THE LATEST in a long line of scuzzy guitar bands from up north, Co.uk (pronounced co-dot-you-kay) the name is derived from an Internet address) were formed in 1996 when singer/guitarist Joe Brush and drummer Rab O Neill hooked up with lanky bass player Chris Robinson and set about creating a right racket around the pubs, clubs and rehearsal rooms of Belfast.
After landing a publishing deal with BMG, the band disappeared into Mud Wallace s Homestead studios to record the sessions which eventually yielded the band s first single Influenced , out shortly on Bright Star.
A rowdy three-minute barrage of urchin punk-pop, the song is garnering good press and respectable airplay across the water, and was recently chosen as the XFM Breakfast Show record of the weekend. However, Co.uk are intent on adopting a stealth-bombing approach.
Really, what we would like to do is keep everything as low-down as possible, begins Joe, an impish bleach-bum with an endless supply of one-liners. Rab and Chris nod in agreement as they order a round of pints in the Temple Bar Music Centre.
If we come out dressed in ritzy-glitzy, fuckin yo-ho-ho gear, that s no good, he continues. But if we start out at street level, and work it step by step, then I think we ll get more street-cred, more shelf-life. We d rather be at the top of a small label s roster than the bottom of a big label s roster.
I think that was the idea about releasing a single through our publishers and not jumpin into a record deal. The single s doing really well within the business, but I was panickin because it s going to Radio 1 already. I was saying, Fuck, can we not just take our time about this? But that s the people workin behind us.
UGLY FACES
It s been suggested in music circles that if Dublin has the best venues in the country, then Belfast has a monopoly on all the fresh talent. What s it like living at the epicentre of the Norn Iron earthquake?
There is a new Belfast developing, and we re part of it, Joe confirms. It s exciting in a way, but then again, when you live there, you don t appreciate the change, you get used to it. But there are a lot of bands gettin their shit together up there.
But the attitude of the average punter in Belfast can be like, You can t be a poet in your own town , Rab counters. It s like, I wouldn t want to go see them, sure they live down the street from me.
So, gentlemen, why do so many Ulster bands favour a raw, garagey sound?
That s cos there s a shortage of rehearsal space, quips Joe. No, Watercress are doin some serious stuff, although they ve yet to find their niche. But all Belfast bands, even if they re copying someone else, at least they re not copying each other. They re not dressed in Oasis shirts, standing there twangin out the old shite.
After Co.uk s first burst of activity had abated in 96, and the band s demos were circulating throughout record company offices, Joe, with typical disregard for band strategy or long-term planning, took it into his head to sell all his worldly belongings and move to Lanzarote for six months. So, Mr Brush, what was that all about?
It was a last-minute thing, he explains. I got a phone call, I heard this bar was up for rent, so I sold everything in the house, put it on the first month s rent and went and done it. It was one of those stupid things that you do. I ve got itchy feet, I like the sun and I like lookin at tits on the beach better than ugly faces in Belfast. That s about the height of it.
Talk turns to the vagaries of celebrity, and the effect instant stardom could have on a band like Co.uk.
If we make it really big, Joe predicts, really, humungously big, bigger than U2, people are gonna find out sooner or later that Rab had an accident with a Labrador, and he was banged up for it in Thailand! Sooner or later things come out people just want to dig out the dirt!
Influenced is out now on Bright Star Recordings.