Famous Reflect on Love, Chaos, and Creativity in Sold-Out Show Celebrating 'Party Album'

Photo Credit: Anna Dallas

Famous surfaced with promise from South London's renowned Brixton Windmill in 2017, along with other bands that have pioneered a new sound, definitively blending multiple genres of jazz, rock and punk, a central part of a new wave of British rock. Famous' frontman and only surviving member from the original sextet, Jack Merrett, leads the group on a four-night UK tour celebrating their debut album 'Party Album', concluding with their biggest gig to date at a sold-out Corsica Studios. The record, while grounded in a more focussed form of Famous' wide-ranging abilities, lacks not the experimental creativity exhibited in the band's earlier EPs 'England' and ‘The Valley'. 

Speaking to Jack Merrett before the gig in Bristol's Rough Trade, he says his music-making process is largely quite traditional, with most tracks starting with Jack's lyrics and some notes on the piano, which are then mutated to create the sound that it is undeniably famous’. Jack Merrett's unique vocals carry the essentially idiosyncratic sound of Famous. He maximises his vocal range to produce various pitches of screams, growls and melodic notes that strike the audience in a whirlwind of intentional confusion. Sometimes it feels as if Famous are allowing this confusion to guide them through their performances so much so that they are building their relationship with their songs at the same time as we are. There is certainly a sense of learning that is consistent throughout the band's discography.

Photo Credit: Anna Dallas

The gig space, tucked behind Rough Trades record store in Bristol, is cosy, its capacity reaching its max as Famous clambered through the stage-side door and into position. They kicked off the set with 'The Beatles', a song from their 2021 EP 'The Valley', before playing a mix of new and old material from a 13-tune setlist. One highlight was 'Modern Times', where a marching drum beat provided the tempo for slurs of speech and a ten-piece pedal board causing monstrous distortions, all being guided by an orchestral piano composition that demonstrates Famous' sound that exists perfectly in the space between spasmodic impulse and crafted songwriting. 'Modern Times' is one of their more well-known tracks. It was received by a well-versed audience that chanted the lyrics back to the band, creating an endearing atmosphere of Merrett-led angst. 

As the band 'continued to play songs through the allotted time period', Jack provided a soothed presence next to the guitarist, Jojo Macari, who spun anarchically within his given space on stage until his pedal board malfunctioned, bringing the gig to a halt for five minutes or so. Once resumed, Famous concluded the set with "Leaving Tottenham" and "Boxing Day". These songs showed Jack Merrett's definitive songwriting ability, tying together representations of life’s micro cataclysms with simple and sombre messages, relevant to all of us, that show his willingness to expose himself in a display of boisterous vulnerability. Merrett says the album's central theme was Love, which he represents in a painfully truthful way.