Monthly Music

Smooth, delicate and very poppy, The Delays are the latest in a line of British bands, including Franz Ferdinand and Keane, hoping to bring rock back to the forefront of the UK music scene. Their debut album, Faded Seaside Glamour is truly one of the unexpected dbut albums this year.

Filled with sugar-laden hooks and harmony driven brilliance, it provides much needed blasts of summer. Their influences range from 60s bands such as The Hollies, to early 80s pop and through to the current post-Strokes garage sound of their contemporaries. All of these combine superbly to create one of the most unforgettable dbuts of the year.

The Delays

In 1996, while London was beginning to feel the initial stages of Britpop excess and collapse, just down the M3 motorway in Southampton, there was an awakening. Southampton felt an awkward silence. People were waiting for something to happen, explains the singer of The Delays Greg Gilbert, who frantically searched the local rock clubs in search of band mates. There he found a drummer named Rowly and a bassist named Colin Fox.

After a number of years spent attempting to perfect their ethereal and delicate yet fluid power-pop, they soon caught the attention of Rough Trade, the record label who currently have such garage rock delights as The Strokes and The Libertines. "Our notions of being a pop band are such that we needed Rough Trade to make sure people listened," Greg maintains. "It's a taste-making thing and you've got the heritage there. When you're on a label like Rough Trade, people will approach you differently than when you're on a major.

Despite only being signed to a label for a year and a half, The Delays certainly have big ambitions. We've got big goals and big ideals. No band's ever been perfect, so no band has ever achieved what we want to achieve. We want to be the perfect pop band." Lets pray that they live up to such high standards that they have set themselves. Things are certainly looking promising so far.

Their debut single, Nearer Than Heaven, appeared in Mel Smith's film, Blackball. Their anticipated follow up, the soft Sixties delights of Hey Girl scraped into the UK top-forty last year. Such a hectic last six months of 2003 though, seen touring with the likes of The Coral, The Thrills and McAlmont and Butler, seemed worth it when third single Long Time Coming crashed the Top Twenty at Number 16 in January 2004. Help their ambition to become the words greatest pop act; look them up but just dont delay!

Nearer Than Heaven is one of the finest pop songs we've heard so far this year. NME

Faded Seaside Glamour, is a life-affirming blend of sparkling West Coast harmonies with swirling atmospherics Q

Theyve got nice hair, great hats and brilliant songs. If you dont know Delays, you should they rock Tim Burgess (From the band The Charlatans)

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