CityLife

One more crack of The Whip!

BRUCE Carter and Danny Saville - the two halves who make up new Manchester electropunks The Whip - are sipping soft drinks in a quiet Northern Quarter bar.

On the surface, all seems well in the world: The Whip are playing sell-out shows, record companies are knocking on their door, and best of all, of course, go is here to conduct their first ever major press interview.

But for Bruce and Danny, there's an odd sense of deja vu to their current excitement.

Three years ago, Bruce and Danny were in pretty much the same position as they are now - except they were in a band called Nylon Pylon.

Formed in Oldham, Nylon Pylon were the undisputed champs of the Manchester electro scene (or 'Manctronica' as it was called then). Having signed a major record deal with London Records in 2003, Nylon Pylon were the act almost everyone was tipping to put Manchester on the big electro music map.

It never worked out that way. Following a much-publicised series of band disputes and record company tensions, Nylon Pylon split in 2003. But for Bruce and Danny, the main creative bones of Nylon Pylon, their work was far from over. In 2005, the pair of them are reborn and re-juvinated as dancefloor kings The Whip.

Fresh

Bruce grins: "This feel so fresh. We're starting again from square one, but we're not at all feeling cynical or jaded. We've only played a few gigs, but everyone has been so supportive.''

The most frustrating - but also strangely positive - aspect for Bruce and Danny must be how their electro legacy lives on in 2005.

Nylon Pylon's all-embracing, visceral approach to mixing rock'n'roll and dance currently resides in Manchester bands like Performance and the KBC, both of whom used to attend early Nylon Pylon shows.

There's also the current pop mainstream, where bands such as The Killers and The Bravery are proving that guitars and electronics have a big and lucrative place in the wider pop market.

Do the members of The Whip ever consider that Nylon Pylon might have been too ahead of their time? Do they get bitter about missing the boat that they originally started?

Bruce ponders: "Music which fuses dance and rock music seems much more accepted these days, but that's definitely a good thing. This is best time for music in ages, people are so much more open-minded. We're not at all bitter about anything. It's flattering when bands like Performance say they were big fans of Nylon Pylon.''

In truth, Danny and Bruce were never that disconsolate about the break-up of Nylon Pylon, and certainly not enough for them to want to abandon music altogether. While the rest of the Nylon Pylon members moved to London and pursued real careers, Bruce and Danny hid away for a year in a basement space in Ancoats.

Here they crafted an entire new batch of electro-pop dance anthems, ones which fused the rigid pop sensibility of New Order with the off-kilter virtuousity of electro acts such as Fischerspooner and Jacques Du Cont.

Reinvented

Against all the odds, Bruce and Danny have, to all intents and purposes, reinvented themselves. Goodbye to the cheery superficiality of Manctronica, and welcome to The Whip, the exact point where Manchester electro music starts baring its soul.

Bruce explains: "We really wanted a fresh start with this band. The Whip's music is much more dance-influenced, much more direct, it's less stylistically confusing than Nylon Pylon's stuff. Darker, more real, very soul-searching.''

Much of which might have to do with the fact that their rehearsal space is actually the basement cellar of an old pub - which is said to be haunted.

Bruce smiles: "Our rehearsal room is pretty scary. It's only lit by one neon light. None of the pub's barmaids dare step foot down there, they're petrified! The dark atmosphere has definitely rubbed off on our music - but we've not seen any ghosts yet.''

In truth, the only ghost that Bruce and Danny will encounter is the ghost of Nylon Pylon. But they're emphatically laying that to rest. Long live The Whip.

The Whip headline Club Fandango at Night and Day tonight. For more info visit www.thewhip.net