Extra! Extra! Read All About It! LostAlone Are No More! The headlines cried on October 15, as the rock community went into mourning over the loss of the Derbyshire trio.
With what seemed like a constant battle with the corporate side of the music industry – which saw their sophomore release, I’m A UFO In This City, delayed by a year – the rockers had to go about their business with a William Wallace mentality. Do or die.
Lead by the kooky, Steven Battelle, who has a degree in riffology, the band had three critically acclaimed albums and a cult like following, but it wasn’t enough, as the 3-piece succumbed to events that were out of their control.
How did it end up like this?
Here was a band unafraid to do as they pleased. Like a peacock strutting along with its feathers on show, LostAlones Queen inspired brand of rock had all the bells and whistles you could imagine and it worked. Their third album, Shapes Of Screams, was a glorious masterpiece that rocked harder than a hillbilly on a banjo and had a sparkle that deserved its own constellation.
Music critics and die-hard fans loved them, but to the majority of folk, they just didn’t matter enough.
Have we not learnt anything since Reuben? Yes Reuben! Remember the three-piece, hailing from the UK, who split-up after three albums (sound familiar)?
Despite the alt rockers having a huge underground following, the lads from Surrey never seemed to surface into the mainstream bubble. Sticking to their guns and making their abrasive yet catchy alt-rock took its toll in the end, as countless tour after tour rolled by without them getting anywhere, they admitted defeat.
Is this to be the new life expectancy of a band not willing to ‘sell-out?’
Hardcore band, The Chariot, should have been huge, and despite the major record label problems (see the theme), the working class punk-rock of The Swellers resulted in them retiring earlier on this year.
Are these production line bands, that have choruses fit for daytime radio (All Time Low), have haircuts that make the girls shriek (5 Seconds Of Summer) and have generic tattoo’s, because, like, you know, they’re in a band, destined to cast the Reuben’s and LostAlone’s of the world into the shadows forever?
If so, we better say a prayer for Norwegians, Blood Command – who made one of the finest records of 2012 with the criminally understated Funeral Beach – wave goodbye to the charming The Computers and let Exit Ten continue on their quest into obscurity.
Or maybe these bands refusing to change to gain more attention are just naive and stuck in their own ideological world. All you have to do is take a look at where Lower Than Atlantis began to see how far they have grown. If they made another couple of Far Q records, they’d be in a similar position.
LostAlone had hope and were let down, summed up perfectly on, ‘Crusaders,’ the opening track of what looks set to be their final album, “You’ll only find yourself if you let go, never read the script or changed my role, I’m just confiding in the great unknown, they’re never gonna believe us when we’re gone.”
To the scenesters killing bands that think outside of the proverbial box, your time will come! Hopefully before it’s too late.
Long live LostAlone.
