Spotlight

Made up of Steven Ansell and Laura-Mary Carter, Blood Red Shoes formed in Brighton ten years ago, from the ashes of their respective bands; Cat on Form, who released two albums of hardcore punk music on Southern Records, and Lady Muck. Coming from the DIY scene, they organised a jam one day and within a few weeks had written some songs and organised a gig, such is the chemistry that immediately sparked into life. Hard working and with an unrivalled enthusiasm for music, their loud and energetic music is a mix of punk, post-punk and underground american rock and hardcore, drawing inspirations from the likes of Nirvana, Queen of the Stone Age, Fugazi and Sonic Youth. They've released four albums, toured the world many times over and  continue to win new fans with their lively stage shows and down-to-earth personas.

On a rare break, the Horsham raised Stephen is 'relaxing' in Brighton, catching up with friends, and looking forward to their last show of the year, as part of Drill:Brighton.

Back in 1997, after just one gig apparently, a bidding war erupted, with Gomez at the epicentre of it all. After playing to 25 labels, they settled on Hut Records, who then released the debut album Bring It On. Not only did it go platinum (300,000+ copies in the UK alone), it won the Mercury Music Prize the following year.

Ben Ottewell, one of three singers and four songwriters in the band, still smiles at the memory of it all. "It was very unexpected, and there was no time to catch your breath," says Ben, who has lived in Brighton for ten years. "I was a late comer to the band. The rest of the guys are from Southport (Ben is from Derbyshire), had grown up together and been writing and recording together for a couple of years before I joined. A mutual friend of ours had a tape of theirs (a tape!) and it already had the likes of Whipping Piccadilly and 78 Stone Wobble on it, pretty good stuff. I met Ian (Ball) in a bar through mutual friends – like a blind date – and we got friendly over Tom Waits and cheap beer. He heard me sing, we did a tape, the others heard it, and I was in.

Rewind to Glastonbury 1992. A different era, a different time; no mobiles, no social media, no internet. It was still regarded as a 'hippy' festival, nowhere near the kind of festival it is now, where more cappuccinos are consumed than pints (well, maybe…). For Brighton band the Levellers it was the moment they realised that they had made it, after only four years together as a band. But they didn't know it until they got to the stage, a daytime slot on the esteemed Pyramid Stage. "It was effectively our Glastonbury," says Mark Chadwick, singer, songwriter and guitarist with the band, as can be heard in the new and excellent documentary of the band, A Curious Life. "Even the media – who hated us – knew it. We didn't understand why everyone wanted to talk to us. They knew before we knew that we'd broken, that we'd made it. It was a shock, they knew all the words. It was absolutely nuts!"