‘In the city it’s alright…’
In episode seven of 22 Grand Pod, the new podcast from Harry H and former Paddingtons frontman Tom Aitkin, NME journalist Mark Beaumont laments the fact that the garage rock scene that dominated British guitar music in the ’00s was never given an all encompassing label like britpop or grunge. To my mind, this is perhaps the sole reason why that era doesn’t get the respect it deserves. While the main bands from that period are well known (Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, The Libertines etc), there were so many exciting guitar bands at that time who have either been forgotten or unfairly branded with the ‘landfill indie’ tag so beloved of that era’s detractors. 22 Grand Pod is an attempt to rectify this situation by sitting down with some of the big names who lived through it all, and just about lived to tell the tale.
With guests as diverse as the Futureheads‘ unfailingly polite guitarist Ross Millard to bona fide madman and all round maniac Kyle Falconer (The View), 22 Grand Pod is a deep dive into an age that was formative for me personally, but also important both culturally and musically. Looking back at it now, it’s hard to overstate just how many kids were walking around in Libertines jackets with massive fringes, but with this podcast, Harry H and Tom Aitkin have provided more than just a nostalgia trip. There is also an attempt to analyse what went wrong with the UK indie scene as well as a bid to collate every guests’ Liam Gallagher story – which can only be a good thing.
With 11 episodes released so far (I’d particularly recommend the Gary Jarman double ep) this is the perfect time to get in on the ground floor with 22 Grand Pod. It might be a little much for anyone who didn’t live through that particular scene at that particular time, but for me, it is a reminder of all those bands that were mine. The bands who soundtracked every night out, every road trip and every poker night.
Halcyon days indeed.