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Interviews
 

King Adora on the Evening Session Back to the top
by Steve Lamacq
Broadcast on the Evening Session 9 May 2001


Ahead of the relase of their new album 'Vibrate You' 'Maxi' and 'The Nelster' of King Adora joined Steve on the Evening Session. They talked about Maxi's illness, touring, their favourite bands, and what wnet into recording the new album.
This the unedited version of the interview which went out on the show.
Hear the whole interview, or click on the question below to jump to that section

I don't know how to address you because you've all been adopting new names, how long have you been Maxi, Matt?
About a year now. It was one of our little ideas - we thought we'd develop alter egos, so if one of us got blamed for something we could say 'that was Maxi not Matt'
You are not well are you? You had to cancel last night's gig in York and you've got the shades on because your eyes are bulging, what happened?
I've just been struggling on a few of the gigs. Pretty much as soon as we started I was, and then I had some miracle healing when I got to Scotland, and a couple of the gigs were fine, then it started happening again. I didn't want to be letting anyone down, so we went ahead with Leeds and the throat hurt even more. I thought if I went ahead with York, then the tour could be in jeopardy. We've got two days off as well...The doctor basically said don't sing, which is a little bit tough in this job.
We are not going to let the people in York down. We are going to move that onto Sunday 20th, after the Astoria - instead of having our big party in front of a few thousand in London, we are going to have it in front of a couple of hundred in York.
What were the bands that made you want to be in a band when you were young?
The bands who got us into it were years before…Pavement, Sonic Youth, Pixies and stuff like that. We were very disillusioned with the whole music scene, nobody seemed to be exciting. There seemed to be a lack of real music out there, like decadent music. It was a bit boring, and it didn't inspire you. We were like 'right stuff this we are going to go and change things and do it our way'.
What was it that inspired you about the bands you've named?
They are a couple of bands who we listened to in our early teens. We had a fascination with the New York scene in the 70's going all the way up to the grunge scene.
When you are on stage do you have someone in mind, Nelster?
I don't think I've ever been like that. Some guitarists are, I've never really had any guitar idols because I don't really play the guitar like that - I'm not a big solo fan.
What were the ingredients that went in to make King Adora? Was there something about trying to make the most energetic, urgent sound that you could?
Yeah, of course. That's the way we naturally wrote.
When we used to rehearse it was whatever comes naturally on stage, just do it. All four of us got on stage and went mental. It just happened, it was a natural thing, we didn't plan our stage routines.
If we ever wrote a song that was three and a half minutes, we'd rehearse it twice and think 'this is so boring and long'. So we'd get rid of choruses and just make it more immediate.
'Vibrate You' - the new album
Where was it recorded?
In Sawmills with the wonderful John Cornfield.
How long did it take?
6/7 weeks
There is something approaching an Elvis impersonation on 'We Are Heroes'
Yeah, it wasn't on there when we recorded the track.
When we listened back to it we thought 'who put that in there?'
That's were he's living now, there's been spottings, but he's living in Cornwall.
What's the coral chanting on 'Music Takes You'
That's the Cornwall thing as well. They're a mad old choir, who are all off their heads. We wanted a mantra going on at the end.
We were going to get a big gospel choir in and try some other things, but we said we wanted something really powerful and deep. We thought of a Welsh choir at first, and then when we were down there we heard some of the male-voice choirs and thought they were amazing.
Was it a case of trying to get your live set down in it's natural form, or were you trying to find a balance between doing things that you couldn't usually do live and putting that on the record?
It was a bit of both. There are some added ingredients. We are big fans of the rawness of how it is live, but for our first album we wanted it to be important, so we wanted to add things in.
We did have quite a bit of time for experimenting when we were down there, so we got into that.
Everyone went a little bit ga-ga - strange things happened.


'Sometimes I think we're four little prostitutes' NME - 09-05-01  back to the top

As the chaos, teen hordes and tears take over, glittery sleaze sex gods KING ADORA face up to the crazy side of the fame game
The longest walk on earth for the boys with the snake hips and suicide smiles is the one between the venue door and the tourbus. It's that mile-long Saturday night run down Birmingham's Broad Street compressed into 20 feet, a dash through a minefield of clawing fingernails and swinging fists, spits and kisses. Out there the vengeful teenies ejected from the over-'S venues mingle with the slavering groupie packs and the gangs of locals smelling the blood of a ladyboy. It's three months since the dawn of Adoramania; fingers crossed they'll survive another. Friday, April 20, a Radio 1 broadcast at the Garage in London's once fashionable Highbury Corner district and Matt Browne has gone AWOL. The singer with sexational, perma- pouting pixie-popsters-in-ladies'-
clobber King Adora, he was last seen fleeing the stage pursued by a horde of howling teen flesh after another half an hour of stage invasions, crotch lunges and the front row trying to use his microphone stand to bash his teeth in. Twenty minutes later he shuffles from a backstage toilet pale and subdued with mascara smeared down to his chin and hair matted with spittle, sweat and vomit.
"I was like, 'What's happening?'" he mutters sheepishly. "Everyone's trying to get in from the outside and I can't even go and sit in the tourbus, so I'll just go and sit in the toilet and have a cry for 20 minutes." The door to the venue opens a crack and young girls' arms
clamour like tentacles through the gap. It's like some freaky reverse Night Of The Living Dead where the cute little kiddies want to devour the zombie. "It's all been getting more chaotic." He shakes his head. "We did Dingwalls (in Camden a few months ago and there was nearly a riot! The kids kicked over the barricades and invaded the stage. " All of a sudden we got told we can't go out there any more. You're made to believe you should be watching your back. You have some people who don't take no for an answer. We get scary letters saying kids'll kill themselves if you don't do whatever. It's a bit unnerving but it's part and parcel of the territory. The only thing to be scared of is losing your mind. Which is always a strong possibility." You're not going to cope very well with being chewed up and gobbed out by Mistress Fame, are you? "I've become a lot more insular than I was. Sometimes I think we're four little prostitutes. You've gotta suck this dick to suck that dick to suck that dick. It's the whole corporate bullshit. You feel like a commodity to a degree. I'm not quite sure who I am and can't quite remember who I was a year ago. There's failings in personal relationships and I've done this for a year and I still feel second best and I still feel alone even with loads of friends, that annoys me." Ahead of him the dressing room bustles as guitarist Martyn 'The Nelsta' Nelson, spike-jawed bassist Robbie G and, urn, spike- headed drummer Dan Dabrowski fend off the hangers-on plundering their rider. To his right the venue door bulges with desperate shag fodder. To his left is the long, dark dash to the tourbus. He stands at the very epicentre of a tornado of rampant teenage lust and adoration yet, for a split second, he actually envies Elbow. Then a tall, red-headed vixen with glittery cheeks slips into his arms with a slobbery snog. He grins. "But there's always buried treasure to be found."
WEEEEE-OOOOHHHIII ! WEEEEEEEE-
OOOOHHHH!!I A week later on Old Compton Street in London's Soho and we're on the run from the fashion police. Undercover officers peer over newspapers outside Cafe Boheme and whisper into their sleeves. Behind us a siren blares and we duck into a pizzeria where Matt sniffs the menu warily. He doesn't really 'do' food. So Matt, you tried Vicodin yet? "Who?" Vicodin. It's the new Lead Singer's Drug. "Lead Singer's Drug? What does it do?" Makes you think you're a lead singer. Works for Courtney Love apparently. "I'd give it ago but I'm not into
downers really. Uppers for me. The only downer you should have is sleeping the next day after doing too many uppers. I'll look into it." He lowers his voice to a whisper: "Now this may sound very un-rock'n'roll, but I've never done a pill." WHAAAAAAAT??? King Adora: the transvestite sleaze gods of Saturnalian sex pop; the riot- inducing band with the misfit manifesto who wrote half of their debut album on speed and regularly sing about shagging policemen. shagging anorexics. shagging battery operated implements and doing the lot on a bloody great fuck-off load of top- grade bonking drugs from the Planet Top Shag. King Bloody Adora don't sprinkle pure MDMA powder on their cornflakes of a morning? What next? Alan Titchmarsh admits he wouldn't know which end of a trowel to switch on? "I've done everything else and liked everything else too much. So I thought, 'Everyone likes Ecstasy; if I try that it could well be the death of me once and for all', Everyone goes on about the first time being like your first shag or something, so I'm biding my time at the moment. Maybe that'll be album three, 'The Pill Album'. And I could get too loved-up and lose all my anger. That'd be terrible." Too right. For it's pure fear and loathing that drives the lean, mean Adora machine. Ever since they minced their way off a Brummie building site two years ago to concentrate on their brilliantly saucy Supergrass-being-blown-by- Brett Anderson music they've never been short of hate targets. This week Matt has been mostly despising Toploader ("I don't know how they sleep at night"), EastEnders viewers ("It annoys me that Britain gives a shit about who shot fuckin' Phil Mitchell"), and mopey old twats with acoustics.
"1 thought rock'n'roll music wasn't meant to be quiet and mediocre," he spits. "It should be decadent and debauched and exciting. We're like the Alex Higgins of the music scene at the moment. Everyone else is the Steve Davis or Stephen Hendry. We've got genuine emotion
and excitement in what we do. There's something really lacking in the live scene in this country, it's getting really fucking close to candles in the air stuff! People are getting ripped off." Predictably, however, King Adora's debut album 'Vibrate You' {ooh -and indeed -er) isn't a rap- style dissarama. Oh no, it's about shagging. Auto-asphyxiation shagging ('Asthmatic'), oral shagging {'Supermuffdiver'), even shagging with a member of your local constabulary ('The Law'). It's a hot, steamy, ram-a-Iama king dong of a record; a pop orgasm that screams satisfaction at the top of its lungs; a hard, fast quickie rather than a long, slow, comfortable... look, why does everything have to come round to rumpo all the time with you lot? "We're not gonna write about the joys of marriage," Matt shrugs. "So we're gonna write about the joys of sex. Kids are being born every day so I'm sure King Adora aren't the only people having sex. Let's be decadent about it. I don't think it's shallow at all. I'm not saying every album we do will be about sex, just this one." At what point did you realise you were a PERVERT? " A PERVERT?" Matt laughs. " Am I a PERVERT?" YES. "Really? That's interesting because the moral majority are more perverted than I am." But do the moral majority go around in LADIES' KNICKERS? PERVERT. "I just experimented a few times," Matt says. "I don't think that's perverse, it's a natural curiosity. There's a lot of people who've probably done the same and I'm just honest about it. It's perverse to be honest at the moment, I think." Did you find losing your virginity a disappointment? He smiles. "It was, yeah. She was lovely. But it was a big disaster. I didn't have a clue what I was doing and she didn't want to see me again. But it wasn't that traumatic really." Ahh, but aren't you trying to make up for it with all these songs about the Big Dirty? "Do you think so?" Matt asks. "Do you think everything was alright when I was a virgin and then you make that fatal fucking error and everything's fucked up for the rest of your life?" Absolutely. You ballsed it up the first time and now, through your music, you want to go back and make it brilliant again. Matt ponders his personality slashed open for a second, then shakes his head. "Nah, I don't think sex is a bad thing at all," he says, with great understatement. "I'm quite up for it."
MARK BEAUMONT

