New Blood: Clean George IV

Clean George IV have only played a handful of gigs but already they've set tongues wagging across Britain. Clean George is the architect of the project, he is a man with a message and the delivery of his music is rancorous.

The band formed in London, where George was working in a studio. His old band had split, leaving him with a back catalogue of tracks he felt merited another lease of life. Hand picking the best and brightest from the hordes that passed through the studio door, Clean George IV was set in motion.
George is the alpha-male in this animalistic post punk/rock ensemble.

Despite being based in the spiritual home of the chimney sweep (London), the songs are performed with a Scottish accent and a nod to the band's Celtic foundation. This led to wild heckling when playing in Liverpool, with shouts of Runrig from the foolhardy crowd. The last time I checked, Runrig did not sing about the various dispositions a healthy appetite for narcotics can bring about.

There is something grim and gritty yet entirely striking about this collective, who have nevertheless achieved plaudits from Radio 1 where they were placed in Colin Murray's top 25 singles of the year for their debut release: First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Woman." They ooze old fashioned rock'n'roll style combined with that inherently Scottish trait of loathing the society that made them what they are. "Generally speaking, there's always an awful amount of dross and a couple of good things anywhere in the western world," says George, commenting the music scene in Scotland.

2007 is proving to be the year that Clean George gain at least a slice of the popularity and notoriety that they so richly deserve. Their forthcoming single, Wasted on the Radio (due to emerge through Edinburgh independent Blackspring Records) has undergone a radio edit in order for it to be played without a sprinkling of those silences where colourful prose would normally interject. They play the Wickerman Festival in Dundrennan and Nastyfest in Leeds this summer and hope to tour following the release of their album, which is pencilled in for late July.

On the face of it, Clean George IV are not an evangelical band, but they have a message to deliver, and they do so in a way that feels authentic. The lyrics have the ability to make you laugh but recoil in horror and fear at the same time. They may make you dance but they want to make you think - and this is a rare and commendable attribute in our current climate.