** Music News Exclusive **
Whatever preconceptions you may have of Towers of London, they will all change within seconds of listening to their new single 'Shot In The Dark'. You won't be able to shift the opening guitar riff from your head for days. And listening to the lyrics, it's soon evident that Towers have ripened and matured and are back with a positive mind shift and with a heart that they're not afraid to show.
Now under the management of industry great Alan McGee, most famously known for his associations with many successful acts; The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Oasis, and The Libertines, to name a few, could Towers be the next successful name to add to McGee’s roster?! He seems to think so… "I've been following these guys for a while - they've now grown up, sorted their shit out but importantly they still retain their bite. This album blows the shit out of what they've done in the past!".
The mid 2000s was a great time for live music in the UK. Bands such as the Futureheads, The Rakes and The Libertines took the gig circuit by storm and kept British guitar music alive and kicking. Towers of London crashed onto that circuit headlong. One of Music News' earliest memories of Towers is from a now legendary night at the (sadly no more) London Astoria.
Towers opened up for Babyshambles and it quickly became apparent they were there to give the sold-out crowd their moneys worth with a raucous set oozing attitude and killer riffs. The set culminated in lead singer Donny scaling a towering (see what I did there?) speaker stack and reaching the safety of the stage again only thanks to the help of a curtain that he slid/ripped down to the floor. It was just as well Towers made such an impression as Babyshambles didn't show that night, which resulted in a small scale riot....but that's a story for another day.
Towers of London were not a band to sit on the fence about, you either loved or hated them, and the feeling was certainly mutual. They came, they rocked, they fought, they had their own reality show (before The Kardashians even thought about it), they supported Guns 'n' Roses, they sent Donny into the Big Brother house and he offended everyone then quickly scarpered back over the wall. Towers courted controversy but kind of lost direction.
What never got lost in that drunken hazy destructive past was the music. The strength of Towers was always their killer live performances and strong songwriting ability. It's clear none of that ability has been lost with 'Shot In The Dark'
Music News caught up with the band recently to ask them a few questions about their well overdue return.
Please can you tell us a bit more about the connection with
"I (Donny) got introduced to one of the founders of the company when we were out recording our album in LA. Straight away we hit it off and ended up having a bit of a wild night out together. He told us about his Facebook page that’s all about creating & sharing inspiring content...and counteracting the negativity from the mainstream media with positivity. I told him about how the band had decided to give it one last go at following our dreams and how we’d all had a pretty rough time of it but against the odds had managed to get out to LA to make this record. I ended up sending him over the album and he fell in love with 'Shot in the Dark'. The song is all about picking yourself up in hard times and moving forward against all odds, so it worked perfectly with the Brightvibes ethos. It was one of the first songs we wrote for the new album and It gave us the belief that all our hard work was paying off, that we could pull ourselves back up on our feet again. We really couldn’t have thought of a more perfect place to launch the track from. Love BrightVibes, it's worth a quick follow on fb from anyone if you'd like to be inspired."
How did you guys end up under the management of Alan McGee. What does that mean for the band moving forward, and have you already benefited from the huge experience of such a legend? If so, how?
"We’ve known Alan since we played one of his Death disco nights back in 05. We’re massive Oasis fans so have known all about what Alan’s achieved in music and just how much of a legend he is. Donny met up with him a couple times a few years ago about some other stuff not music related and they’ve always stayed in touch. When we finished the album we thought we would send it to him to see what he thought. Anyway, we didn’t hear back from him so we just thought he wasn’t into it. It wasn’t until a friend of a friend met him raving about our new record we had just made. The next day Alan’s on the phone to Donny asking if he could resend it as It got deleted somehow. It wasn’t until the band and Alan met that he said that he thought Donny was just on a mad bender when he first sent the album to him at 3 o’clock in the morning. Telling him it’s the fucking nuts and to sign it. Now here we are, he signed it. The Universe moves in mysterious ways. Alan and his partner Simon at Creation Management are doers just like us boys, and they’re willing to put their necks on the line. Towers is not an easy sell, we upset quite a lot of people first time around, but we were also loved by a lot of people. Creation have fallen in love with our new record just as we have and they think people should hear it. They’ve already had to rein us in a little bit as we’re so desperate to get the record out. They want to build it like a new band would do and I guess when you think about it, us guys have been away for so long...that’s essentially what we are."
You have a couple of dates coming up to promote the single. We're hoping you have plans for a more extensive UK tour, can you give us any hints as to when this may be and how extensively you plan to tour the UK and beyond? Europe? USA ?
"Yeah we’ve got one show in Camden on the 7th December then one in Manchester on the 9th December. It’s been a couple years since we’ve played London so really looking forward to it. And Manchester has always been hectic every time we’ve been up there. There’s talk of getting a tour together for spring next year but nothings booked yet. It’s where us guys are at home most playing on stage, so there’s gonna be a lot of gigging next year that’s for sure. Whether it’s in the UK Europe or US, we’re keen to play it all."
Is the album complete, mixed and ready for release or are there still finishing touches to be done. What sort of time frame are we looking at before we can expect the album release?
"It’s all done and dusted and ready to go sitting in our little vault. We’re just waiting on McGee to give us the green light to launch. Hoping for a spring release. Just in time for the festivals!"
The single is already getting plenty of radio play and Music News has heard it's stadium friendly riff being used on a premier league football show, so the two gigs coming up are sure to sell out fast...
Thu 7 Dec Crowndale Club, Camden, UK
Sat 9 Dec Night People, Manchester, UK
Recorded in LA's Korea Town 'Shot in the Dark’ is released on the 17th November 2017, with the video funded by the motivational and positivity Facebook page 'Bright Vibes'. The Towers forthcoming album ‘Super Sounds Of K-Town’ will be released spring 2018.
