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Britpop legends Shed Seven have achieved a No 1 album for the first time, 30 years after the launch of their debut in 1994.
The York-formed band rose to fame alongside rock’n’roll friends together with Oasis and Blur, incomes a popularity for their raucous stay exhibits and claiming 15 prime 40 singles.
Weeks into their thirtieth anniversary yr, their sixth album A Matter of Time has topped the charts after its launch on 5 January, warding off competitors from Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi and pop star Taylor Swift.
“It’s taken us 30 years to get to this point, and it feels like we’re bigger and better than ever, which is crazy,” frontman Rick Witter advised The Independent.
“In the Nineties we were caught up in it all, battling away against everyone else. I think now we’ve kind of proved that we’re not just some flash in the pan.”
After splitting in 2003, Shed Seven reunited 4 years later for a biggest hits tour. In 2017, they launched their first album of unique materials in 16 years, Instant Pleasures.
“That last album really helped pave the way for A Matter of Time,” Witter, 51, mentioned. “It was done totally on our terms – a lot of it was written in [guitarist Paul Bank’s] music room and bashed into shape.”
Shed Seven acting at a pageant in 1999
(PA)
Witter and Banks met at college aged 11, bonding over their mutual love of bands akin to Duran Duran and Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
As Shed Seven they had been joined by bandmates Tom Gladwin (bass) and drummer Alan Leach. Despite their successes, together with 5 hit songs in one yr (1996), they struggled amid fallouts with report labels who needed them to provide extra huge hits.
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The band additionally felt they had been underappreciated by the music press, who had been maybe extra occupied by the antics of the Gallagher brothers, and their rivalry with Blur frontman Damon Albarn.
“Back in the Nineties, we never had a front cover of NME,” Witter identified. “But while that can feel like you’re always the bridesmaid, never the bride, [we’ve proved] our longevity.”
Shed Seven: (*1*)s a very totally different beast, and the good thing is after we play these gigs, the new songs don’t stick out like sore thumbs. It’s given us an entire new lease of life, actually.”
Among the tracks on A Matter of Time is a collaboration with Peter Doherty, on closing track “Throwaways”.
Banks and Witter met The Libertines frontman at a pageant after recognizing him singing alongside to their tunes from the facet of the stage, forward of his personal band’s headline slot.
Doherty advised them he learnt their songs on the guitar in his childhood bed room, prompting them to ask him to collaborate.
“He said yes before he’d even heard the song,” Witter recalled. “Lyrically, that song is about outsiders, but ones who don’t really give a toss that they’re on the outside. And we went through that in the Nineties, and I think the Libertines did as well, so it’s a great match.”
Witter mentioned having a No 1 album as the band enters their thirtieth anniversary yr “bodes well for the future”.
“People of our generation are bringing their kids to our shows, and they look like they’re having a great time,” he mentioned. “If that keeps happening, we’ll be the new Rolling Stones!”
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