Studio 68 xfm 24-04-01  back to the top
Tim; And here in the studio now with us we've got Matt and Robbie from King Adora, welcome to the show guys.
Maxi&Nelstar; Hello!
N; I'm the Nelstar mate
T; What?
N; I'm the Nelstar, not Robbie
T;  Ahh right
N; Robbie's poorly…
M; poorly, in the head.
T; How are you? I've got to say we've had a great reaction since we said you were coming on the show. lots of people have emailed with all sorts of questions, most of them are quite dull so I'm not going to read them. Your gigging stars tomorrow is that true?
M; Absolutely
T; And your first gig I've noticed is in Norwich, who decides that?
M; Erm,
N; Good One
T; How does it work, where you're going to be gigging, from and to and where?
M; Oh that's the agent.
T; Yeah?
M; Most of it's all really good tho
T; Cos I've noticed you've got loads of dates haven't you, I mean you tour extensively, you've hardly got any time off have you.
M; We, we don't like time off.
T; Don't you?
M; nahh
N; It's bad.
M; We lose our minds when we stop.
T; You see, but you're not playing you home town tho are you?
M; Nope
T; Why's that then
M; Special reasons, we've got good things planned for Birmingham in the summer, which we can't go into at the moment but.
T; Whereabouts in Birmingham are you from, are you actually from Birmingham?
M; Yeah, well I'm not born there I was born in Essex but the rest of them are from the (fake brummy accent) alright, alright skip, `ows it going? neck-of-the-woods.
N; I'm from the Irish republic.
T; What are you doing in Birmingham? Or aren't you allowed to say?
M; Birmingham, er yeah, it's a bit of a secret but people will get wind of it soon enough but it will be fairly special.
T; How is the music scene in Birmingham?
M; It's very fertile, I think that's the word to describe it. it's not like your Manchester type of thing where you had 3 or 4 big bands and then a lot of bands that sound very similar coming out afterwards. In Birmingham I think it's kinda very everybody's quite different like that. Y'know you've got good hard-core bands, good punk bands good sort of electro bands…
N; Yeah there's a lot of them.
T; How long have you guys been together now?
M; Too long! About 2 years.
N; Yeah about 2 years as a full band like.
T; 2 years, has that been not quite quick to get to the stage that, I mean you're getting the following aren't you.
M; Oh absolutely, yeah, people have been waiting for us obviously.
T; You've been gigging a lot recently, for a big tour like this are you erm, do you rehearse a lot?
N; Yeah we rehearse all the time…
N&M; laugh
M; Try getting him to rehearse…
N; No, we're rehearsing for the tour, getting sets ready and that to make sure we're good when we're on tour and that, no most of the time we spend in the pub, no erm that's not true, we rehearse all the time.
T; Are you tight as a band?
N; Yeah man we're tight!
N&M; laugh
M; The day King Adora play a tight gig is the day it's all over.
T; So what's it about you, about pumping out the tunes and getting the energy on the stage rather than actually sounding brilliant?
M; (indignantly) We sound brilliant…
T; I know you do sound good, but is it about getting the energy going?
N; When we rehearse we work on getting all the sounds and everything right but when we go out live it…
M; It don't work like that. Your passion and your excitement takes over really, but that's what it's about really, we get of on the audience, the audience get off on us. It's perfect, y'know, that's what we love about touring, that's why we do so many dates.
T; Listen you did a gig for us not so long ago at Sound, so we're gonna play a few tracks from that, the first one we're gonna do is Smoulder. I must admit that I did play this 3 times in the same show once cos I love it so much, so here it is, the live version.
Plays Smoulder recorded at Sound Republic
T; A lot of people have sent me e-mails to ask you, the only one that I really like is this one sent in from Sophie, who says `We want to know how Matt and Dan get their hair in such good styles.'(M&N laugh) Well, y'know I think that the hair products the band are using is something the public need to know.
M; I think Dan's' is. He was using soap for a long long time, but he was having trouble sleeping…
N; Yeah and when he played his eyes would bleed
 All laugh
M; He's found a spray now
N; Yeah he's got that spray, he won't tell anybody what it is.
T; What about you what do you guys use?
M; Sometimes 4 or 5 things at once. All quality Boots products. There is more bad hair days than good unfortunately.
N; Very bad hair days.
M; But this is life!
T; You do now and then, sorry to advise you, but you do now and then need to wash all the products out.
N; What!
T; If you leave them in too long then your hair starts to fall out guys.
M; I've never heard anything so ridiculous in all my…
T; Oh come on, you need to know these things!
M; Well the second album's gonna be the bald album!
All laugh
T; How important is image to you cos what I like about you is that you do look you do dress up and you do look different, there are so many bands out there who are just jeans, T-shirt, trainers, you guys actually do look good. Conscious decision?
M; Well no, it's nothing conscious at all, that would make us fabricated and false, this is how we were before we met each other. This is how we chose to express ourselves and stuff. I thought rock'n'roll was sorta about being loud proud and decedent and stuff, and if the majority of bands don't understand that sorta thing then it's their problem not ours. It's great it's an occasion when all the fans come to the gig and they dress up. It makes it special, it makes it worth paying to come and see, y'know, it's a very good way of connecting with our audience. I think everybody connects with people image basis normally anyway, whether you're out on the pull in a pub or something like that or whether you're playing a gig. But you can't just have image and no songs to back it up and you know we have, it's not a problem, it's not something we think about in depth really, its just us.
T; As you say you've got a lot of people who dress up, have you got a lot of the same old faces coming to gigs, not `same old face' in a  bad way but people who tour round with you?
N; Same young faces, there's a lot of dedicated fans out there, y'know, which is wicked like, we really appreciate that.
T; Where do they come from?
M; They come from everywhere, sometimes we've seen people at gigs like in Portsmouth and then the next night in Manchester and stuff like that. They're mental.
