Pete & The Pirates

by Jon Fletcher

Quirky yet hugely diverse band that exudes emotion in all its guises

"Sanders frequently dashes off into warbled falsetto that has echoes of Win Butler and the band shares the Arcade Fire’s shouted, hand clap melodrama, but there the similarities end."

NN first heard of Pete & The Pirates indirectly, when a Rough Trade email dedicated to their label, the superb Brighton-based Stolen Recordings, heaped praise on ‘Lanzafame’, a record by an artist we’d never heard of before called Tap Tap. So glowing was their recommendation, we immediately ordered the album.

For once, the product lived up to the promises – a record of quirky yet hugely diverse material that exuded emotion in all its guises. Hidden in the folds of the fractured DIY recording were songs that were both hugely uplifting and imbued with a heart rending melancholy. Listening to the album is like reliving all the memories of your childhood on fast forward. Tap Tap, it turned out, is the solo project of Tommy Sanders – the Pirates’ understated frontman.

Many of the early Tap Tap reviews picked up on likenesses to Arcade Fire, no doubt driven partly by opening track ‘100,000 Thoughts’. In vocal delivery, there is something in this – Sanders frequently dashes off into warbled falsetto that has echoes of Win Butler. The band also shares the Arcade Fire’s shouted, handclap melodrama, which makes them as enticing a live proposition as the Canadians ever were, but there the similarities end.


Hand clap melodrama | The inter-song chat is limited, but that doesn't stop Pete & The Pirates being an exciting band to watch

The boundary between Tap Tap and Pete and the Pirates is a rather artificial one. The full band plays a number of the songs from ‘Lanzafame’ live (including the glorious ‘She Doesn’t Belong’) and when they’re onstage, front man and musicians seem to function very much as one.

When groups name check a band member in their moniker, there’s a tendency to view the rest of the band almost as session musicians – a dispensable adjunct to the main event. That would be a mistake in this case, not least because the band boasts two Petes - Peter Cattermoul, the bass player, and Peter Hefferan, one of the band's two guitarists. This technical quibble aside, a visit to the band's Myspace reveals that the rest of the band are talented buggers in their own right, all but  guitarist David Thorpe boasting Myspace pages of their own. A listen to their individual compositions sheds a great deal of light on how the Pirates' generate their frenetic sound.

That said, the full band also brings something new, a much rockier edge than their respective solo material. When I saw them headlining the revamped Brick Lane Music Festival two days after the Fandango show, this grittier sound was particularly noticeable. In contrast, when they played at Latitude Festival in July, the delivery was far more thoughtful, allowing the nuances and quirks of the songs to shine through. Whether this was intentional or not we don’t know, but on both occasions style and circumstance were perfect bedfellows – last weekend’s show in an overheated and cramped 93 Feet East demanding short, sharp blows to the head; the seated mid-afternoon audience in Suffolk required something far more considered.


Sanders: the right man | Go and see them, for Pete's sake [sorry]

And if you’re for some reason still unconvinced, this is band that can do heartfelt and light hearted in equal measure. Take the two minute chant-blast of ‘The Wrong Man’ – the B-side to current single ‘Knots’. A highlight of the live show, the song features a distorted rising bass riff and the shouted lyrics, “You’re in bed with the wrong man baby / You’re in bed with the wrong man, yeah / How’d you let him talk you into it lady? / How’d you let him talk you into it? Yeah!”

On stage, all of this is delivered with vigour but no bluster. The inbetween song chitchat is almost non-existent, yet there is constant movement and as a frontman, Sanders’ quiet composure is strangely captivating. Go and watch them live and when the album finally arrives, go and buy it. This lot are bloody marvellous.

All photos © Jon Fletcher / New Noise Ltd
Jerome said on September 19th 2007 [report abuse]

So you like them then?

katie k said on October 2nd 2007 [report abuse]

Bloody marvellous indeed!

jjohnston said on November 16th 2007 [report abuse]

stolen recordings are based in london!!

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