“It’s about that feeling you get on a Friday night”

What is it about Glasgow? Maybe it’s the notoriously inclement weather that makes the population of Scotland’s biggest city so predisposed to melancholy.  Well guess what - the mighty metropolis, which is matched only by Manchester and London in the UK when it comes to churning out great music, has once more cultivated a gem of a band set to break thousands of hearts.

ATTIC LIGHTS are Kev Sherry (vocals/guitar), Colin McArdle (vocals/bass), Jamie Houston (vocals/guitar), Tim Davidson (guitar) and Noel O’ Donnell (drums). Pieced together in Glasgow over the last few years, Sherry and McArdle kicked things off after leaving university. As Bishopbriggs native Sherry says succinctly, “We loved music - we had no intention of getting proper jobs.”

All five bonded over a shared love of harmony-driven guitar pop and after a slew of positive nods from the Scottish press, TV and radio, what seemed like the entire music business decamped to see the band play a show at Glasgow’s legendary venue King Tuts Wah Wah Hut (where former Creation Records boss Alan McGee famously discovered Oasis back in 1993).

The A&R scrum led to Island/Universal winning out and the band got down to recording their debut album ‘Friday Night Lights’, enlisting the help of some local legends.

Their manager and producer is none other than Teenage Fanclub drummer Francis Macdonald, and Belle & Sebastian’s guitarist and resident rock historian Stevie Jackson happily loaned the band his precious Rickenbaker 12-string for the recording sessions. Meanwhile Bjorn Yttling (Peter, Bjorn & John) provided stellar string arrangements.

Listening to the record, the touchstones are obvious and impeccable – the songwriting genius of US alt-rock gods REM, the frazzled cosmic brilliance of The Flaming Lips, and the spirit of Brian Wilson’s sun-drenched Beach Boys classics.  Songs like  ‘Never Get Sick Of The Sea’, ‘God’ and ‘Late Night Sunshine’ sound like old friends after a couple of listens. Glistening harmonies, jangly guitars, and lyrics which tug fiercely at the heartstrings; this is a band in love with the past while focussing firmly on the future.

Attic Lights are, as the late Grant McLennan of The Go-Betweens (another big influence) put it, “hopeless romantics”. Sherry enthuses: “That’s almost exactly how I would put it.” And of the album title Sherry says: “It’s about that kind of feeling you get on a Friday night, you know, going out with your mates. That feeling when you’ve got the whole weekend in front of you, and everything seems bright and magical. We want our music to capture that feeling.”

With ‘Friday The Lights’, Attic Lights have succeeded. They may belong to Glasgow, but soon they’ll belong to everyone. Watch them light up 2008 and beyond…

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