Where Are They Now?

Back in London in the years of 2003-2005, we were in the midst of a full blown indie revolution as far as popular music goes. You could barely swing a cat without bumping into yet another band yielding an album's worth of terrific material and festival slots all over Europe to back it up. Literally, almost everything that came out was great, subsequently storming the charts and booting the corporate garglings of Britney et al to the curb.

However, it very recently occurred to me that I don't listen to any of these bands nowadays. Save a couple of course. So the question begs. What the fook happened? Let's have a look shall we?

The Libertines - Riding the tidal wave of "Can't Stand Me Now" in the summer of 2004, they now of course, quite famously, disbanded due to Doherty's absolute vagrancy.

Kaiser Chiefs - Remember them? You couldn't change radio channels without hearing a song from their debut album back then. Now? Well, they've got a new album coming out. What, you're not bothered in the slightest? Me neither.

Franz Ferdinand - Went from Mecury-award winning, world dominating, stick-thin indie darlings to...well...**tumbleweeds rolling by**.

Razorlight - I'll be the first to admit, their first album is class. I still stand by that. However, since then, like some Voltron-like menace, Johnny Borrell became, simply put, the biggest arsehole in the universe. Plus "America" could be the worst song of the decade.

The Zutons - Again, amazing first album. Incredible live act. Fell off the face of the earth.

Kings of Leon - I'm thinking of a phrase, one that defines where you sacrifice everything you ever believed in for monetary gain. It'll come to me...give it a minute.

The Coral - No-one cares, but in my opinion these boys are still great. I'll put it down to poor marketing.

Bloc Party - Cracking in 2004. Progressively worse since. However they were quite mindblowing at Glasto 2009, I'll give them that.

The Killers - Oh how I miss the Hot Fuss days. Remember, when they wrote tunes?

Editors - Never that great. The world soon found out.

Athlete - Proof that enough V Festival appearances can actually turn you into a steaming hot turd.

Hard-Fi - Rock for young offenders? What could go wrong?

Keane - After Tommy-kins got all charlie'd up, the first casualty was their music. Which now sounds like Yazz...eating a dry weetabix.

Ordinary Boys, Starsailor, Snow Patrol...the list goes on.

Thus leaving it to two bands who have breezed through the test of time and must now surely stand as the two best bands from this forgotten era. Step forward Kasabian and the Arctic Monkeys. They alone stand head and shoulders above their contemporaries, making great music and pushing the envelope every time. Good work chaps.

Maybe I'm romanticising the whole time out of proportion. Maybe it's unrealistic to expect all of these bands to move with the times and keep bringing out good shit. Who knows? All I know is that it was fun while it lasted and the tunes live on.

Peace

JB.