T; In a good way?
M; Yeah, we love them to pieces, you know their dedication is like second to none and we'll do everything we can for em.
T; I've been saying for a long time that there needs to be some good images out there, there are too many people out there who are still looking like that old indie britpop scene and we needed someone new to come through, and y'know, it's great you're doing that. Alright, erm, as I said I once played Smoulder 3 times in one show, how good is that?
N; That's like an overdose of Smoulder
T; No! It's just that I loved it. It was brilliant and Andy her was going you can't do that, and I said I blooming well can I'm in control of the buttons. So there we go. Well we're gonna take a break, I'll speak to King Adora more in a couple of minutes.
Adverts
T; Whilst I've got you on the show, and you are music experts and stuff you know you play instruments and stuff.
Both N&M burst out laughing
T; We do this thing called Verse Excursion, we put one track against another, they might sound the same, not saying that's it a bad thing or a good thing, but you can tell me whether they are similar, whether they've maybe ripped each other off. This one is from Mike Jones it says `Is it me or does the begging of Any Day Now by Elbow sound a hell of a lot like the begging of India Rubber, B-side of Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead?' Let me play it to you and you can tell me.
Plays clips
T; I think absolutely nothing like each other what do you think?
N; When are you gonna play the other one?
T; Do you think they sound the same?
N; No not really no, not at all.
M; Oh, I do.
T; Do you?
M; Well I, it's only a few seconds of a song, but you know they both sound very uninteresting to me.
T; Do you not, are you not a Radiohead fan?
M; Yeah, The Bends is amazing. More from you…(Martyn)
T; Are you a fan then?
N; Around the time of The Bends is amazing.
M; You love em, you love em.
N; Yeah, I love it.
T; What are you guys listening to at the moment? What else do you listen to?
M; Ash's new album's fantastic,
N; It's really really good.
M; Er, I like the At The Drive-In stuff that I've heard, ooh I don't know, who's doing it for us at the moment?
N; The Primals
M; Yeah the Primals. Anything that's a bit exciting really.
T; I'm glad you said Ash, I like Ash a lot. Right, you're re releasing Bionic on the 30th, it's different tho isn't it? Different from the limited release last year? What's that all about?
M; Yeah, It's got a different producer and it's got a slightly, well we just wanted to produce it in a better way really, no disrespect to ya! But we just thought it needed a bit more balls behind it really. You know we wanted to do it a bit better, to make it a better record really. We're really happy with it but it was always one of our favourite songs and we were always going to bring it out again.
T; Right, is that why it was only on limited edition to begin with?
M; Absolutely, yeah.
T; So it was your decision to re release it.
M; Er, well, it was yeah. I mean nobody argued it with us, if they did there would have been trouble.
N; …Dead.
M; Oh god yes.
T; And the album vibrate you is out on the 21st of May, is that right?
M; ummn, yeah.
T; All your tracks so far I've heard and I haven't heard the album I must admit, have you heard it guys?
General murmur of no from the crew
T; So none of us have heard it. Are they all short tracks like the ones you're doing? No disrespect this but you bang out 2-and-a-half minute tracks, which I love.
M; Yeah.
N; There's a couple of longer tracks on the album, 3 minutes (laughter from the background) you know, stupidly long.
M; I dunno, it's just the way we write. We like to keep it exciting, keep it short and stuff like that. People say we play really short sets but like we nearly play a whole albums worth of songs in a set it's just the way it is.
T; Right.
M; That's the way it is.
T; So when it comes to gigs in the future will you put more songs in to give them a longer set? How many tracks are on the album?
M; There's twelve.
T; Twelve, so…
M; 31 minutes.
T; 31 minutes!!!! Wow, now that's really good, its gotta be one of the shortest albums in the last god-knows-how-long.
M; You can listen to it over and over again tho, you don't get bored with it.
T; Yeah. And if there's a track you don't like on it, of course we like them all, you don't have to wait long before the next ones on.
N; Very true, very true!
T; Ok, we were talking a minute ago about you gigging, do you go to many gigs yourselves?
N; We try to, when we're off tour, when we're rehearsing at home.
M; (laughs) you keep saying we're rehursing.
N; when we're getting…
M; Where did we go to, well we went to Ash the other night, we played in London the other night and we saw Ash the same night at their album launch party. Who've we seen who were any good? It's a complete lie actually that we get out cos we don't.
N; No we don't get to see anyone at all, except our support bands!
M; Or bands we are supporting. But we do go and see them when they're playing other gigs and stuff, we're big fans of them like Crackout and Easyworld, top up and coming bands.
T; And you did something with Last Man Standing didn't you.
M; What's that?
T; Last Man Standing?
N; They played with us when we did this… we only did one gig with them.
M; Oh I was feeling poorly that night.
N; He doesn't remember anything from that night
T; (laughs) First single that you ever bought? I always ask everybody this.
N; You first.
M; Well, errrrrrrrrrr,
T; Uh oh
M;the first was you see, I was sorta a junior school and I was at one of those like, school discos sorta things and you get a little slow dance at the end. This girl asked me to dance, and I was quite charmed by that and it was Debbie Gibson and Foolish Feet.
Laughter
N; I'm leaving the band!
T; Did you go and buy it?!
M; Well, yeah.
Even more laughter
M; I was ten years old! It was quite an emotional moment in my life.
T; You've got respect for your honesty. Listen, now whatsyours?
N; I think mine was when I was about 13 and I went into Whsmiths and bought Black Velvet by Alana Miles.
Laughter
M; And your saying my choice was bad!
Laughter
T; That's where it all started! Guys thankyou very much. When are you next playing in London?
M; May 19th we're at the Astoria.
T; Mean Fiddler I got here.
M; Have you? Well it's all the same thing, and if you go to buy tickets and they tell you there's none on sale they're talking rubbish cos there are loads left.
T; And your album Vibrate You is out on May the 21st looking forward to that.

