Good Neighbours, recently shortlisted for the BRIT Rising Star award, have been touring intimate venues around the UK. On 7th April this brought them to Social in Hull.

As Good Neighbours start their penultimate song of the evening, the drummer from the support act, Beattie, stands right in front of me and opens a Tupperware box full of pasta, inviting his mates to smell it. Good Neighbours, and I am assuming the support act, have been on the road nonstop these past few weeks. It shows in this act of relaxed familiarity.

I set my sights on nicking a poster straight away, as I glad-hand my way into the venue; I am supposed to interview the band, and I’m thinking I might get something signed for the wall of my classroom. I put on my best smile, that gives me away as someone who deals with anxiety and impatience. Eight very thin young men, all with the same moustache, but each wearing an impressive selection of different hats, stare at me in anticipation as I barrel my way towards them. I ask them to let the tour manager know I’m here. Whatever hotshot professional journalist image (I imagine) I project, was nullified quite quickly, as Marco the bouncer shouts, ‘Now then baldy, what’s happened here’ and rubs my newly shaven head affectionally.

I sit making the place look untidy until the bands tour manager greets me and apologises profusely, letting me know the band are under the weather, need to preserve energy for the performance, and would it be ok do the interview by email. Of course, I acquiesce. I am not surprised at all either, Good Neighbours have been gigging nonstop, town after town on this tour, Leicester yesterday, Hull today and Stirling tomorrow, America next week. I imagine it’s tiring but a sign of a band on the cusp of mainstream success, and if you can draw the decent crowd they did, on a Monday night in Hull, you’ve got to be doing something right.

Good Neighbours are Oli Foxx and Scott Verrill, two former solo artists with notable experience in the industry already. If you look the group up online they are considered a ‘Pop’ band or somehow even less informatively ‘Indie Pop’ band. It’s a genre label given to bands like FUN, The Killers and Imagine Dragons and if any of those groups appeal to you, Good Neighbours are a sweet and sometimes obsequious amalgamation of all three.

It’s knowingly positive mainstream anthemic polemic, their audience are here for it, and so am I. Biggest cheer of the night was for their song ‘HOME’ and Oli’s announcement of the song hitting two million streams; almost every audience member pulled out their phones to record this one. It’s a well-created pop song, that sounds the same live as it does on the record. Everything about the band’s live show was hyper professional and polished, the sound is big, heavily produced, compressed so it’s not too loud. And as musicians they are as efficient as it gets.

Oli’s voice is great, he cuts a boy next door vibe, smiling with joy and dancing like nobody is watching, swapping between rhythm guitar and tambourine. The vocal harmony and effects are the key to the bands style. Oli and Scott (and their handful of accomplished session musicians) jive triumphantly through 4/4, on the beat, four chord anthems crafted with earworms perfect for their unsurprisingly huge Tik Tok popularity. The crowd whistle along, and Oli seems to have a genuine connection with their fans. They sing and smile sweetly to lines like ‘It’s my mother’s cooking when I can’t have it’ in the viral hit ‘Home’ and ‘You shoot for the stars, but you settle for less’ In my favourite of the night, ‘Starry Eyed’. It’s a euphoric dreamscape that I imagine goes down a storm at a festival.

There is a Paul Whitehouse in the Fast Show ‘Isn’t music brilliant, isn’t Hull brilliant!’ sentiment to the front man and I don’t say that as a put down, in fact it’s a nice antithesis to the postmodern-grit indie bands I usually see at this level. When the band let loose was when I enjoyed them the most, particularly in their newer songs not quite moulded by process and filter. It’s all about energy and vibe, they are a fun and thoroughly entertaining band to watch live and I can’t say fairer than that.

I can see good things for this project, and I hope they stick to their anti-irony, good time all the time songwriting philosophy – because at the very least we are in for a better quality of pop music when these guys hit the mainstream.

 

Beattie

 

Good Neighbours

 

Good Neighbours Links:

Official Website

Latest Track: Ripple

Recent Track: Home

Following this spring run, Good Neighbours are so far confirmed for the following global summer
festivals with more expected to be announced in due course:

June 21 Summerfest, Milwaukee, WI (US)
July 11 TRNSMT, Glasgow (UK)
Aug 1 Hinterland Music Festival, Saint Charles, IA (US)
Aug 2 Osheaga Festival, Montreal, QC (CA)
Aug 15 MS Dockville, Hamburg, Germany (EU)
Aug 22 Rock En Seine, Paris, France (EU)