleted post which saw the singer amusingly referring to his critics as “Lame-Os”) on-stage altercations and childish rivalries haven’t really featured thus far.
No longer the highly public dust-ups between members of The Libertines in the middle of shows, The Ordinary Boys’ Preston storming off Never Mind the Buzzcocks,and The Kooks singer Luke Pritchard claiming he kicked Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner in the face for messing about with his guitar pedal.
Instead, we’re left with the altogether more wholesome yet logically incongruous sight of Olivia Rodrigo partying with Sam Fender at Peckham arcade bar Four Quarters, during his last BRITs after-party. To be clear, this is catagorically a Good Thing.
The View, meanwhile, seem hell bent upon reminding people that rock’n’roll is apparently all about blokes in tight unlaundered jeans getting shitty with each other and having full blown fights over the inner workings of a song with a ridiculous name like Skag Trendy. Viva indie sleaze!
It’s a level of pettiness we’ve not seen since Indie Sleaze icon Kate Moss scathingly referred to an EasyJet pilot as a “basic bitch” after being escorted from a flight destined for Sadie Frost’s 50th birthday bash in 2015.
The View have pulled their planned London comeback gig tonight after their previous tour stop at Manchester’s Deaf Institute descended into brawling chaos. The Scottish band had just finished playing Skag Trendy, from their 2007 Mercury nominated debut Hats Off to the Buskers, when they suddenly began fighting on stage, with vocalist Kyle Falconer throwing punches at bassist Kieren Webster. In footage of the altercation, Falconer can be heard shouting: “I’ll f**king kill you”.
Just been sent this one from The View gig last night. Mental 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/Z8ptyK2vyO
— MARTIN STONE (@stonefish100) May 11, 2023
The band are best known for their profoundly unhygienic indie twanger Same Jeans – a harmonica-laden song about heading off to “a disco in the middle of town” in some presumably quite crispy denim its protagonist has been stubbornly wearing for four days now.
It’s not clear what caused the ruckus, but crowd member Jason Daniels told The Daily Mail that he’d noticed the pair bickering earlier. The fight reportedly broke out after Webster apparently kicked the microphone stand as he handed vocal duties over to Falconer for a song.
Returning alone for an acoustic encore, which he quickly cut short, Falconer appeared to confirm this theory. “If you want, I think you should maybe ask Kieren to come up and finish the set,” he huffed. “The problem with this band is he wants to sing the songs and he can’t, right.”
Postponing their planned London show on May 11 the band issued a fairly vague statement. It doesn’t elaborate on the on-stage fight, and promises a further update in the near future. "Unfortunately, we are having to postpone tonight’s London show,” it reads. “Our promoter is working to resolve the situation. Please keep hold of your tickets for now and we will make a further announcement in a few days. Massive apologies to all our fans."
In a subsequent statement the following day - May 12 - the band said sorry for their “brotherly bust-up” and added that they’re still looking forward to their full UK headline tour in November 2023. “Sorry to the fans at our show in Manchester and everywhere else that we've upset - we had a brotherly bust-up that went too far, and we cannae wait to get back to touring in November and throughout the festival season with yous lot,” they wrote.
They also confirmed that while their previously postponed show at Hackney venue Oslo will not be rescheduled, tickets for that gig will now be valid for the band’s show at Scala on Dec 7.
With the fall-out unfolding just three nights into The View’s first tour in five years, and new album Exorcism Of Youth slated for release on June 9, their reunion looks less than rosy - but it seems the darker side of the Indie Sleaze revival is in full swing.
