Album Review: Hello Wembley - Up Great Britain :: Wessex Scene Online

Album Review: Hello Wembley - Up Great Britain

22nd January 2008
Sam Hempsher- Monk

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Up Great Britain is the new E.P. from Reading's Hello Wembley, who make it their goal to attack the pretentious nature of the music industry along with the whole of British society.

Lead singer Alex claims, "We wanted to write songs that people can dance to - not long intros, outros or breakdowns". Judging from the musical performance here I doubt that Hello Wembley have the musical talent to write an intro in the first place, let alone a break down. "We realise that there's a lot of people who don't really listen to bands, they just look at them." It is ironic then, given their goal that I feel that, if only I could be one of those people who "don't really listen to bands," then I might actually like Hello Wembley. As it stands I am affronted with unimaginative chord progressions and a complete lack of anything approaching a melody. Mockney accents are here in abundance, spitting monotonous lyrics over a rhythm section that apparently has listened to nothing other than The Sex Pistols- who, incidentally, had more imagination (at least they were original).

The lack of variation proves that they mean what they say when they claim that "we want to write songs without intros, outros or breakdowns." But this begs the question of why on earth would you deliberately sabotage your music in such a way? Debbie Howard (backing vocals) and Chris Mitchell (synths) provided the only slight respite from the repetitive nature of tracks one and two ("Up Great Britain" and "Rock and Roll Spoon"), with suggestion of imagination and musicianship. ‘Lead Singer Syndrome’ is the best song here, but I can’t help thinking the track is spoilt by the vocals. Are they actively trying not to sing? Maybe I’m living in the past, maybe I’m missing the point - I hope so because despite my aversion to their style of music I love what they are doing with the lyrics. "She had her vintage dress on, bleach blonde hair; there are twenty better versions of her in here." "In Great Britain no class no style, no icons just Jeremy Kyle."

I think it is through their lyricism that Hello Wembley succeed. They have a tongue in cheek, humorous outlook, and satirize in song what they see as fault in the zeitgeist. Good work, lads and er...lass. Even more admirable, they recognise the potential hypocrisy of their position, and laugh at that too. Singer Alex claims, "I do a lot of the things we insult - I’m sure this is a ‘love ‘em or hate ‘em’ band". The question is, can you put up with the bad music to appreciate the sharp lyricism? It is ironic that if they are right, and people don’t listen to music-and they succeed, then they will become part of the culture that they berate. But then, this always was the danger with punk music.

"Up Great Britain" is out now on Velocity