Tour-Bus test Radio 1 12-04-01  go back to the top

Just before he went on stage Steve pulled King Adora's Matt into the Evening Session Truck so he could take the imfamous 2 minute Tour Bus Test.

What sort of transport with you be on the forthcoming tour?
A big mother of a sleeper.
Who is always the last one up in the morning?
Robbie, and that's afternoon not morning.

If fans are going to throw gifts on stage what would you like?
Cigarettes would be good.
What's the smallest number of people you've ever played to?
I've played a couple of 10s….about a year ago. It was awful.
Is there a dress code for the fans on the next tour?
They do a wonderful job as it is. It's us who have to come up to their standards.
What song do you most look forward to playing?
Smoulder, because it's the only one we never get wrong.

What's your shortest set?
I think it was in Portsmouth on the last tour. We had a load of complaints that we'd only played for 19 minutes.
Have you ever stolen anything from a hotel or service station?
All the time, we are always stealing whatever. Whether it's pillows, some hotels even give you slippers.
STEVE LAMACQ

21st Centuary punx vibe 12-03-01 back to the top
Birmingham band, King Adora, are on their way. Part of the exciting 21st century punx vibe that has spread underground like wildfire, they give big tunes, attitude and glamour, and are great live.

"We get magic moments nearly every night!" King Adora’s grinning bassist Robbie G declares. The foursome are in their hometown of Birmingham for one of the final gigs on their latest tour, and are feeling very positive about their experiences.
This tour has seen them headlining and selling out bigger venues than ever before, and finding themselves with a growing army of intense and passionate fans.
Robbie G
"It’s fantastic, we’ve been to some gigs and met people who’ve been to 3 or 4 gigs instead of just coming to one, which is great!" Robbie enthuses.

"Maybe people have been waiting for a band like us to come around," muses lead singer and guitarist Matt Browne. "It just seems to be the right time and the right place for us really. We always wanted to reach as many people as possible, and maybe we’re helped by the ‘misfit manifesto’.People are more drawn to us than to your average person."
It is easy to see why they appeal to ‘misfits’ – outlandish hairstyles and a penchant for wearing makeup and women’s clothes along with the most exciting punk pop songs of the year makes an ideal combination to inspire obsession and loathing in equal measure.
Although the band enjoy the love/hate reaction they have been faced with, some of the accusations that have been levelled at them have infuriated them. In particular, the accusation that their second single, ‘Big Isn’t Beautiful’, of being ‘fattist’.
Matt
"I don’t really see why," frowns Matt. "You write a song from an anorexic male’s point of view, and just because you’re not singing about something safe, people say, ‘You can’t do that.’ People just misunderstood the perspective I was writing from. The title supposed to be tongue in cheek," he adds. "It’s just a song."
And the songs? They tear through a riot-like set of highly addictive Pixies-inspired sleazy verses and big choruses, including their latest single ‘Suffocate’, which Matt describes as "an anti-love song, destruction of something beautiful.
It’s a little bit different from the stuff we’ve put out before, but we thought we’d be bold…"
This was obviously the right move, because ‘Suffocate’ has given King Adora their first Top 40 hit King Adora are planning an exhaustive touring schedule for the next 12 months to promote their debut album which is set for release in May.
"We just want to connect with as many people as possible. The album’s very exciting. I want it to be important," Matt asserts.
So the question remains, how big do they want to be? "Not as big as [Manics’ lead singer] James Dean Bradfield, he’s quite big now isn’t he?!" Robbie grins.
Drummer Dan Dabrowski considers this, adding, "I always thought it’d be cool to be as big as Arnold Schwarzennegger…" Matt Browne sits back, a twinkle of destiny in his eye. "Bigger than yesterday," he reasons, "but not as big as tomorrow."
KING ADORA’S FOURTH SINGLE ‘SUFFOCATE’ IS OUT NOW ON SUPERIOR QUALITY RECORDINGS. To go to their website, visit www.kingadora.com.
Photos by DEBORAH LAWRENCE & KATHERINE KENNEDY - BBC


Smouldering Adorably Back to the top
page 453 of Teletext on 31st of October

King Adora: named after a sex aid, make no secrets of working their way through groupies and mountains of drugs, reckon the Manics "are `letting everyone down."
With such a trailblazing agenda, there is bound to be the occasional comedown. Which is why, when the PS catches up with the singer Matt Browne in Sheffield on tour, he's trying to explain himself while fighting a gargantuan hangover.
Matt splutters his way through tales of emotional turmoil in Birmingham.
In the grandiose fashion, King Adora's Matt Browne claims new single `Smoulder' is a tale of "finding someone you're physically so perfectly matched to the lust is total- and then you become so caught up with them that it becomes obsessive and psychotic on both sides."
Phew. Based on personal experience?
"Undoubtedly. There's no point falling for someone unless it's passionately, no matter how fleeting. How many times has it happened? Maybe 20.
Songs of obsession and anorexia, a penchant for make-up, a conviction that they are the Best Band Ever- no wonder early Manics' are often mentioned around King Adora singer Matt Browne.
"We've had so much feedback since slagged them recently" winces Matt.
"I don't regret saying it at all. They meant so much to me that I long for a fantastic new album. But if they come back with more mediocrity, they should apologise to all of us and split up."
Carrying the Manics comparisons further. King Adora attract devotees who self mutilate, much to singer Matt Browne's dismay.
"In many ways its good that we inspire such devotion," ponders a suddenly thoughtful Matt, 23. "Self mutilation though…. its not something I identify with personally comprend"
"Those fans matter just as much to me. But what can I do? I write back and say I hope things improve for them."
With now three singles to their name, King Adora are regularly recognised in their native Birmingham (not that they are hard to miss, of course)
"We still get a fear and loathing vibe when we walk into certain pubs," laughs purple-haired Matt.
"But Birmingham is a great place to live, I'm proud to come from there, if we were seen as ambassadors for the town rather than rubbish like Ocean Colour Scene, I'd be happy."
After playing in a "so-so Stones-y band who were too retro Matt Browne knew instantly that his King Adora cohorts were the right people to take on the world.
"Even in our first rehursal, I knew, just knew that we were going to be special." Insists the Soulwax fan.
"The one thing that worries me is that we could get sucked into the showbiz life. We've all addictive personalities so we have to be careful."
"We've always looked like this." Says Matt Browne of King Adoras look. "We never think more than five minutes ahead so we don't have an image."
Yet Matt's vehement that the band will go out in a blaze of glory. "I want us to still be together in five years." he cautions "But if I sense us slacking at all, I want that to be it."
What'd be the ideal ending? "Us playing to 500 fans for three hours in a whirl of limbs, debauchery and great music."
JOHN EARLS


"We take HEDONISM as far as it'll go" Back to the top
Melody Maker - 18-10-00

Bestiality, groupies, younger women, older women, drugs, booze… And the most thrilling punk/pop songs of the year,too. Welcome to the Sleazy World of King Adora

