Local Bands

Armed with nothing but my trusty BBC dictaphone (actually it's one of those new-fangled PDA things but I can't remember what that stands for!) and camera, I venture into what I expect to be the cooler than cool world of Yeadon's very own answer to Oasis: South View Juniors.

I arrive at the Cockpit just in time to watch them sound check for their show later that evening. After a very brief, but incredibly polite introduction to each member of the band, I take a step back and let the Cockpit's sound engineer work his magic. 'This ones just for you!' beams front man Ben Stanhope, as they launch into some new material. After twenty minutes or so, the engineer seems happy - so we head upstairs to their dressing room to have a chat.

After spending many an evening in my misspent youth in dressing rooms, I expect a plethora of beer cans, dirty socks, broken guitar strings and questionable reading material. But no, it's pretty tidy - although this maybe due to the fact that it's early in the day, and they are yet to properly tuck into the free beer.

Named after their Yeadon Junior School, South View Juniors clearly mean business. In their present incarnation, Ben and Jon Stanhope, Andy Young, Adam Price and Pete Love, only formed about ten months ago. In this short time they seem to have gathered quite a following in Leeds and surrounding areas, culminating in their first headline slot at the Cockpit.

Their sound is somewhere between The Who and The Jam juxtaposed with the Manchester sound of Oasis and the Stone Roses. Where Oasis gave us the grumpy, paparazzi-punching Gallagher brothers, South View Juniors' Stanhope brothers are happy chaps with normal childhoods, and always just wanted to be in 'a proper lads band'. They’d play their songs at family barbeques and their family would say 'You've got to do something with those, they are really good'.

In comparison to other bands that have working the gigging circuit for years and years, why and how have South View Juniors got to the point where they are headlining one of Leeds' premier venues? The answer, according to them is: "Just keep bugging promoters, you've got to have a bit of flannel, I think a lot of bands are scared to ask, to hassle people. Also promoters will book you if you can sell the tickets. Our first show at the Cardigan Arms in October 2008 was rammed, we told everyone we knew, everyone we met that we were playing and pretty much everyone turned up - people were queuing out the door. Of course you've got to have the tunes to back it up, though, which we think we have!"

Their songs reference growing up in Yeadon, a wistful look at times past. I asked them if it was important to them to acknowledge their northern background: "The fact is we all had great childhoods. In one of our songs we talk about buying crisps and cherryade in George's sweet shop in Yeadon. We think that's what music should be about, it should be uplifting, maybe a little retrospective - it's about taking people back to their childhoods, reminding them of the good times in their life."

"People need that now. They need something to cling too. There are people out there that have finished university and can't get jobs, the government are absolutely appalling and don't give a damn, the world is such a different place. We believe, like one of our songs says, that we are the 'Last Generation'. We were the last generation to buy records, tapes and CDs, it's all downloaded now, people don't have to do anything anymore, everything is just there at the click of a button."

I asked the boys what they thought of bands on the current music scene in Leeds: "They think its ultra cool to be rubbish. They all walk around with their massive wavy haircuts, skin-tight trousers and snooker cue shoes - no one has musical heroes anymore. When we were growing up we had icons - John Lennon, David Bowie, John Lydon - no-one has that anymore, that's what we want. Hopefully in a few years time, we hope that people will want to be us."

South View Juniors certainly have their sights set high. There is definitely a buzz about them, they have had a fair amount of press coverage in quite a short space of time, bands in Leeds love them with local lads Shakinouts saying they are one of their favourite bands. Their music definitely has commercial appeal, but not so much that it isn't credible. They are great chaps, they have vision and the drive to make a success of their band, but crucially, the fans seem to love them and their music clearly speaks to people - uplifting and positive but undeniably rock'n'roll!