Today I woke to the news that one of my favourite bands of all time, The Strypes, had announced their split. With music released not so long ago and touring seeming to be frequent, this was not something I thought was on the cards for a band I love so much. To say I’m sad is an understatement. It felt wrong not to dedicate a post to them after this awful news, as with all the Radiohead and Led Zeppelin talk that comes with the music content on my blog, it felt right that I should write a post wholly for them, as they certainly deserve the recognition - for a personal blog I must mention the things that mean the world to me, and this band really is one of them.
My first memory of The Strypes was in my best friend’s house. We were about 15 years old and finally starting to develop from the world of cheesy pop music and One Direction obsession into more alternative music. We were watching various music videos on YouTube, sharing all the ‘cool’ new music we’d been discovering, and she showed me the ‘Blue Collar Jane’ video by The Strypes, the first I had heard of the band. I was instantly transfixed by the catchy tune and couldn’t believe how talented these four boys were when they were evidently very young. From this moment on I discovered more of the band’s music and became infatuated with watching their live performances, interviews, and learning about their lives.
When their debut album Snapshot was released, before the time where any Apple Music or Spotify subscription was tangible, I remember going into HMV and using the little pocket money I had to buy the CD, coming home to tell my parents how cool they were and how I was going to play it nonstop. Understandbly sceptical given my Directioner ways that I was only just starting to shake off, I stuck the album on in the car while my dad drove me to my guitar lesson one Saturday morning, and he was pleasantly surprised, singing along to each song by the second chorus.
Another memory I remember of The Strypes was how excited I was that they had gotten a Glastonbury set in 2013, and rewatched the set over and over again on BBC iPlayer until they got rid of it, never getting sick of watching my faves perform, doing what they did best in their snazzy suits, Ross in his quintessential sunglasses and Josh ripping the audience to shreds with his guitar solos.
With my obsession well and truly instilled in me, you can imagine my absolute joy when I found out The Strypes were going to be the main support for the Arctic Monkeys AM tour that I was going to, AND the day landed on my sixteenth birthday - the birthday that I received my Gibson Les Paul Junior, what a day. To my absolute delight they played almost the identical set from my beloved Glastonbury performance. Making this day EVEN better, I tweeted them just before the gig started and got a reply (it was probably totally their manager or something but I was well excited). I remembered this fact a few months ago and tweeted about it again, and they replied again! As is obvious, I have a lot of happy memories attached to these four Irish lads.
From this performance onwards I was fully invested in this band’s career, keeping up with everything they did and made. From the EP in 2014 Four Track Mind that I exhausted from release date, to by far my favourite of their offerings, 2015 album Little Victories, which harbours one of my favourite songs of all time ‘A Good Night’s Sleep and a Cab Fare Home’, as well so many other amazing tunes that I always find myself returning to. By their latest release in 2017 Spitting Image which I waited for with bated breath until release date, I was prepared for new music off this band every year for as long as possible, making this split announcement even more devastating for me.
Having often been fans of bands that were popular in the 60s and 70s, I am more accustomed with bands being already split up or band members passing away. It is a whole different feeling knowing that a band who I thought were just on the precipice of a brilliant and fruitful career, so young and with so many more milestones to come, have decided to split. While on one hand I always thought that this band really did deserve international stardom and more mainstream exposure, I always enjoyed the fact that they were a little more of a secret, and now that they’re over, I have a sentimentality towards them that not many people will have. And what’s more is that, whilst it’s devastating that no more new music is being made, I will always have the existing music to enjoy whenever I please, reminiscing on how I felt when I first heard it.
It makes me pretty sad that the AM tour ended up being the only time I saw them live (again with my assumption that they were only getting started, I thought I’d have many an opportunity to see them), but I still feel privileged to have been a small part of their journey and keeping up with their successes and milestones has been an absolute pleasure.
Sad this news certinaly is, but all I can hope is that whatever the members want to gain and pursue post this split, I very much hope they do. Being so young and with this amazing band under their belt, I’m sure that their coming lifetime is going to be full of incredible opportunities, and I will definitely be keeping up with their post-Strypes pursuits.
