I hate sob stories. It seems an essential part for modern day talent show contestants, but even that doesn’t guarantee everyone will remember your name. We all remember “dead wife guy,” from X Factor, but put him in a line-up and I’d just punch all of them. I buy music out of love, not out of pity.
Luckily, Pierre Hall, sole member of Manchester’s Golden Glow, is not dead. It could have been very different when he was involved in a serious automobile accident that left him unable to walk for nearly six months. Previously, Pierre was known around Manchester as a true party force, and had a reputation that City Life described by saying, “if Manchester music really is going through a golden age of partying and cool DIY indie club nights, then Pierre Hall is unquestionably the city’s chief party organiser.”
But being involved in something that burgles its way into your life can change the way you do things. Pierre changed his musical ambitions and created Golden Glow (a tribute to Felt and their song Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow) and with songs entitled Locked Inside, On My Own and Start Again, it’s not hard to fathom what the debut album Tender Is The Night is about.
The album was created with a very DIY approach that seems to go hand in hand with Northern ethics. Songs were written and recorded on a traditional four-track with no real grand plan for where things might end up. It is this rawness that fits the situation they were being recorded in as they were of Pierre’s writing and performance.
So now the album is released the only thing left is to play it to people live. And what can be better than seeing a man that couldn’t use his legs, stand up and perform his story. However, at risk of being cliché, the most important thing is not the story, it’s the music.
Words: Daniel Savage
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6_eXaKd4xM
LIVE PERFORMANCES//
JULY//
12 // MANCHESTER, International Festival @ Albert Square w/D/R/U/G/S and Young British Artists
AUGUST//
13 // SKIPTON, Beacons Festival
21 // MANCHESTER, Deaf Institute w/Wild Nothing
