painting bus stops
The story behind this band follows the pattern of many others. They met at university. They all realised they had different musical talents. They decided to form a band.
During my time at university I came across many boys who thought they could become rock stars and grabbed people who weren’t great at playing their instruments and tried to form a band. It’s a pipedream for most people.
However Painting Bus Stops are different. They met in 2008, decided to live in a large house together and instantly created their own sound.
In May 2009 Painting Bus Stops popped into their student union at Glamorgan University and played a few of their new tunes. To keep it light-hearted they mixed in a cover of the Arctic Monkey’s hit “I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor”. This was filmed and then for a laugh uploaded onto YouTube. A year later and the video has racked up over 10,000 views, with comments like “It’s nice, guys. Probably the best band cover of this song I’ve seen here? in YouTube” and “I don’t know who you are but you have made my day.” A few have even commented on the boys floppy haircuts claiming that they look like The Beatles.
These five young lads have performed in multiple venues around Cardiff and in Swansea and have received an incredible reaction. Their last gig on the 16th July the boys played a venue named Sin City in Swansea. They were there supporting Mike Fantastic, a band who’ve been featured on Britain’s Got Talent.
Their set kicked off to an awesome start with their song “ Daylight Robbery“, which gives you an idea to what the rest of the set will sound like. Callum and Scott, the guitarists, are, at such a young age, amazingly talented, they’re not fazed by the spotlight and get stuck right into it. The singer Richard is full of energy, you can see he’s the sort of front man who just comes alive on stage, and he took the crowd with him. The guys at the back Josh, a skilled drummer, and bassist Nathan keep things together whilst playing as if their lives depended on it. All in all they’re a brilliant fit, and the fact that they’re all friends makes it even better.
During the set the audience bounced along to their tunes and even helped sing along when they covered Keisha’s “Tik Tok”. Nearing the end of their set a boy came over and told them that their time was up, but the crowd was not having it. A chorus of “ONE MORE SONG!” erupted, and so the boys started up again only to find their microphones had been cut off. Boos then surfaced and after some more chanting their mics were turned back on and they were allowed to continue their encore.
-For a band that have been together around 2 years the boys were ecstatic, they’d never received such a crazed reception. Their Facebook page told their fans that it was “literally the best night ever” and thanked the people who came down saying they were “just incredible”. I was there, and for a band, who has only played a handful of gigs, the reaction was amazing, they should be encouraged by that.
The inspiration behind the lyrics are about getting hammered and the “banter” which seems to be their word of the moment, it’s even a song title! A favourite of mine is ‘Daylight Robbery’ the chorus has been in my head ever since hearing it a week ago. A great thing about this band is that they don’t take themselves too seriously, they’re having a laugh and at this stage they can do.
Their next gig is at Sin City in Swansea on the 20th August. Tickets are £4 adv and can be purchased from a member of the band or on the door for a higher price. They are supporting the band The Commited for their last show ever and are also playing with City Of Ashes.
If you fancy checking them out click onto their Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/PaintingBusStopsOfficial
Or their Myspace.
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