Following Klaxons‘ win at the 2007 Nationwide Mercury Music Prize last night (September 4) here is NME.COM‘s guide to the band.
The band’s story:
James Righton met Simon Taylor at school while third member Jamie Reynolds went to university with Taylor.
“We basically started this band with the aim to be a massive pop band and to get a record deal and be on ‘Top Of The Pops’,” Taylor told NME.COM of the band’s beginnings, not long after we first featured the band around 2005.
They trio released their debut single ’Gravity’s Rainbow’ in March 2006 on limited seven-inch vinyl, which was then followed by ’Atlantis To Interzone’ in June.
The band, along with the likes of New Young Pony Club and [bCSS were credited as inventing a new genre “New Rave” – a term the group first coined themselves, despite subsequently distancing themselves from the tag.
The New Rave tag stuck, in part, to do with the fact that the band covered rave classics ’The Bouncer’ and ’It’s Not Over Yet’ live, while fans at their live shows chucked neon glowsticks around at their gigs and wore bright fluro colours that recalled the 1990s rave scene.
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“We thought it would be quite funny to invent our own genre,” admitted Taylor of New Rave’s birth. “And then become kings of this genre!”
The group signed to Polydor to release their single ’MagicK’ in October 2006.
Klaxons‘ biggest chart success came in January of this year with ’Golden Skans’.
The single went Top Ten, followed by debut album ’Myths Of The Near Future’, which went to Number Two.
The band cemented their reputation with a series of show-stealing festival apperances this year, most notably as they packed out tents two year’s running at the Carling Weekend: Reading and Leeds festivals.
They also headlined the Shockwaves NME Awards Indie Rave Tour, forming strong friendships with the supporting bill, most notably with CSS with lead singer Taylor dating the Brazilian band’s Lovefoxxx.
Despite a successful festival season, the band did suffer a slight mishap when Jamie Reynolds staged dive in France and broke his ankle earlier this summer – explaing the Wayne Rooney-esque moon boot and crutches he wore with his chainmail dress to last night’s (September 4) ceremony.
Key quotes:
Jamie Reynolds on recording their debut album: “The next day we were convinced it’d sound terrible , but we played and it was MDMAzing!”
Simon Taylor on the band’s aims: “We basically started this band with the aim to be a massive pop band and to get a record deal and be on ‘Top Of The Pops’.”
Jamie Reynolds on his ambitions: “When I was young, the idea of pop music and fame was what saved me from going to school or whatever!”
Simon Taylor on the birth of New Rave: “We thought it would be quite funny to invent our own genre and become kings of this genre.”
Find more Klaxons material on NME.COM:
Read NME’s review of the band’s album ‘Myths Of The Near Future’.
Check out our review of their appearence at the Shockwaves NME Awards Indie Rave tour.
Read NME.COM’s last live review of the band from May.
Plus we have a have the band’s videos, interviews and a special documentary behind the scenes on the Shockwaves NME Awards Indie Rave Tour, which Klaxons headlined, on our media player now.
Simply head to the band’s artist page now and launch the media player.
See our exclusive behind-the scenes blog from the bash now.