Slough Observer | The Guide | Cribling rivalry

Wednesday, 9th July, 2008

Published: Thursday, 31st January, 2008 17:30

Cribling rivalry

By James Kell

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WAKEFIELD’S finest The Cribs should by rights be absolutely huge by now.

Their third album, Men’s Needs Women’s Needs Whatever, featured near the top in almost every end-of-year poll to find 2007’s best album, and the insanely catchy title track Men’s Needs was a hugely popular single with critics.

But they remain indie treasures, as dear to their obsessive fan base as any band could be, but just missing out on the commercial success of their piers.

However, February could see them finally hit the big time with headline-billing on the NME Awards tour and a huge one-off NME Awards Show in London’s O2 Arena, where they share the bill with Bloc Party and the Manic Street Preachers.

But you sense it wouldn’t particularly bother the outspoken Jarman brothers Ryan, Gary and Ross if they didn’t go on to shift the same number of units as the bands they frequently lash out at in the press for courting the mainstream.

The youngest Jarman, drummer Ross, spoke to The Guide ahead of an NME Awards tour gig in Oxford.

He said: “When we first started, we never expected to play a venue like the O2, we didn’t even intend on getting signed – we were just doing it for fun, we were trying to keep it organic.

“When we were kids our house was burgled and we had our Nintendo nicked, so the one thing we had left to do was mess around with these instruments.

“We used to practice in Ryan’s room and we recorded some demos for the fun of it, and it just went from there.”

For The Cribs, the upcoming NME tour will be their third, having stolen the show on the New Bands Tour in 2004 and the Rock and Roll Riot tour in 2005, but Ross says to be given headline billing this time around was still a surprise.

He said: “You always make a lot of friends on these tours and you get to spend a lot of time with the people so it’s nice, but I wouldn’t say we’re the obvious choice to headline it.”

This time round The Cribs will be joined by Does It Offend You Yeah?, Vampire Weekend, Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong and The Ting Tings, also tipped for big things in 2008.

But when asked about the crop of bands dubbed ‘The Sound of 2008’, which including the likes of current Oxford indie darlings Foals, Ross says: “I try and keep myself away from all the hype about new bands to be honest, a lot of it gets a bit much, I’m listening to a band called Shrag at the moment that most people have probably never heard of and that’s fine, I try and discover things for myself rather than have it rammed down my throat.”

As for The Cribs’ plans following the NME Tour, Ross said: “I think the next thing we are going to do is another collaboration with (Sonic Youth guitarist) Lee Ranaldo and probably release an EP around the time of the festivals, and we’re also going to tour the US.”

Last year saw The Cribs play three remarkable shows at Leeds’ Brudunel Social Club.

Not only did the tiny venue struggle to hold their adoring fans, but the fortunate faithful were also treated to a surprise support slot each night in the shape of Kate Nash, Kaiser Chiefs and Franz Ferdinand (whose singer Alex Kapranos produced Men’s Needs Women’s Needs Whatever)

Ross said: “We thought we’d really give people a surprise and we knew Kate and Franz and they were happy to do it so it was great, and everyone went mental when they walked out which was fantastic for us.”

The unpredictability of a Cribs live show is approaching legendary status.

At a previous awards bash, singer Ryan stagedived onto a table full of glasses, cutting himself badly and narrowly avoiding serious injury.

The more unhinged aspects of the band’s performance will be something long term Cribs devotees will be no doubt looking forward to as they hit the road next month.

The NME Awards Tour comes to Oxford’s Carling Academy on February 17.

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