Here comes the Hotstepper, slicing the crowd apart with switchblade hips, pouting at the bull-faced bigots, slinking and swerving through London's Shepherds Bush Market like the king pimp of a crack den. Through the doors of the Bushranger pub he flounces, elegantly blasted, trailing a vortex swirl of glitter and bitten tongues. An industrial-strength Marlboro Bastard drooling from his lips in a fashion that would have Barbara Cartland scribbling the word "impossible2 if he wasn't wearing most of her, he orders a preconception-shattering pint and chips and spills himself over a leather couch like oil over a startled seagull.
     Conversations falter. Pints are lowered from lips. Opinions on sexual politics last posited by Alf Garnett in 1962 are dug up and resuscitated . And, utterly unflustered in it's corner lair, mascara heavy eyelids flap open from the drug-bleary eyeballs and the 21st-Century Lizard King declares itself "shattered".
     Exhausted from all that leather-kecked, dildo'n'crotch-zip leopard sex last night, are we?
"Nah," says Matt Browne, skinny sex bargepole and the long-lost bastard son of Richey Edwards and Lily Savage. "It's two weeks before we're going on tour, so we're having that quiet period. It's like footballers aren't allowed to have sex the night before the big game. We're saving up as much semen as we possibly can.
"And anyway," he continues, leaping from nought to controv overdrive in under 15 seconds, "animals are our drummer's line. He's half-Polish and there's this creature that's only native to Poland. They're half-monkey, half-something. And you can go out to some wild places in Poland and stroke them and they're very friendly. He says that sometimes he likes to take the stroking a little bit further. I don't know how far. I don't think to full blown sex, but there's a bit of groping and fondling going on."
     All aboard the last chariot to Bacchanalian Blitz Central? Then hold on tight, because King Adora are on a mission to live faster, die younger and leave a more curiously haired corpse. You may already know about their being named after a gigantic vibrator, recording a video about male anorexia in an Ann Summers shop and deflowering enough girls to give Courtney Taylor the gush. Well, catch up, daddio, that's yesterday's news! While you're still touching up your lippy and calculating the best way to blow crack up a dwarf's arse, they're already at the alcoholism, drug breakdowns and tabloid confessions of monkey-fiddling.
     So we're afforded a glimpse of a band in freefall, the rock'n'roll ripcord snapped in their hand. They're at once the musical equivalent of flicking through 900 "Brookside" scripts and the gut punch of perky punk pop glamour you've been waiting for since James Dean Bradfield first decided that one pie wouldn't hurt.
"When we finish we're gonna burn out," says Matt intently. "There'll be no fade-out from King Adora."
He leans forward, eyes shining like a kamikaze pilot identifying his target.
"And when King Adora have left, people will know we've been here."

The day that Matt Browne discovered Valium started unusually: tea for breakfast instead of Vodka. He hadn't slept for two days, hadn't eaten for three, had swum along through countless record label courtships on a diet of cheap coke, bad booze and hard cigarettes. No wonder, as he shook hands with the umpteenth sales administrator of Satan's Cock Records plc that day, reality couldn't keep up with him.
"It wasn't so much the coke, as the general alcohol abuse and the never eating anything," Matt explains. "Everything just went `Woooaarrgghffloppwaaaarrgghh', everything was just slowing down and getting blurred. The next thing I knew I was being picked up at the doctors. It was the most frightening thing I've ever experienced. You enjoy excess, but you have to put a pause but on it sometime and you never do. There've been drug bouts where you're doing too much in a week that you should, and it just all adds up.
   "The trouble is I've got a n addictive personality, so I've got to be careful. The doctor says to be careful with them because they're addictive, but addictive means they're fucking great! You've just got to have those quiet moments, that five seconds a week amid the chaos."
   Are you going for the world record for Fastest Rock'N'Roll Casualty or something?
Matt sighs. "There's some  switch in my head that's not working properly at the moment. But I've got the right people around me and the right drugs around me, so I'll be alright. This is what I live and die for and it's only the start. There'll be no casualty here."
  But has Matt's experience put him off the Keef Richards road to rhino-faced rock wrinkliedom? Can Brian Molko rap?
   "You can't have a day of rest," Matt states. "There's no such thing as a day without alcohol. Having an addictive personality gives you everything you're good at. There is no failing, there is no stopping, your whole performance is a lot better in everything that you do. But it's when your addictive personality affects you in a mental way, then it does have quite a big downside to it as well. But that's the whole thing about having an edge to yourself. There's always gotta be that danger of the scales tipping over to the other side."
    It makes a change from the constant claims of yer Travplays  that The Music Is What It's All About, Maaaaaaaan.
    "That's mostly lies,"      Matt spits. "Of course the music's important, that's more important than anything else, but behind that you've gotta have a personality, you've gotta walk it as well as talk it. I think a lot of bands are bullshitting and pretty sad, really. We make sure we have a good time wherever we go, take hedonism as far as it'll go."
    And how far is that, exactly?
   "You can take it to the self-destruct button, but you don't wanna go that far because that's beyond having fun. I think Bobby Gillespie said he used to have three or four months of complete excess and then another  three months of vitamin-taking and vegetarianism. Maybe that's the way we'll have to go next year, but not this year."
    You could have three years on and three years off.
    "Yeah," Matt laughs, "three years in the hospital."
    At only 23, Matt Browne is a man who has peered into the abyss and decided that he enjoys the view. A man condemned, since birth, to rock'n'roll.

It wasn't difficult for King Adora to find each other. They'd be spotted in Birmingham a mile off: bassist Robbie G by his falling-between-drain-slats physique and cheese-slicing cheekbones; guitarist Martyn Nelson by his slick quiff snarl; and drummer Dan Dabrowski by… well, look at him - it wasn't his shoes, was it?
     Hooking up from the wreckage of a variety of local bands in 1998 and ditching their jobs as builders, they were the outsiders, the archetypal Brum-glam wierdos  regularly shunned or abused for trying to stay beautiful. So once The Bluetones' Superior Quality Recordings label had snapped them from the jaws of the A&R wolfpack, they were bound to take to the rock roller-coaster like ducks to a big duck roller-coaster full of free duck drugs and willing lady-ducks.
     They brawled with businessmen in Birmingham hotels. They spent the entirety of the Carling Weekend on acid. And, when their first two nailbomb pop singles ("Bionic"/"The Law" and ode to anorexia "Big Isn't Beautiful") earned them a tour support with notorious underage nutjob faves Mansun, King Adora filled their boots at the fountain of man/child love.
    "Whether we like it or not, that's our audience," says Matt. "But saying that, I don't think I've ever dated anyone my age or older than me in my life, so maybe I have a slight fetish for the younger woman. If you want somwone enough then it doesn't really matter…"
    … How old are they?
   "Well," ,Matt cringes, as, quite frankly, he should, "In this climate there's a slight restriction. If they've managed to get their GCSEs out of the way first, then they're fine. We've had a lot of complaining fathers. The A-level results have gone down, GCSE results are at an all-time low and they're banging on our doors looking for answers."
    And presumably they're outraged to find you in an orgiastic heap of naked teen flesh and shredded gym slips.
    "The nearest you get to an orgy is four lads cracking one off together in the back booth." Matt giggles. "Or you get the 30-sopmething women who turn up and have had one too many and they have lots of spanking fetishes, with bit of wood. They're all, `Do this to me in every way possible.' We're like, `Go home to your husband!' Our guitarist is quite into togas and that whole Roman feel. He finds `Ben-Hur'-type women very erotic. He keeps meaning for us to have a little aftershow soiree in that form. But we've only done one tour and you don't get many orgies in Travel Lodges. But it's not for the want of trying. And then you've got the other half of your orgy audience having double Geography first thing in the morning, so you've got to have a very early orgy, a primetime orgy."
    Tut, horsewhipping's too good for the scoundrels. Still, must get frustrating on those long overnight drives between venues, y'know, four young men wanking away ten to the dozen on a cramped tourbus. Could lead to all sorts of ancient Roman practises…
    "What," Matt twigs, "with the band? No, we're all very heterosexual. We have a lot of homosexual friends and we have a gay following and we drink in a lot of gay clubs, clubs that are probably a lot safer to go drinking in than anywhere else, but we don't fancy each other at all."
    They say everyone's gay for 15 seconds.
    "The 15 seconds are in the post. Maybe if we add them all together we can get one very erotic minute between the four of us in the future."
    When King Adora aren't assisting students with their Biology revision, they're musing over the futility of love. Such is the grist to their new single, "Smoulder": a Supergrass-meet-the-Pixies affair with, crucially, the Daleks on backing vocals, and thus the most deranged and brilliantly libidinous pop fancy since Gay Dad's good song.
     "It's about two people who are perfectly matched," Matt explains, " emotionally, sexually, spiritually connecting, that perfect thing. But at the same time the more intense the passion, the more intense the paranoia and the destructive side. It's a negative form of love, but it started out trying to put it on a pedestal. You can't escape the destruction that it causes."
    Er, but it goes "Make my body smoulder/I'm so sexational!"  like Suede overdosing on top-grade Viagra, so it can't be all that bad. And while the Great "Kid A" Avalanche of 2000 is poised to kill second-hand  record shop owners the nation over, "Smoulder" marks the long awaited rebirth of the glamorous, loins-of-lava guitar-pop alternative and turns King Adora into the pin-up pop pythons that an indie scene populated by boot-faced illiterate plumbers is screaming out for.
    "There's nobody doing it apart from us," says Matt, "which surprises me. All these pop star heroes had a look and something about them. It works in our favour that fortunately we do look the way we do. There's a real downside to it, because you walk down the street and people wanna kill you everyday, because people are very bigoted."
    So the girls wanna fuck you, the guys wanna fight you, huh?
    "Not with the audience, no," Matt grins, "It's more like the girls wanna fuck you, the guys wanna fuck you."

