ABOUT FIVE THIRTY

I don't profess to know everything about the band and stand to be corrected, I will even sit down to be corrected for that matter. Most of the information will come from the music magazines, and you will be able to see the original articles within this blog.

Five Thirty were formed in 1985 when Paul Bassett (guitars, vocals) and Tara Milton (bass, vocals) formed a band at school near Oxford and helped perfect their craft by occasionally playing in a blues band in and around Reading. Whilst the blues band were getting bigger in Reading, Paul and Tara became disillusioned and decided to pack their bags and move to the big smoke to make a more tangible commitment to the band. This was 1989 and they encamped at Charlotte Street in the west end of London. Their previous drummer Keith ??? could not make the same commitment, however, within days a certain Phil Hooper moved into the same bedsit. Paul and Tara were trying to write songs and banging their feet and generally making a noise, when down came Phil who liked the cut of Paul and Tara's jib as he thought they sounded a bit like The Housemartins. "What a good place to be...". One slight problem was that Phil could not play the drums. Paul and Tara knew it clicked with Phil so persevered over the next year and they practiced hard as a trio doing all night rehearsals.

Five Thirty started of wanting to be a mod band. Whilst looking the part, Tara confesses due to lack of musical ability they sounded more like a punk band. Their sound developed as they embraced the sounds of Funkadelic and R'n'B and English bands like The Who, The Kinks, The Small Faces and The Yarbirds but still revelling in the mod way of life. After the year of hard work Five Thirty were beginning to find their own sound. A sound of Hendrix haze, wah wah guitars, three part harmonies, snaky basslines all presented in a tight and powerful mod-like way that had earned them their many early Jam references.

Tara stated in an earlier interview that they were already writing good songs but did not have that sound. Well now they had it and they were starting to get noticed. It was not just the fans that were noticing them, it was the A & R men too, and Five Thirty were gonna cause another stink and that was by getting signed to a major label, East West Records. It wasn't long before they were to release their proper debut on 9th July 1990 (an earlier incarnation of Five Thirty had already released a 12" single of Catcher in the Rye back in 1985). The single was "Abstain".......

Before I talk about the debut single have a look at this NME article where legendary Radio 1 dj Steve Lamacq talks to the lads the week "Abstain" was released followed by a three live reviews around London and Brighton at this time.