Sleaford Mods

As the UK slumped and staggered from austerity into Brexit, it was Nottingham duo Sleaford Mods who piled their pent-up contempt into an unfiltered soundtrack of DIY, club beats and raging punk poetry, and seemed to best capture the mood of blue-collar Britain. Frontman Jason Williamson (born 10 November 1970 in Grantham, Lincolnshire) had been unsuccessfully plugging away in nondescript guitar bands and short-lived electro-rock projects since the 1990s and had grown increasingly depressed by the economic and political climate around him. He said that there came a point when he finally stopped listening to 1970s rock bands and instead was just hearing tabloid headlines and began turning them into furious, rhythmic rants. The creative breakthrough came on a track called “Teacher Faces Porn Charges” created with producer Simon Parfrement under the name That's Sh*t, Try Harder, before Jason Williamson adopted the Sleaford Mods name. He released early albums Sleaford Mods and The Mekon in 2007, before spotting Andrew Fearn (born September 16 1971 in Burton upon Trent) DJing at a bar in Nottingham in 2009, and took a liking to his grimy, post-rave, drum and bass tracks. Andrew Fearn was also in his late-30s and had been making music for years without breaking through, and his lo-fi beats became the perfect backdrop for Jason Williamson's unhinged streams of consciousness. Simon Parfrement left the group after the album W*nk in 2012. Jason Williamson was still working as a benefits advisor for Nottingham City Council at the time, but the pair steadily built a loyal following both locally and in Germany, and came to wider attention in 2014 when critics took notice of the single “Tied Up in Nottz” and their album Divide and Exit was championed by Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and Anton Newcombe of Brian Jonestown Massacre. They went on to tour with the Specials and appeared on tracks by The Prodigy and Leftfield, before Key Markets in 2015 and English Tapas in 2017 featured high on albums of the year lists and marked their ascent to becoming one of Britain's great cult bands. Often described as a mix between John Cooper Clarke and John Lydon, Jason Williamson also cites Wu-Tang Clan, Photek and The Streets as big influences, and he released books of short stories and picked fights with much of the UK's indie rock scene, before the band returned in 2019 with new album Eton Alive, the group’s first album to crack the top 10. 2021 saw the release of Spare Ribs, which featured guest appearances from Amy Taylor of Australian punk upstarts Amyl and the Sniffers and British songwriter Billy Nomates and shot to number four in the UK. Arriving in 2022, the Live at Nottz Arena EP captured the rambunctious energy of their November 2021 homecoming gig and was followed by the "Dirty Rat" single with Orbital that same year, a clubby, vitriolic banger targeting the UK's chaotic political landscape. In 2023, Sleaford Mods gave fans the first taste of their 12th studio album UK Grim (Rough Trade Records) via the uncompromising title track, accompanied by an animated video from UK collagist and anti-hero Cold War Steve. The state-of-the-nation address features contributions from Dry Cleaning's Florence Shaw and Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro.

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