If you take perhaps the two most instantly recognisable songs from Keane’s debut “Hopes and Fears”, namely “Somewhere Only We Know” and “Everybody’s Changing”, what’s instantly noticeable? A very distinct piano introduction. Listen to the whole album, without knowing the back story, and you may be wondering what happened to the guitar. Incredible as it may seem for what became the second best selling UK album of 2004, the lead instrument throughout the album was the piano, without use of a guitar at all. And yet it worked.
Now let’s
imagine someone with a fair grounding in traditional hard rock is listening to
Royal Blood’s eponymous debut, without any prior knowledge of the band. What’s
to be found? Plenty of bludgeoning riffs in Black Sabbath style, for a start. The
energy of the new wave of British rock trailblazers from the early 80s. A touch
of ZZ Top boogie in “You Can Be So Cruel”. But none of the downside of thrash
metal. Quite the opposite – it’s not too far fetched to think that “Figure It
Out” could have been ideally suited to Robert Plant in his prime, or even in
his mature years.
This is
where it gets all the more amusing. Picture a hard rock version of that
dreadful BBC show “The Voice”, with a panel member swivelling his chair to
confirm his approval of the band and seeing them in the flesh for the first
time. Likely reactions: “Where’s the rest of you?” Closely followed by “where’s
the lead guitar? Are you taking the mickey?”
Well, no.
There are only two of them. And the entire guitar sound comes from a bass. But
the fact that Mike Kerr’s instrument is two strings short of a lead does not in
any way leave the band sounding two beers short of a six pack. You’ll probably
end up listening to the debut album over and over again to spot the gaps that a
conventional band would have filled in with a bass behind the lead. And
realising why such a legendary guitarist as Jimmy Page believes they are taking
rock to a new realm.
Any connection between the Keane and Royal Blood debuts and
fiction writing? Just this. There was a time when a conventional mainstream
publisher was considered as essential to an author as a lead guitar to a band.
Evidently no longer.
