25/04/11
Ian Watkins and Mike Lewis were young rockers with a mutual love of American hardcore, metal and punk music. As students of Hawthorn High School, they shunned the rebellions of their peers, swearing off drinking and fighting and concentrating on the eternal rebellion, Rock music. They formed the short lived band, Aftermath, during which period they met future band mate, Lee Gaze. The aftermath of Aftermath saw Watkins and Gaze team up to form Fleshbind, a band that had relative success to the boys at the time, with a slot supporting Feeder. Still at the tender age of just 18, Watkins and Lewis reunited and reincarnated as Public Disturbance, probably the earliest sonic incarnation of Lostprophets.
Whilst these former bands were tracing the blueprint, the master copy didn’t come to fruition until 1997, when Watkins, Lewis and Gaze came together and enlisted a drummer, Mike Chiplin to form a new band, Lostprophets. Even though Watkins didn’t leave Public Disturbance until 2000, the momentum of this new band took hold quickly, and they had soon released 3 demos and done full UK tours within a three year period. ‘Here Comes the Party’, ‘Para Todos las Putas Celosas’ and ‘Fake Sound of Progress’ would not only help to form the basis of their first album proper, but it also introduced them to their future bassist, Stuart Richardson, who produced these first offerings.
Where the band had enjoyed a fleeting relationship with a sixth member, DJ Stepzak, he couldn’t commit, and friend of the band, Jamie Oliver stepped in. Oliver wasn’t even a musician when he joined, but rather an artist and skater enjoying his own moderate success. That said, his camaraderie with the boys made him take up Djing to become a fully fledged member.
These demos and the relentless touring caught the attention of Visible Noise, the record label that took a chance on them, and who are still sharing the journey with them now, 10 years later. With a signing to a label, the band took tracks from their last demo, and turned it in to the full-length, ‘Fakesoundofprogress’.
To their credit, and partly the cause of recurring criticism, it was hard to pigeonhole their sound. The band considered themselves to be post-hardcore rockers, but the British press had other names for them. What has escaped the press repeatedly, is the band’s inherent sense of humour, which runs throughout all their operations, and would lay rest to their poppy image if understood a little more. The band are named after a Duran Duran album, but it’s merely an homage to their 80s upbringing. That can be said of tracks from ‘Fakesoundofprogress’ too, with references to early computer games and Karate Kid. There is an element of fun to the band - courting appearances in Smash Hits and wearing boy band outfits, just to give some cheeky perspective to their situation. Fans were more understanding though, and the album went on to be a massive underground success.
By now, they were already being championed by Kerrang and Metal Hammer magazines, but Q, the management team behind acts like Metallica, started listening to the boys and bargained them a deal outside Europe with Columbia Records. This would be a key moment in the inevitable cross-the-pond domination they are famous for now. While in the UK, you could only really count Hundred Reasons as a band that was producing a similar sound, this genre of music was dominating the US industry, with the subsidiary genre, Nu-Metal establishing itself as a prime commercial force. With British indie music falling on deaf ears stateside, it was the Welsh wonders that were flying the flag for the whole of Great Britain.
By 2003, their following had grown to an inescapable roar, with fans on both sides of the pond, in thanks mainly to some well chosen support slots with established acts like Linkin Park and Deftones, plus numerous festival appearances. While original fans had been divided by the re-mastering of the debut album, the remaining followers had multiplied at a frenzied rate and they were merited with UK Chart Success finally, with the title track from the album charting at number 21. The ground was set and very fertile for them to return to the studio to write their second album, ‘Start Something’.
For die-hard original fans, the wait was agonising; while lead single from the album, ‘Burn Burn’ was released in September 2003, after extensive touring and time split between studios in Caerphilly, and the monstrously more glamorous LA, Lostprophets backed out of tour dates and festival appearances as a commitment to taking the time to get their sophomore offering absolutely right. As always, the British press found it hard to champion a band that thwarted the mould, but the music buying populus repaid the band’s hard work by getting singles ‘Burn Burn’ and follow-up ‘Last Train Home’, to numbers 17 and 10 in the chart respectively. This emergence into the Top Ten fuelled the release of ‘Start Something’, which put many critics to bed after it went on to sell 2.5 million copies worldwide.
The success continued and the sound evolved into something that would prove commercially viable for the band and struck a chord with lovers of anthemic rock with soaring textured orchestration. 'Liberation Transmission' gave the band the homegrown appreciation they'd fought hard for, and the album, upon its release in 2006, rocketed to the very top of the album charts. Off the back of the album, and standout single 'Rooftops', the band hit the road again, but had garnered headline slots for many of the world's festivals, the last of which saw them headline Reading and Leeds Festival's NME Tent in 2009.
Four years after their last release, the hype has not dissipated for the lads from Ponty. Again, with a stretched out writing and recording process, the band released their forth full-length album, 'The Betrayed' after an expensive struggle. After hiring the services of Bob Rock and John Feldman, the band ditched the recordings they'd amassed at a cost of over $500,000 dollars, and returned not only to Pontypridd to live, from the glitz of LA, but to the original formula of Stuart Richardson producing their material, a move which they say brought them closer as a band again. They claim this is their best album to date, and at the time of writing, they've gone a long way into proving it, by already sliding in at number 3 in the albums charts.
When these Valleys boys returned to Hawthorn High School recently, to surprise pupils and boost the profile of the Valleys - Heart and Soul of Wales Scheme, the glowing reception and excited fever that flowed through the area, more than fulfilled the request of the Valleys. 'Go on, do us proud', it says, and the Lost - but once again found - Prophets, had certainly done that.
Emma Roberts
Lost Prophets will be coming to the UEA on February 22nd. Tickets are sold out, but call 01603 508050 in case of returns.