MUSIC EDITORIAL - Crack Magazine

THE COUNTRY ISN’T RUN BY LONDONERS...

The country is actually run by people from the home counties, which is worse. That’s according to Bob Stanley, anyway, who, along with fellow Saint Etienne band members - Sarah Cracknell and Pete Wiggs - are trying to reclaim the home counties on their super new album.

Bob Stanley: “There’s a huge amount of modernist architecture in the home counties, more than there is anywhere else in the country. And new towns. There are a lot of things that are quite adventurous, but the rest of the country hates the home counties, understandably – it hates them more than it hates London.” Hey Bob! I don’t hate Berkshire, just the berks who live there. But maybe I’m coming round to your way of thinking after immersing myself in all things Surrey, Sussex and Kent as found on Saint Etienne’s ace new album, Home Counties, which is chock full of sun-dappled beats and paeons to villages called Whyteleafe. It’s jolly lovely fare which I’m sure will go down well live when they play Sage Gateshead in June (along with stuff from their extensive back catalogue which features some of pop’s greatest movers and groovers).

Saint Etienne, Thursday 8 June, Sage Two, Sage Gateshead, 8pm, £25.60. sagegateshead.com