Thirteen:13

It's 1997. A young band are treading the boards of London's mini clubs. Two earnest, young, indie guitar kids - Wayne Murray and Ben Etchells - attempting to provide enthusiastic junior-Pulp backing for the animated posturings of a stage-school front-man. The stage-school singer does the interviews, goes to the parties. The other two go to the pub. They write songs, good songs, songs that are just too good to squander on a band they don't believe in. They don't tell the singer. Somehow they end up in that most forgotten of haunts, Camden's Good Mixer, hosting outlandish drinking competitions with Graham Coxon, Food Records' Andy Ross. Their young shoots steeped in drink they become obsessed with lucky signs, William Burroughs, recurring numbers. 13 appears a lot – seat numbers, serial numbers, lottery winners. They adopt it as a lucky number, doubling up to counter any possible negative vibes. They've formed Thirteen:13 before the other band is even over. With help from fellow Camden singer/guitarist Toby MacFarlaine they put together a demo tape and began to get to know each other. Wayne was the passionate, hot-headed leader obviously the most critical but also the one with the most ambition. Ben was the guitarist. But what a guitarist. "I can ‘play’ the guitar," explains Toby, "but Ben ‘is’ a guitarist." Toby was the reformed metaller, "a horrible little sexist man converted by Nirvana." Paul Winter-Heart hit his drums hard and brilliantly, and for Thirteen:13 there was no way they couldn’t have him in the band. Their combined influences were just plain ridiculous and read like a record collection belonging to someone just too cool for their own good: - Elliot Smith, Blur, CSNY, Nirvana, The Byrds, Pixies, The Posies, Jesus Lizard, Lemonheads, Serge Gainsbourg, Neil Young, Teenage Fanclub, Sparklehorse, deus, Pavement. This combination of characters and concentration of ability meant that the creative juices flowed and the band amazed those around them and even themselves with their ability to produce song after song of exceptional quality. It wasn’t long before the studio beckoned, and their creations were committed to tape. Working with, amongst others, the production gurus that are Steve Osborne (of Perfecto and New Order fame) Stephen Street (Blur), the band went to work capturing the energy and rawness that epitomises the sound that emanated from the early rehearsals and get-togethers. Hailed a great success by all involved, the hard part has been selecting the tracks that will make up their debut album, to be released in early 2001.