Thank you for coming on this journey of nostalgia with me, it has definitely been therapy for me to get over this sad sad news. If you were also a fan of these guys I hope you could relate to my reminisces, and if you’re not so familiar PLEASE check these guys out - just because they’re splitting up doesn’t mean that they’re amazing music can’t still be appreciated, and it certainly should.
The Strypes! I love you!
H x
My first memory of The Strypes was in my best friend’s house. We were about 15 years old and finally starting to develop from the world of cheesy pop music and One Direction obsession into more alternative music. We were watching various music videos on YouTube, sharing all the ‘cool’ new music we’d been discovering, and she showed me the ‘Blue Collar Jane’ video by The Strypes, the first I had heard of the band. I was instantly transfixed by the catchy tune and couldn’t believe how talented these four boys were when they were evidently very young. From this moment on I discovered more of the band’s music and became infatuated with watching their live performances, interviews, and learning about their lives.
When their debut album Snapshot was released, before the time where any Apple Music or Spotify subscription was tangible, I remember going into HMV and using the little pocket money I had to buy the CD, coming home to tell my parents how cool they were and how I was going to play it nonstop. Understandbly sceptical given my Directioner ways that I was only just starting to shake off, I stuck the album on in the car while my dad drove me to my guitar lesson one Saturday morning, and he was pleasantly surprised, singing along to each song by the second chorus.
Another memory I remember of The Strypes was how excited I was that they had gotten a Glastonbury set in 2013, and rewatched the set over and over again on BBC iPlayer until they got rid of it, never getting sick of watching my faves perform, doing what they did best in their snazzy suits, Ross in his quintessential sunglasses and Josh ripping the audience to shreds with his guitar solos.
With my obsession well and truly instilled in me, you can imagine my absolute joy when I found out The Strypes were going to be the main support for the Arctic Monkeys AM tour that I was going to, AND the day landed on my sixteenth birthday - the birthday that I received my Gibson Les Paul Junior, what a day. To my absolute delight they played almost the identical set from my beloved Glastonbury performance. Making this day EVEN better, I tweeted them just before the gig started and got a reply (it was probably totally their manager or something but I was well excited). I remembered this fact a few months ago and tweeted about it again, and they replied again! As is obvious, I have a lot of happy memories attached to these four Irish lads.
From this performance onwards I was fully invested in this band’s career, keeping up with everything they did and made. From the EP in 2014 Four Track Mind that I exhausted from release date, to by far my favourite of their offerings, 2015 album Little Victories, which harbours one of my favourite songs of all time ‘A Good Night’s Sleep and a Cab Fare Home’, as well so many other amazing tunes that I always find myself returning to. By their latest release in 2017 Spitting Image which I waited for with bated breath until release date, I was prepared for new music off this band every year for as long as possible, making this split announcement even more devastating for me.
Having often been fans of bands that were popular in the 60s and 70s, I am more accustomed with bands being already split up or band members passing away. It is a whole different feeling knowing that a band who I thought were just on the precipice of a brilliant and fruitful career, so young and with so many more milestones to come, have decided to split. While on one hand I always thought that this band really did deserve international stardom and more mainstream exposure, I always enjoyed the fact that they were a little more of a secret, and now that they’re over, I have a sentimentality towards them that not many people will have. And what’s more is that, whilst it’s devastating that no more new music is being made, I will always have the existing music to enjoy whenever I please, reminiscing on how I felt when I first heard it.
It makes me pretty sad that the AM tour ended up being the only time I saw them live (again with my assumption that they were only getting started, I thought I’d have many an opportunity to see them), but I still feel privileged to have been a small part of their journey and keeping up with their successes and milestones has been an absolute pleasure.
Sad this news certinaly is, but all I can hope is that whatever the members want to gain and pursue post this split, I very much hope they do. Being so young and with this amazing band under their belt, I’m sure that their coming lifetime is going to be full of incredible opportunities, and I will definitely be keeping up with their post-Strypes pursuits.
Thank you for coming on this journey of nostalgia with me, it has definitely been therapy for me to get over this sad sad news. If you were also a fan of these guys I hope you could relate to my reminisces, and if you’re not so familiar PLEASE check these guys out - just because they’re splitting up doesn’t mean that they’re amazing music can’t still be appreciated, and it certainly should.
The Strypes! I love you!
H x
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