Music: Young Knives

Brothers in music come to town

Back in 2005, this three-piece, headed by the Dartnall brothers Henry and Thomas, and from the unlikely market town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, won the Road to V competition, in those days a very prestigious honour – the following year Bombay Bicycle Club won it – but it had been a long road already for this resilient band, who formed way back in the mid ‘90s. Originally called Simple Pastoral Existence, and then Pony Club, they thankfully changed their name to The Young Knives (eventually dropping the definite article prefix), itself a play on Young Knaves…

Anyway, back to the ’05, where after years of slogging it out, they finally delivered some knockout punches including the magnificent single The Decision, one of the definitive tracks of the post punk revival era, and the debut album Voices of Animals and Men, which was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

In those day the band purposefully looked like a bunch of nerdy civil servants/posh boys letting their short hair down for some serious indie action. Thomas Dartnall was even known as The House of Lords…

Roll on 2013, and the band remain resilient, never quite attaining making the big time, but still releasing excellent, leftfield and oddly structured records that remain largely influenced by new wave and post punk. Their fourth album Sick Octave is a thoroughly eclectic affair, once again showing Young Knives to be uncompromising about their music. “Last November we played a run of shows in the UK performing our new album Sick Octave from start to finish,” says Henry Dartnall.

“It was a lot of fun and the addition of poetry, dance, visuals and theatrics made these shows really special for us. This March sees phase two of the show but this time it’s a mixture of the new album and choice picks from our back catalogue. With ‘Sicker Octave’ we are building on the theatrics of the last show but taking it to the next level. It’ll be a bit like We Will Rock You but with Queen actually performing their own songs and playing all the characters at the same time.”
The Haunt, Thursday 20 March, 7pm, £10

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