11044 fans
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. Front man Jason Williamson 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 niggling monotony of dead-end jobs, unfulfilled ambitions and a farcical political climate. Williamson 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 Williamson adopted the Sleaford Mods name as a nod to a town local to his birthplace in Grantham, Lincolnshire. He released early albums 'Sleaford Mods' and 'The Mekon' in 2007, before spotting Andrew Fearn DJ-ing at the small, dingy Chameleon bar in Nottingham in 2009, and took a liking to his grimy, post-rave, drum and bass tracks. Fearn, too, was in his late-30s and had been making music for years without breaking through, but his banging, lo-fi beats became the perfect back-drop for Williamson's unhinged, streams of consciousness and Parfrement left the group after the album 'W*nk' in 2012. 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 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 years 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, 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'.Artist biography compiled by BDS/West 10. All rights reserved
