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When it comes to over-sexed, riff-based blues duos, Greater Manchester would perhaps not be the initial starting point for a search. Yet, hiding away in a scummy underground bar, amps turned obnoxiously loud, drums cracking like whips, you’re likely to find one of the regions best kept secrets; The Black Knights.
Tomas Pickford III (drums) and The Dark Reverend, Gary L Hope (guitar), readily admit to disliking each other. Onstage this distain explodes into a tense cacophony of detuned sludge blues coupled with some serious eyeballing and gritted teeth aimed at one another. In his own words, Tom says, “We just don’t have anything to say to each other. You know, if you weren’t here now, it’d just be silence.”
The Black Knights seem to thrive on this antagonism. Not that they go looking for fights or anything, they just don’t mind pissing people off. We’re a live band,’ says Tom ‘sometimes we play and people leave, which is brilliant; we don’t want people to be indifferent towards us.’ In a world where ‘the middle ground’ is where bands strive to reside, this comes as a gloriously bristly ethos.
The Dark Reverend loves ruffling a few feathers too, if not with his ear piercing guitar licks, then his appearance. He unmistakable; he’s the bald dude in the purple suit wearing mascara, wielding a venomous tongue and a song writing ability, which should turn most Mancunian musicians green. ‘I’ve always enjoyed being the freak show,’ says Gary. And he continues being the freak by creating a sound unprecedented round these parts.
It’s for this reason, the BBC have a championed them for sometime and why Recreation Records are going to release a Black Knights single in the near future. Those who dare touch them with a barge pole know that, this is a ticking time bomb in more than one sense. It’s only a matter of time before the astute music throng finds Tom and Gary and it’s only a matter of time before The Black Knights unsheathe their swords and start flailing, leaving blood on their stage. “I’ve lost it once at a gig,” says Gary, “and people didn’t know what to do...”
Perhaps this is the beauty of The Black Knights; people don’t know what to do with them. They can’t be neatly packaged, sold to the masses, moulded into a palatable commodity but sometimes it’s the things that you aren’t force-fed that are the tastiest.
The Black Knights have a brilliant EP out, ‘Parade Of Piranhas’ and will undoubtedly be causing a trash-tinged kafuffle in a basement bar near you soon. Go see the vampire-blues freak show…
Catch The Black Knights at the Corner in Fallowfield with Alchemy and Trojan Horse on Monday 15th March, entry is free. TAGS: The Black Knights Words by: Simon S Wright
Links:
The Black Knights - MP3
The Black Knights - Myspace
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