In turn they take the menu, peruse the proffered fayre of the finest Worthington's kitchen in all Camden. And in turn they place it back in it's wooden stacking nest and repeat the mantra which could one day be written on King Adora's headstone.
   "Nothing for me, ta, I'll just have a pint."
For a bunch of devout breeders who definitely like birds and were never confused, King Adora have spent a surprising proportion of the last two days touching each other. Yesterday, they all spent the day crammed inside the same small cardboard box for the video to "Smoulder" and this afternoon was spent writhing on the floor in sheer porn blouses for the Maker cover shoot. Now, manly in manner, they settle in a Chalk Farm Road pub to fill empty stomachs with evil lager and wash the say-nothing, strummy-schmummy Crowded-House-loving faux "indie" faker scum off the streets.
   "It's a sort of busker ideal," Matt seethes. "Four blokes who look like they could be at a bus stop with their guitars. No glamour, no excitement, no pop stars at all. It's important to us to write good music and give good live shows and feel it and act on it and not get caught up in just being fake and putting out crap and meaningless safe songs that a hundred people could do better, buskers could do better."
   With you, brother! And what about them Dum Dums, eh? They've been bad-mouthing you no end!
   Matt: "All I'm going to say is that I don't give free press to sitcoms."
   Oof! And what about them Manics, with whom you have suffered innumerable comparisons?
   "Apart from the fact that we wear make-up and we might have the punk ethos," says Matt, "we never saw the comparison. Then all of a sudden a lot of the younger audience would meet us after gigs to get autographs and they've got cigarette burns up their arms and slashes up their arms. It's really disturbing to see. For some reason there's obviously been some void since the Richey-era died and they see us a saviours. It's flattering to be compared to early Manics and those people are very valuable."
   Gone rather arse recently, though, don't you think?
   " Yeah, I do. When they started, James Dean Bradfield looked cool as fuck, just the way he held himself, the way he played, the way he sang, it was like "Fucking hell, we've got some pop stars!' Now it's all gone staid. It's really sad. It's the collapse of what was a great band. I've got a lot of respect for them, but it's all pretty fucking shit at the moment. There's no energy there anymore. If that's what the way it's going to be, stop doing it. Don't put people through it for the sake of your bank balance, just stop.
   "The whole upsetting thing for kids and fans everywhere is that they see somebody they can connect with and they're like, `This is us', and the band just lets them down completely. Instead of sharing anything with all those people who count and having that whole beautiful thing going on, they're like `Fuck everybody else! We're gonna go up our own arse and just be selfish and lazy'."
    Of course they killed the glamour last time round when they made out all the slogan T-shirts and make-up had just been a bit of a lark and all Richey's idea anyway, and there Top Man slacks were so  much comfier than all those bollock-garotting leopardskin numbers.
   Matt: "Exactly, they cheated everybody. They used to look good and now they're not pissed anymore."
   Robbie: "It's fade out or burn out, innit? I'm not gonna fade out. I'd be ashamed."
   Dan: "We're currently building a `Back to the Future' car and all you'll see is the two tyre tracks burning. `Out of here, man!'"
   Martyn: " Plus, remember, the Manics were political and we don't really have an interest in politics."
   Matt nods. "They're all shit."
   You think all political opinions are shit?
   Matt: "No, all political opinions put forward by politicians are shit. Anarchy's always healthy, isn't it? There's not enough anarchy."
   You must've been excited by the recent petrol crisis, then?
   Robbie; "I've always got a petrol crisis!"
   Matt: "Robbie was alright because he had all those extra canisters at home that he'd been sniffing."
   Dan: "It was great because me and Robbie went to the petrol station and all of these people are filling their tanks up and getting the spare canisters full as well and he just put £2.50 in."
   Matt: "At the end of the day the sad thing is that all those people who stood up and marched against it, they'll all vote Labour next time round."
   Maybe we should do as Slipknot suggest, break out the flame throwers, level everything and start all over again!
   Robbie nods. "Maybe. Build a new empire!"
   Like you're doing to rock!
   Matt: "Well that's what we're trying to do."
   The Nation expects!
   "The nation should expect," Matt agrees solemnly. "And we have every intention of delivering."
   Have any of you ever heard of the Sultans Of Ping?
    Robbie frowns. "What, `Where's Me Jumper?'?"
    That's the fellas.
    Matt gawps. "Sultans of Ping were just cabaret! I'd be very upset if anyone labelled us as Sultans of Ping. It's more something I'd like to watch in a theatre and have a laugh at."
    I mean when it comes down to it, are you lot really glamorous?
    Robbie: "But what is glamour? Is glamour models?"
    Martyn: "My dad thinks Bonnie Tyler's glamour."
    Dan: "She is fucking glamour, man! Big fucking curly wig!"
    Matt: "It's expression, not glamour."
    Dan: "It's nice that people see a glamorous angle out of it. Everybody wants to be glamorous."
    "But it's more difficult for us," yells Matt, frustratedly stabbing his point into the ashtray with a cigarette stub. "Travis can just roll out of bed in the fucking morning and amble onstage in their fucking pyjamas and nobody gives a shit! We can't do that! It ain't fucking easy living this life."
    Fair enough, but, Dan, mate, I applaud your bold attempt at follical individuality and that, but really, what do you look like?"
    Dan shrugs. " I dunno. What do you think I look like?"
    The Millennium Dome springs to mind.
    "The Millennium Dome!" he shrieks, as if finally  understanding his own haircut. " That's it! I'm a token for the future!"
    Forgive me, readers. It is churlish indeed for a music hack who has repeatedly given Shed Seven good review to berate Britain's most invigorating, passionate and devotional new band on the basis of the drummer's hair. But erm, bit of a delicate subject this, what's all this monkey frottage business?
     "That was a long time ago," Dan blushes. "I don't really have a fetish for monkeys anymore."
    What do you fiddle with these days?
    He grins. "Just meself."
    There go the hotsteppers, walking like women, wanking like stone-age men, beating seven shades of Max Factor out of boring old Buskrock. Throw the A-level revision on to the fire and get yourself corrupted.

"We Enjoy it and take full advantage of it"
Matt Browne on Groupies
"There has been reasonable, probably unhealthy amount of groupie action in certain quarters. We do what we hope anyone in our situation would do and that's enjoy it and take full advantage of it. There's many dark and beautiful ways of doing that and I strongly recommend it. It's weird to read about how it is and then all of a sudden you're thrown into that and it's so true. Sometimes you can have everything you want and it's quite frightening to see that that is the reality. It's not a fantasy world at all. It's very real."

