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Hailing from
Newcastle Upon Tyne, Apollo are the brainchild of the brothers Lee and
Neil Picton, along with Andy Liscombe, Matt Sizer and Jack Williamson.
The band have
been creating quite a stir around the Newcastle area with their early U2
styled sound and when I recently caught the band live at Newcastle’s
Carling Academy, they were certainly living up to that reputation.
The album gets
underway with the title track ‘This Is My Town’ and straight away we're
thrown in the Apollo’s world of tight riffs and melodic vocals built
around a great rhythm section. The band have a great modern sound
that is so radio friendly it leaves me wondering why the band haven’t
already been picked up by the bigger labels, because they certainly have a
sound that reeks staying power and that’s something that is a miss in a
lot of the bands you hear on the commercial radio stations today.
The album
continues with ‘21g’, again a great melodic vibe wrapped around Picton’s
soulful vocals that are continually apparent throughout the entire album.
I can't find
fault with any aspect of this album except it doesn’t capture the band at
their best and that’s in the live arena, as the songs are more vibrant
live and to be honest this album just doesn’t do the band justice.
It’s a great album, but live the band are really a different animal.
Other highlights
of the album for me are the U2 inspired guitar sounding ‘Forget It’ on
which Liscombe really does the biz on this song. The excellent
darker edged ‘Carry Me Now’ and bluesy jazz tones of ‘Lay Dormant’, that
have that great late night early morning feel about them.
As I said before
I don’t know why this band haven’t been picked up before now and if there
is any justice in this business they will be by the end of the year. |
