Enemy At The Gate

By Joe Kavanagh

For some bands the road to the top is an arduous trek involving years of slogging it out in dingy clubs, often to one man and a disinterested dog. Even many of the so-called overnight successes have spent years toiling in anonymity and working on their set until someone in the media suddenly decides that they are worth staking a reputation on. There are however, rare examples of outfits whose rise to the top has been genuinely meteoric; bands such as Oasis or Arctic Monkeys whose celebrated journeys from obscurity to fame have been nothing short of astonishing.

Despite the fact that such an act only seems to come along once every decade, the UK's music media feels obliged to recreate this phenomenon every year with a technique that bears more than a passing resemblance to the stockbroking scam that is known as 'pump and dump', where a stock is cynically hyped up far beyond its actual value just long enough to generate a quick killing, only for it to collapse when its true worth becomes known at a later date. For every Oasis and Arctic Monkeys, there is a Menswear or Bluetones, whose talent never could meet the hype. Amongst the beneficiaries of this year's media circus are Coventry act, The Enemy, who are scarily being talked about as 'this year's Arctic Monkeys' only eight months after they formed.

The story of The Enemy begins in the rough Holbrooke area of Coventry in the English midlands, which is roughly the British equivalent of the 'flyover' that people talk about in the US when referring to the area between the east and west coasts.

Since the early 80s, the music industry has barely given a thought to the midlands as cities like Manchester, Liverpool and more recently Sheffield in the north and southern hubs such as London and Brighton have produced a steady stream of big name acts. Not since the halcyon days of ska music has Coventry really produced anything of musical note so Tom Clarke, Liam Watts and Andy Turner initially formed their band with little aspiration beyond attempting to escape the drudgery that often accompanies life in a city that has seen better days. As many of our UK readers will know, like an English Detroit, Coventry has seen its fate tied irrevocably to that of the auto industry and the closure of factories that once drove the local economy has had a startling effect on much of the local populace. Both Clarke and Turner's families have been directly effected by the job losses in the local auto factories, instilling in them a toughness and sense that there has to be more to life than giving your life over to some faceless corporation, only to have it summarily destroyed financially without warning. The band even have t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan 'F*** Peugot', such is the sense of injustice they feel at the behavior of the particular automaker directly responsible for the suffering of so many of their friends and family. The gloom also had the effect of infusing all three members with a strong desire to escape the fate that befell so many people around them. Like many other working-class kids they saw music as the only route available from a lifetime of working in a factory and Clarke often mentions the fact that he had to go to dozens of interviews just to get a job he hated.

Perhaps it has something to do with being the offspring of Irish immigrants in the UK, but like John Lydon, Morrissey and the Gallagher brothers before him, Clarke could never be accused of shying away from an opinion, and is capable of oozing equal parts charm and menace depending on how he perceives the question he is being asked, or even the person asking it. In a time in music when media managers groom so many acts to the point of inanity, Clarke is quotable, opinionated and capable of generating controversy in an empty room. Fast of tongue and fists he has already managed to make friends and foes in equal measure and is virtually certain to keep the band in the public spotlight with his words and deeds alone.

Of course none of this would matter without a coterie of songs to back it up and while the recorded evidence so far has been less than compelling, there are recent signs that the band will at least go some way towards meeting the hype.

In recent weeks new tracks like Away From Here and Pressure have appeared on their website and they definitely represent a significant step up in quality, thanks in part to the choice of producer Owen Morris (Oasis, Verve) who seems to have captured the vitality of their live set on record. Irrespective of what side of the debate you stand on, The Enemy are going to make a multitude of new friends when their debut album, Away From Here, finally does appear this April.