Picture it, you’re in a band, drifting along, not really knowing what do next. A bit of advice wouldn’t go a miss right? Well what if that advice was to come from, say, one of the most influential men in British music? That’s the envious position London based band The Sessions found themselves in recently when lead singer Taz Allie struck up a friendship with Creation records founder Alan McGee.
“I met him on Myspace” explains Allie. “I was aware of who he was through bands like Primal Scream and Creation records. I knew of Death Disco [McGee’s club night] and stumbled across his page on myspace. London at the time was suffering from a post punk hangover; everywhere you tried to play was full of shouty bands playing absolute shit. Some were good but most were bad, I love punk and this certainly wasn't it, it was punk lite. I was looking through the Death Disco gig list and I noticed that there were no London bands playing so I sent him an email saying something along the lines of "how hard is it to get a gig down at Death Disco. You've got bands from villages I've never heard of playing and yet a local band can’t get a sniff" and I signed it "maybe it’s because I'm a Londoner".
McGee replied to the email within five minutes with "hard actually and maybe it’s because you’re a Londoner, I wouldn't boast about, the only two decent bands to come out of London since 77’ were The Clash and The Libertines"
“I laughed at that and thought I'd have a bit of banter” says Allie “I wrote back "I thought they were the same band" and it went from there really, we just hit it off, I liked the bloke straight away which is unusual for me, he offered us a gig and it went from there. Now he's a good mate”
So what advice has the man behind bands like Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Teenage Fan Club given to the band?
“He's given us loads of advice and it’s always on the money,” says Allie. “When we were getting offered record deals he told us to do it ourselves if we could. That’s the best bit of advice we've had because it means that we don’t have to answer to anyone or pander to someone’s tastes. One thing I've learned is that most people at major labels don’t even listen to music so trying to satisfy them, you're fighting a losing battle from the off. Now we're in a position where we can make the records we want and that to me is the most amazing thing and something I didn't think was possible. That said, if someone comes in and offers me several million pounds I'll play Kylie numbers, in fact that might make a nice change…”
The Sessions have been regulars on the London gigging scene for over six years. The band is made up of Allie, Dale West, Richard Bold, Louis McGovern and Dave Stebbings. For more info check out their MySpace page www.myspace.com/thesessionsuk
