Titus writes:
As many of you know, I was going to write about The
Vaccines last week, but I was so impressed with PJ Harvey’s set at
Glastonbury, that I just had to write about it first.
The
Vaccines are an English 4 piece band, and I suppose if one has to
label them, they could be classed as playing Indie Rock. Their
formation came as late as 2010 in London, and the current line up is
Justin Hayward-Young (apparently no relation to the Moody Blues
stalwart), Arni Arnason, Timothy Lanham & Yoann Intonti. Just to
inform you via my legendary “Not a lot of people know that” series,
Hayward-Young is the great grandson of the prolific English painter and
artist Walter Hayward-Young, a.k.a. ‘Jotter’. The Vaccines have been
the ‘warm up’ act for the Rolling Stones, Arctic Monkeys, Muse and the
Red Hot Chilli Peppers amongst others. A year after formation, the
band made the first of their six studio albums ‘What did you expect
from The Vaccines?’, and the LP became the best selling album of 2011
in the U.K. Following on from this album, there were 5 further studio
LP’s : ‘Come of Age’ (2012), ‘English Graffiti’ (2015), ‘Combat Sports’
(2018), ‘Back in Love City’ (2021), and ‘Pick-Up full of Pink
Carnations’ (2024) which is mentioned shortly.
Zane
Lowe in particular was particularly praiseworthy of them, saying that
‘If you wanna’ (from the above album) was “The hottest record in the
World”, and that praise was complemented by ‘Clash’ magazine who stated
that The Vaccines could help bring in a new era for good guitar
music. The band re-wrote history by appearing on the TV show ‘Later
with Jools Holland’ BEFORE releasing a single. Such was the band’s
initial popularity, that a gig in Kentish Town quickly sold out and
around 200 people were turned away.
By
September last year, the band had recorded its sixth studio album, the
aforementioned ‘Pick-up full of Pink Carnations’, and The Vaccines
announced an accompanying U.K./U.S./European Tour. The LP was released
in January 2024. I mentioned winning an award earlier on, and in
addition the band have won ‘Best emerging talent’ (Quintessentially
Awards); ‘Best new band’ (NME); ‘New Music Award’ (XFM) and ‘Best
foreign new Act’ (Swedish GAFFA Awards). They were also nominated at
the MTV Awards, The Brits, and The Mojo Awards.
As
I mentioned PJ Harvey’s performance at Glastonbury earlier on, I think
it only fitting to request Lex to play a Vaccines live recording from
the same weekend, which is the classic ‘If you wanna’ and can be found
here. I don’t know about you, but I reckon, that despite being written
around thirteen years ago, it still sounds pretty darn good. I
sincerely believe that they have become one of the best Indie Bands on
the circuit, and have maintained a high standard in the fourteen years
they have been in the business.