Brum Rush the Show
Birmingham - really that shit?
Matt: "It's a great place. It could do with a lot more venues for live music. Most nights you can see three bands and one will have something about them. London's a great place, but I've been to quite a few gigs and I haven't seen anything that could match what's going on in Birmingham at the moment. People still have soul, people still have passion, people still have emotions. But it's like this blackhole in the middle of Britain. We'll do what we can for it, we'll support it."
MARK BEAUMONT   


Lamacq Live  Back to the top
Radio 1 16-08-00

Here's the frontman of the band who supported Mansun the other week, it's Matt from King Adora, how are ya?
Hello, I'm very well thank you
How were those gigs? Cos they were quite small weren't they?
They were fantastic
Yeah? Paul Draper was singing your praises.
So I believe, so I believe, thank you very much Paul. Top bloke, top band.
Is it weird for you though cos year 2000 is a bit of a mish mash of groups and I'm almost trying to work out, where do King Adora fit in?
I dunno, we're not in it really to fit in, in any particular place y'know. We just, what we do is we just keep it as real and as exiting as, er, we feel in ourselves and, er, that's all we can do y'know, a bit of integrity.
What were you like when you started, as a band?
As a band, as this band? As King Adora?
Yeah
The same as we are now except we were just probably playing a little bit worse, we weren't very tight or anything like that, we were very all over the place.
So when did you pick up the guitar?
When did I pick up the guitar? 16 I think.
Really?
16, yeah, learning wild thing.
Wild thing?
Yeah, easiest thing to play on a guitar took me 6 months to learn that.
So is there a ruthless streak?
Is there a ruthless streak?
Yeah, in your group?
Yeah absolutely, I think if there's not a ruthless streak in your band, then you're not gonna go as far as you know you could do. We're very, very ruthless.
So does that explain the sort of confidence, when you knew that King Adora were something pretty good, you gotta tell us the story? When the, the demo goes out, lots of people get quite excited, record companies start coming to see you; do you play a gig in London?
No
Where do you play your gigs?
Birmingham
What do you make them do?
Come to Birmingham
Both laugh
How many weeks running?
Er, about 5 or 6 I think
I heard a storey that by a gig number 4 virtually, people were running out of the gig, on their mobile, jumping into cars on their mobile phones, like something from the Sweeney or the Professionals, or one of those cop drama programs.
Yeah it was all a bit mental; it's very weird.
You were a bit cheeky though
What was the, walking on, this is when I fell in love with your band even before I'd seen them play. Tell us, what did you have as a backdrop at one of the gigs?
Oh `for sale'
Just like `for sale'
Yeah, we had like from Ikea or somewhere like that, I think our sound engineer brought it along, so we had a big for sale like, go to the highest bidder
That's just rubbing it in their faces really isn't it?
Absolutely, but they deserve that don't they?
Absolutely, so that all happens then obviously the first single comes out and everything, to me, from the feedback we've had on this program, do you think that you encapsulate a lot of what people are looking for in pop music at the moment?
Well, I think so, I think there's a big lack of pop stars at the moment, anyway, whatever people think about them, I think Liam's probably the popstar that we have y'know I think it's just a shame really. Kids want posters on their walls and stuff like that. If we can make people excited about music again, then we'll do it. And that seems to be what's happening.
Who did you have as posters then, on your wall?
Posters, Christ, Guns `n' Roses mate, Appetite for Destruction, proper rock `n' roll.
What was the appeal?
I dunno, it was like sexy it was exiting an' an' then they went and let me down and put a load of crap out after it.
All bands let you down, sooner or later
But that suggests, it suggests that if you draw a line between the people that you are talking about, that there's something about rock `n' roll and maybe your band as well where the appeal of it is, live it like you walk it like you talk it. There was no, in the early days of Oasis, there was no stop button no off button
Well that what it's all about, y'know, it's natural don't spend any time thinking and contriving a load of nonsense, you should do what's natural, y'know an' be exiting an' feel it, be sexual.
You mentioned about the sort of look, there's obviously the look is reasonably important, I get the impression that, you gotta look like something
Well yeah, I mean, we look the way we look, we looked this way before we even met each other in the band. I dunno, maybe people connect with people who maybe look a little bit different and maybe it gives them something a little bit more that says your on their level, or something like that, which is really nice cos we are.
It's probably evidence of like a sense of expression, isn't it?
Well yeah, whatever way you choose to put that across, it is very healthy as far as I'm concerned
Which brings us to the single, which you gotta explain to me, cos you can catch various lines from it
What's this, Big Isn't Beautiful
Yeah Big Isn't Beautiful
It's taken from the viewpoint of an anorexic male, there's nothing, in it that's meant to be, offensive or anything like that, no, it's a bit tongue in cheek, y'know, it just deals with that sort of like, obsessive, compulsive sort of personality, it's not meant to be offensive in the slightest, y'know, it's very heartfelt and sincere as far as I'm concerned, and I'm very very proud of what I wrote.
Does the set get any longer?
Does the set get any longer, I don't know…
What's the length at the moment?
23 minutes
23 we're clocking that out
We might pop another one in
24 and a half
Absolutely, no, as soon as we start doing 25 we're gonna…
That's it you're over
We're gonna have to think about giving it up.
So well look, good luck and when will we expect another single then, it'll be autumn,
October
October for the next record, in the meantime we'll play this, which is the current single. Thank you very much Matt
Thank you very much
This is King Adora on the evening session and this is Big Isn't Beatiful.


"I'm happy to sleep with groupies" Back to the top
MELODY MAKER  21-06-00

SEX-OBSESSED INDIE-GLAM BOYS KING ADORA TALK DIRTY TO US
"Everything'll be alright as long as you've got happy hips."
Robbie G, King Adora's none-more-Brum bassist, delicately peels denim aside to reveal an inane felt-tipped pen grin ingrained onto one lizardly hip. What, no pants?     
     "No, pants chafe, don't they?"
It's the last night of King Adora's first UK tour. The Birmingham foursome has piled their delectably vile wares up and down the country, so tonight at Bedford's Esquires they're going to "go wild". Singer Matt Browne sits with freshly dyed hair encased in plastic, pondering the band they are to support. "Seafood?" he sniffs. "I'd never heard of them. I thought that was what was on the rider."
     King Adora make the sort of glam-gnashing, punka-filth racket that makes you either want to tear your clothes off or dash to the toilet, all Supergrass-buzz and Pixies-bite. Right now there is make-up to be applied and a band to be unzipped - just what you'd expect from a group named after an industrial-sized dildo. To the ladies, lads!

The surroundings: it's small, it echoes and it whiffs. The suspects: Martyn Nelson, sultry bleached-blond guitarist and official Quiet One; drummer Dan Dabrowski, whose sweetly angelic face lies `neath the sort of hairdo that would make Beelzebub blub; Robbie, with the grin of a lifelong lech spread from cheekbone to astonishing cheekbone, and Matt, possessed of lips built to bear Rimmel's Very Berry and smear all over the pallid cheeks of rock.
     "The tour's been fantastic," enthuses Robbie. "Best thing in the world. Although they've said we can't smash anymore guitars."
     "We were going to do the old telly-out-the-window in Manchester," Matt recalls, "but they didn't have big enough windows. So the phone went out the window. The lift got pissed in."
      Seeing as sex, drugs and rock'n'roll are the alternative national curriculum, standards are slipping, aren't they?
"Absolutely," nods Dan. "There's  only been two orgies in 14 dates."
"We do seem to be attracting the jail bait audience, though," Matt leers. "Groupies don't need encouragement! There's been a great deal of corruption of schoolgirls going on. Fearsome fathers. We've been threatened with arm-breaking, leg-breaking, being thrown in the Mersey."
"I suppose they have their place, same as everything else," muses Robbie. "I'm quite happy to sleep with groupies."

