Boys Keep Swinging

Having put in a strong bid for ‘Debut Album of 2004’ with Over The Counter Culture, you’d think that The Ordinary Boys would happily concur with those who have mentioned them as part of a new ‘Britpack’ bringing about a resurgence in the music scene across the water.

Lead singer Preston is having none of it though.

“I actually think the current British music scene is fairly shocking,”?he says sniffily. “I suppose part of it is that utter contempt for all other bands you tend to have when you’re in one yourself. But so many of them play pretentious, angular rubbish. I just really like songs. I’m not bothered about haircuts and that sort of thing.”

Confident and exuberant, punky and pissed off, their debut is full of witty lyrical attacks and pictures of everday British life, placing The Ordinary Boys in a classic lineage of quintessentially English acts like The Kinks, The Jam and Morrissey, with plenty of evidence of their early love of Britpop thrown in as well.

Stand-outs include ‘Weekend Revolution’ and ‘Talk Talk Talk’, which rails against the dangers of banal conversation with its “How’s the weather?/Grey and boring!/It’s back to work on/Monday morning!” terrace chant chorus.

Did Preston, 23, purposefully set out to show just how rubbish modern culture really is?

“I never realised I was doing that at the time,” he reflects. “I just wrote whatever was on my mind, using words I could understand. I don’t want to write flowery, pretentious lyrics. I hate bands that do that and just say ‘Oh, the lyrics can mean whatever you want’. That doesn’t have any meaning. Bands should be politically aware, should have their own viewpoints. Now there seems to be a scene of bands just doing crack cocaine. That’s not particularly cool at all.”

Taking their name from a song on Viva Hate, it’s unsurprising that the band happen to be massive Morrissey fans.

“He’s kind of untouchable,” Preston says of their shows with the great man. “He’s so shy offstage, and then really comes out of his shell when he’s performing. It’s not contrived at all, being onstage is his escapism.”

The boys also met ex-Specials man Terry Hall recently, coaxing him onstage to help out with their great cover of ‘Little Bitch’, while there’s also talk of a collaboration with Dizee Rascal on a “2-Tone meets UK garage kind of thing”.

Not content to rest on their laurels, the band are already back in the studio ahead of their Irish dates working on their next album.

“So many bands create this difficult second album syndrome, they make it a big deal and leave it for two years. But if you want to record as many albums as possible you have to do it quickly. So thankfully that’s what we’ve done.”

Not very ordinary at all, these boys.

The Ordinary Boys play Dolan’s Warehouse, Limerick (February 7)?and the Temple Bar Music Centre, Dublin (8).