CityLife

Interview: Help Stamp Out Loneliness

Help Stamp Out Loneliness

THE birth of Manchester band Help Stamp Out Loneliness is a perfect example of the old idiom, ‘a leopard can’t change its spots’.

The songwriting core of the Manc indie-pop outfit – guitarist Bentley Cooke and bassist Colm McCrory – both found themselves seeking a new change of musical direction as they nervously entered their thirties. 

Having first made their name in cult indie janglers Language Of Flowers, the musical pair were eager to cast aside their cutesy indie colours and embrace something a little more grown-up.

However, as they soon discovered, the indie rehabilitation process wasn’t quite as easy as they first thought.

“There should be a recovery clinic for indie sufferers!” laughs Bentley, over beers in a busy Northern Quarter bar. “We were quite happy to move on from the fey indie lifestyle. But we kept getting drawn back.

"The lure of button badges and corduroy jackets was just too much. And anyway, if you look at someone like Jarvis Cocker or John Peel, maybe it is possible to maintain the indie lifestyle as you get older. And keep your dignity.” 

Evidently, an indie leopard can’t change its indie spots. But while Bentley and Colm didn’t undergo a radical 2009 dubstep makeover (thank goodness), they have smartly recalibrated their indie ambitions. 

Familial cheeriness

The duo’s much-heralded new band, Help Stamp Out Loneliness, (named after a Nancy Sinatra song) is perfectly poised jangle-pop with a grown-up mindset: think Belle and Sebastian swapping rare Smiths vinyls with Stereolab in the corner of the Star and Garter, while Jarvis Cocker looks on with a raised eyebrow.

The Manc sextet are indie in the C86 sense, indie in the corduroy jackets and button badges sense, indie in the John- Peel-would-have-utterly-adored them sense. But most importantly, HSOL are indie in that best tribalistic sense of the word – a band to take to your hearts and become utterly immersed in their familial cheeriness. 

“I’d like to think we’re a band who people can become obsessed with,” says Bentley. “With the exception of The Smiths, I can’t name another Manchester band who has had that effect on their audience – where both the band and their fans can exist in their own little cult universe.” 

The current line-up of HSOL – Bentley and Colm, singer Dee Lucille Campbell, Louise Winfield on organ/vocals, Katherine McMahon on keys/vocals and Ben Ambridge on drums – become complete last year, after Bentley cherry-picked his elite indie squad through a very long process of internet adverts and, of course, drunken encounters at the Star And Garter on Saturday nights (“it’s like our spiritual home”, beams Louise).

The final member to join was Belfast-born singer Dee, (“She was about the 16th person to audition!” says an incredulous Bentley), the lady who brings the showbiz sparkle to HSOL’s otherwise grubby indie world. 

Looking like she’s stepped straight out of the musical show Cabaret, all perfect pixie hairstyle and elegant Fifties-style dress, Dee is the band’s spotlight-grabbing glamourpuss, blessed with a Nico-like voice and boasting an impressive CV in musical theatre and cabaret performance. 

Where her bandmates might be spotted in Manchester’s scuzzy indie discos, you’re more likely to find Dee mingling in grander showbiz circles. 

'Darkness and angst'

“I’m good friends with David Gest,” she says, as the floor clatters with the sound of a celeb name being dropped. “I went to his house in London to audition for a theatre show he was producing, and we became friends from that. I’ve been out for dinner with him a few times. Has he ever come to see Help Stamp Out Loneliness? Not yet. But I’m sure he’ll like us. He has great taste.” 

A West End starlet fronting a Manc indie band might seem an incongruous mix, but then, the best and most compelling indie-pop should always come with a good dose of skewed, diamond-encrusted glamour.

Further evidence of the band’s duality came with their awesome debut single, Torville And Dean, an intoxicating blast of boy-girl harmony-laden pop genius which captured perfectly their ability to coat macabre stories with sugar-coated melodies. 

“There’s a lot of hidden darkness in our lyrics,” says Dee with a mischievous grin. “It’s easy to get the false impression of us, because we’ve got three girls in the band, singing very pretty harmonies. But lyrically, we’re definitely not all sweetness and light.

There’s a lot of darkness and angst in there. I think by the time we record a full album, our songs will be much more angry and violent.”

Tipped as one of the big highlights at next week’s In The City, the band will be joined for all their forthcoming live dates by a new member, guitarist Craig Gannon, the axeman who was briefly in The Smiths back in 1986 (Bentley smiles: “Everyone is going on about Johnny Marr joining The Cribs. But I’d like to think Craig Gannon joining this band is more of a bigger news story!”). 

But then again, perhaps we shouldn’t really be discussing the band’s future prospects. HSOL just aren’t the type of people to plot cynical careerist masterplans. They’re too busy concentrating on the here and now; throwing shapes and going bonkers on the cider-soaked indie dancefloor, putting romance, tattered glamour and cool button badges back into the heart of indie-pop, where it truly belongs. Prepare to have your hearts stolen. 

“The plan for this band is to make proper indie a global concern again,” exclaims Bentley. “Twee, limp-wristed indie pop has fallen out of favour recently, and we’d like to put it back on map. We’ll kidnap bands like The Courteeners and Kasabian and force them to listen to loads of twee indie music until their brains are corrupted. The death of ladrock will make way for the rise of twee indie-pop once more.”

Help Stamp Out Loneliness play Night And Day on Saturday, October 17, 2009. For info visit – myspace.com/ helpstampoutloneliness.