King Adora's set is swift-shag short and akin to a miniature riot. Resplendent in LAPD shades, slivers of tight cloth and sprinkles of diamante, they teat through, among others, the flailing `The Law", the flying fuck-up of "Bionic", and the fucking fuzz-munching "Super Muff Diver". Blimey! Who inspired you to wrench that poetic masterpiece from your tortured soul Matt?
"My mum."
      It's suitably bizarre, given this band's appetites, that they've crash-landed in the gardens of Superior Quality Recordings, The Bluetones' label. King Adora have supported them, as well as the ultra-mellow Coldplay, and all are agreed it works out well.
"You get gigs where it's the same kind of band all the way up the bill and it's dead boring." Points out Matt, quite sensibly.
What about your peers? Boring, too? The nu-metal mob, for example?
"We will challenge any other band that our penises will be a lot longer than theirs," grins Matt. "We especially challenge Slipknot to that!"
"But it's not how long," adds Robbie, "It's how thick."
"Yeah, we're talking angles," decides Matt. "Thickness and angles. Geometry."
      Righto. How about the Dum Dums?
"They're really nice lads," says Matt.
Come on, you know you want to. Have a pop.
"We saw them trying to be cool on telly. He tried to jump off his amp, fell off, then raised his arms to the audience like he'd done something fantastic. But they were nice about our single."
"They're good at what they do," peeps Dan, feebly.
"They're shit!" spits Matt at last. "Nobody's got any energy anymore. People need to express themselves."

It's true - we're all gagging for it. "Everyone has it in their head all the time," Matt shouts. "What's she thinking about right now? Sex! They won't admit it, so we admit it for them. It's the one thing everyone's obsessed with. It's dishonest to sing about anything else."
      And on into the grotty night. We discover Robbie's ambition to become a gynaecologist; Matt's revelation that nuns give the best blow-jobs; the real reason Carol Vorderman is sexy and Martyn's favourite website (www.tits.com, cybersluts). And also the trials of being beautiful.
"You always get grief about wearing make-up", Matt shrugs. "Its' all very sad. Blokes see boys wearing make-up and they're concerned because they find them more attractive than girls they've been with. So the only way they know how to deal with the questions in their heads is to be threatening. Fear and loathing… fear and desire. That would probably sum up King Adora in two words, actually: fear and desire. That's all you need to write."

SARAH BEE


On Band-King Adora  Back to the top
NME May 2000

FEATURING: Matt Browne (vocals/guitar), Martyn Nelson (guitar/vocals), Robbie G. (bass), and the superbly-named Dan Dabrowski (drums).

WHAT'S THE FREQUENCY?: A Day-Glo kerfuffle of sluttish guitars, libidinous howling and pugnacious attitude, King Adora saddle-up the sleaze-rock pony and give it the, um, rode of it's life. Debut single, `Bionic'/'The Law' is the first fruit from their alarmingly fecund pop tree; a chewy slice of glam narcissism that pays big, rubbery lip service to an `Exile on Main Street' -era Stones. Other influences are, however, rare on the ground.
      "I like so many different bands, it's impossible to narrow it down to just two or three," rasps Tarmac-throated singer Matt. "Basically, I like anything with attitude."

THE STRUGGLE SO FAR: Rising like a stylishly dishevelled phoenix from the ashes of failed Brummie rockers The Blaggards, Matt and axesmith Martyn launched King Adora's shop-soiled Maybelline madness in late 1998. Hooking up with bassist Robbie G in a rubbish provincial night spot (during a Rocky Horror theme evening, no less), the chaps  discovered kit-man Dan through the ancient power of the local news paper ad .A giddy carousel of gigs followed, with professional pop bloodhound, Steve Lamacq quickly pouncing on their scuzzy trail. The foursome have, thus, recently recorded a clutch of songs for the Evening Session, and are now the proud owners of a record contract with Superior Quality recordings - home of indie deities (and sonic opposites) The Bluetones.

JUSTIFY OUR LOVE: "All our songs are all pretty sleazy," growls Matt stating the somewhat-bleeding-obvious. Indeed, sex of the filthiest variety courses through King Adora's regal veins, from their strutting live-performances to the ribbed, fun-flavoured joie de vivre of their X-rated songs. "We write about what we know, really"
Which is?
"Sex."

GET AWAY!: The cheeky blighters named themselves after a huge vibrator!
" I saw it waving at me from a sex shop window," explains Matt. This sense of mischief also appears to pervade the Adoras'  extra-musical activities.
"I nearly killed an old lady with a marble and catapult once. It was a complete accident, but her son came out of the house and started shouting at us."
Hmmm. Anything else to confess?
"Yeah. We don't throw TVs out of windows - we carry them outside and throw them back in."

WHAT NEXT?: nothing less than trousers-round-the-ankles World Domination, according to Matt.
"We want absolutely everything. We want Number One hits, loads of money and to die young: the lot. All the best music can change your life, and that's exactly what we're going to do."
King Adora really want to sex you up. And they won't be taking no for an answer.

SARAH DEMPSTER



Snotty Sleaze Rock  Back to the top
Melody Maker May 2000

"A wise man once said, `The soul is in your crotch.'"
So speaks Matt Browne, the lipsticked, greyhound-thin, pan-sexual alien at the helm of King Adora. This motley, hormone-led gang of Brummies have come to startle music out of its current yawning polite doldrums by launching themselves at it with a mouth-bruising, spittle-flecked snog, before ripping its head off and forcing it, in the final seconds of consciousness, to see how it should be done. And they're due onstage in just a bit.
     "How can I put it metaphorically?" Matt hums before the gig. "We're about to have sex with the audience without condoms, when every other band is wearing condoms."
     Indeed. Formed partly on a building site (Robbie: "Doing your make-up in between knocking a wall down? That's hard work!") and partly at school, King Adora are driven along by the belief that everyone else is "rubbish" and they can save us all from eternal boredom and anoraks. Appropriate, then, that their debut single, "Bionic", is the sleaziest of filthy, rock'n'roll sucker-punches. Missing Three Colours Red? Here's the offspring they produced with the Avon Lady.
     Like all the best rock, it is born out of tedium, arrogance and an inability to find other bands they want to listen to. Matt eagerly lays into Oasis ("too old now"), Travis ("boring"), Brum neighbours Ocean Colour Scene ("we're the only band in Birmingham with attitude") and fellow (but lapsed) blokes in slap, the Manics: "They don't know how to dress any more. I look better in a dress than Nicky Wire. And there's only one James Dean, Bradfield!"
      How about Slipknot?
     "Slipknot?" spits Matt. "If you're starving and someone's dangling a pair of crinkly testicles in front of you, you're gonna think: `Oh, I'll have them, I'm starving'. That's what's happening with Slipknot - people are just desperate and the fact that they're buying rubbish like that shows how bad it is at the moment. Until now? Yeah, until us."
      Cool. It's about time we had a young band ready to take one the world again, with fire in their bellies, glam in their hearts and a career of hard hats and builders' cracks way behind in their past. "Bionic" is coming. Now wash your hands.

EMMA JOHNSTON

WHO'S WHO?
Matt Browne: (vocals) Fond of tops that show his belly off. "I'm a big girl. And a bad-ass, bitchin' disco diva"
Robbie G.: (bass) The last name's "a mystery", teases Matt. The "caring member of the band" who is also described as a "big girl".
Martyn Nelson: (guitars) "Another big girl and very loose." Looks destined to be the sensible on in the band, who's less keen on donning blouses.
Dan Dabrowski: (drums) Capable of puncturing skin with his hair, he's the baby at 19. "Dan's the charitable one," apparently. Oh, and "a big girl".