The Sun Review by Jacqui Swift : THE ENEMY - Music For The People 4/5A LITTLE man with a lot to say, Tom Clarke has never shied away from telling it straight.
When Coventry trio The Enemy emerged in 2007 with We’ll Live And Die In These Towns, their vociferous tales of small-town frustration, earning the minimum wage and football hooligans selling tellies struck a chord with the masses of disaffected youth.
Tom’s lyrics lashed out in a way that Paul Weller’s had in The Jam three decades earlier.
With bags of self-belief and a cocksure swagger, when SFTW first met the frontman — then a no nonsense, opinionated 19-year-old — he told us: “There’s no point being in a band unless you think you’re the best in the world.”
His big mouth proved justified in July 2007, when their debut album went straight to No1, selling 450,000 copies and helping them scoop various best new band and album of the year awards.
Sombre in his mood and serious in his delivery, today Tom tells me: “In some ways we were too early. A lot of the stuff we were singing about is what people can relate to more now with the recession. In towns like Coventry, people understood those frustrations, but there were still a lot of people elsewhere who didn’t.”
Two years on, and set to release follow-up Music For The People, have things changed for Tom in light of their success?
Well, the first noticeable thing when we meet is that he is accompanied by one Jerome, his very own burly bodyguard.
But before I ask if Tom has gone all rock star, he says he isn’t there because he is needed, just for insurance reasons.
Sitting down in the bar of one of Southampton’s newest hotels, Tom, still looking like he’ll need ID to buy a drink, tells me another thing that definitely hasn’t changed is his friendship with his band mates.
He says: “The biggest achievement is me, Liam and Andy can sit down and still have a pint with each other. We’re still mates. No one’s got an ego.”
With success came respect for the band who, just 18 months earlier, had been in dead-end jobs; Tom and bassist Andy Hopkins selling TV sets while drummer Liam Watts temped in an office.
Says Tom: “At the beginning people wanted to pigeonhole us as lad rock. But we knew where we were going musically and didn’t accept that. When We’ll Live And Die In These Towns came out, people realised there was more to us than just three-chord thrash.
“I never expected the album to go to No1. We were absolutely euphoric when it happened and on top of the world. It was at that point we felt like we’d broken into Simon Cowell’s back garden and p****d in his fountain. It felt like we shouldn’t be there.
“With the first album we literally went from touring in a Fiesta to, suddenly, people turning up offering us designer clothes for free.
“I can see where bands go wrong. They start getting driven about and it goes to their head. We had to stop people and say — ‘Look, I can open a f****** door’.”
There have been moments of indulgence — buying his own flat as well as a classic E-Type Jaguar — purchases Tom defends with his own matter-of-fact logic.
“Well, everyone leaves home at my age anyway and I haven’t lost the plot with the car.
“It was far, far too much money for a car, but it wasn’t to be flash. I bought it because in 1972 my grandad used to work in Jaguar’s Browns Lane plant. I wanted a car he’d worked on. He’s dead now but every time I look at that car I think of him, that his hands have touched that car. And that’s something very special to me.”
Like their first album, Music For The People provides a snapshot of the band’s surroundings. But this time they’ve been inspired by travelling to far-off countries such as Japan, America and across Europe.
Tom says: “Success meant we got to tour the world and if we hadn’t had the opportunity to do that, the second album wouldn’t be what it is. Music For The People is the same lads, two years older, but just a bit more worldly.
“It’s still a document of our lives but made over a much longer period of time.”
Opening track Elephant Song, a triumphant, Led Zep-style howler, is named after the symbol of Coventry and was inspired by the band’s first trip to Japan. Tom says: “It’s about being on a plane for 12 hours and landing in Tokyo and it seeming like another planet.
“It’s an amazing place, it’s like Mars.”
First single No Time For Tears was written after Tom was in a fight with a Coventry bouncer.
Explains Tom: “He didn’t like the jacket I was wearing. It was a brand new Harrington.
“I was totally sober. I was left with bruised ribs but after dealing with a d***head bouncer I then had to deal with a d***head copper too.
“He attended yet never helped me a bit. So I went home absolutely furious and wrote that song to vent my anger.”
In the anthemic psychedelic piano finale Silver Spoon, Tom unleashes an attack on people in the music industry who have fame handed to them on a plate.
“Some people think there’s a fast track to fame. But forget X Factor and that route, you don’t need a golden ticket, you can do it on your own through hard work.” Nation Of Checkout Girls, inspired by the Jeremy Paxman book The English: A Portrait Of A People, is a pro-English song.
Tom says: “I think too often people whinge about how s*** England is, when it’s not. England is one of the best countries in the world with one of the most advanced societies. We’ve got a National Health Service, which the rest of the world is envious of. I’m massively proud of our country.
The Enemy ... Music For The People
“The song is looking at the changing face of the UK. People fear it.
“Like America, we now need a return to democracy. We just have two political parties which are exactly the same. And that’s why young people don’t vote.”
But despite these rants and song subject matter, Tom insists The Enemy are not a political band.
“No we’re not political because we can’t change anything. The amount of times I’ve seen me labelled ‘voice of a generation’ and it’s boll***s.
“We don’t have the answer, we’re just highlighting the problems. The reason this band has got to where it has is because we’re not spectacular.
“We’re normal lads, with normal backgrounds and people relate to us.
Musicians have been trying to change the world since music began and it doesn’t work. It’s down to those politicians who are genuinely good people and who want to change the world for the better.”
Music For The People — the title signifies handing over songs to the fans — is a natural musical progression for the band, who have become better musicians.
And Tom says they are looking ahead to a year of high points — in particular touring with Kasabian and Oasis in the summer.
He says: “I remember playing with the Stones, the band that got me into music, thinking this is what life’s all about. It will be the same with Kasabian and Oasis.
“This is the best job in the world. People in bands forget how lucky they are. I hate hearing bands who moan.
“I will never forget how much I dreamed of touring the world. You must never forget where you started.”
Music For The People is out on April 27.
“The song is looking at the changing face of the UK. People fear it.
“Like America, we now need a return to democracy. We just have two political parties which are exactly the same. And that’s why young people don’t vote.”
But despite these rants and song subject matter, Tom insists The Enemy are not a political band.
“No we’re not political because we can’t change anything. The amount of times I’ve seen me labelled ‘voice of a generation’ and it’s boll***s.
“We don’t have the answer, we’re just highlighting the problems. The reason this band has got to where it has is because we’re not spectacular.
“We’re normal lads, with normal backgrounds and people relate to us.
Musicians have been trying to change the world since music began and it doesn’t work. It’s down to those politicians who are genuinely good people and who want to change the world for the better.”
Music For The People — the title signifies handing over songs to the fans — is a natural musical progression for the band, who have become better musicians.
And Tom says they are looking ahead to a year of high points — in particular touring with Kasabian and Oasis in the summer.
He says: “I remember playing with the Stones, the band that got me into music, thinking this is what life’s all about. It will be the same with Kasabian and Oasis.
“This is the best job in the world. People in bands forget how lucky they are. I hate hearing bands who moan.
“I will never forget how much I dreamed of touring the world. You must never forget where you started.”
Music For The People is out on April 27.
*Source: The Sun
* As seen on: http://theenemy.eu
* OFFICIAL Enemy website: http://theenemy.com
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