Like a Greggs sausage roll hitting the nation鈥檚 musical consciousness in the face, The Pigeon Detectives have come from deepest Leeds to land at number three in the UK album charts. Although their look is very much the London indie-boy uniform of scruffy shoes and scruffier hair, their sound is undeniably that of Yorkshire. 鈥淲hen we first started out the Kaisers were starting to get played on the radio,鈥 says drummer Dave Best, 鈥渟o there was kind of an eye on Leeds.鈥
Success found the Detectives fast 鈥 they went from dingy support slots to the NME stage at the Carling Festival in just a year. 鈥淲e knew if we played the songs right that they were good enough,鈥 says Best, 鈥淭hat we were good enough to be big.鈥 This self-assured swagger brings to mind the brothers Gallagher, whom the band count amongst their (predictable but impeccable) influences 鈥 along with the Clash, the Beatles and the Smiths.
The Pigeons have flown far from the nest in recent months, completing a European tour before doing a victory lap of the UK. Fortunately the band lack any shred of diva behaviour, resulting in a harmonious on-tour atmosphere. 鈥淟ucky for us we all grew up in each other鈥檚 pockets, so we have a kind of brotherly relationship,鈥 says Best, 鈥淵ou have times where something goes wrong and you get pissed off, but you just have to think about what you do for a living and you really can鈥檛 complain.鈥
This down-to-earth attitude and strict policy of calling a spade a spade seems to be replacing the whinging Southern art-school softies (don鈥榯 write in 鈥 I am one myself) that dominated the nation鈥檚 indie discos not so long ago.
True to form, the PDs are totally unimpressed by the glut of media attention they鈥檝e received 鈥 when asked about a Tom Jones-esque moment of projectile lingerie at this year鈥檚 Glastonbury, Best turns frosty. 鈥淭hat was just one silly thing that happened and the media cottoned on to it as something to write about,鈥 he says with venom, 鈥淲e never really condoned it, or even thought about it.鈥
That鈥檚 me told. But not to worry Pigeon fanciers, with post-tour plans to release their second album in the spring of 2008, the jaunty student-rock scamps can probably expect a lot more attention (and knickers) to be thrown their way in the future.
Poppy O鈥橬eill
