When a UK band, with a back catalogue stretching from 1994 and a 40-date European tour with 11 dates sold out starting in October, can’t get radio play, then you start to wonder, "What is wrong with British radio?"
The band in question are Archive, and their latest single ‘Vice’ was given its first UK radio play on Saturday, September 2nd, during Southampton Spectrum on Southampton’s Voice FM.
Voice FM have been strong supporters of the band; not only do two members hail from Southampton, but the band produces great songs wrapped up in music that has sonic quality, and they are a fully-functioning collective, a collective of song writers, musicians, and producers.
Singer Dave Pen (below) and guitarist Mike Bird formed Bridpen in 2003 and joined forces with Archive in 2004. In fact, one keen-eyed listener to Voice FM has already spotted that this video was filmed in the city.
Archive don’t compromise. Being an Archive fan is not for the safe and predictable; whichever album they hook you in with, the next one is not going to be the same.
One thing you can guarantee is that there are going to be more ‘singles’ in each album than almost any other band for one good reason: there are at least four or five songwriters in the band.
And as we are all aware, most bands have one songwriter, and within each album they deliver maybe two great songs, and the rest is a compromise between quantity and quality.
Formed in 1994 as a trip-hop act and releasing Londinium as their first album, Archive have built a massive following in Europe; in fact, Dave Pen’s first gig for Archive was in Greece in front of 100,000 people.
This current tour had to be postponed last year due to co-founder Darius Keeler contracting colon cancer.
However, with Keeler recovering and the album re-worked into a ‘Deluxe Edition, maybe this time around UK radio, the music press and British public will get behind the UK’s most interesting band and ask the question: "What is it the Europeans see in Archive that the UK misses?"
Below is a great example of Archive Live, recorded at the Transbordeur, Lyon, in 2012. Discover more about the archive here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archive_(band)
*Unless anyone can claim otherwise
