Image: PMG Photography
Charged with an electrostatic frisson and fired with an incisive sense of urgency, The Gulps deliver an opening gambit that commands your attention.
A visceral punk/rock track for our times, “Stuck In The City” is a song about the slow death of a society which crumbles before our very eyes. Railing against the powers-that-be while swinging at the docile public sleepwalking into its demise; through five-minutes of sound and fury The Gulps action a wake-up call like an atomic bomb, designed to shake society from its slumber.
As frontman and songwriter, Harry All says of the single:
“These days we’re living I feel society is falling on a deep clean sweep without getting us in torture labs. Our today’s torture labs are advertisement, consuming, social media… Becoming a sleepy society, advocated to consume drugs, to get likes, to buy online, everyday we see how mental health becomes a bigger issue in our daily lives.Society is controlled and directed through consuming messages. The idea of your life and the continuous bombarding with advertisement, that sells you empty stimulus of happiness. That’s how we create our own shock or tramp these days. When that disappears the loneliness comes and we become a vulnerable clean sweep society. That’s Stuck in the City, it shows how a person feels in such an aggressive economic and inequality system.”
With the country going down the sh*tter at an accelerating pace, it’s just as well The Gulps are going places fast. Identified by the legendary Steve Strange as his latest and last discovery before his untimely passing, the band were then signed by Creation Records legend Alan McGee and signed to his It’s Creation Baby label for this 2021 release. Cutting their teeth in some major UK venues on tour with ASH since the return of live shows, the band also managed to catch the ear of Steve Lamacq who has already been championing them on BBC 6 Music recently.
Owning a shared philosophy that “music is everything”, The Gulps are a band who are unafraid of a grand statement or to speak their minds. With a defiant sense of belief in their creations and cause, from their limited shows and releases so far the band have earned a reputation for making insurgent alt/rock masterclasses that rage against the injustices of our corrupt and ailing society, while flying the flag for a new era of rock’n’roll.
Hailing from all four corners of Europe and the Middle East, they are frontman Harry All and guitarist Charlie Green (both from a small town in La Rioja, Spain), bassist Simon Mouchard (from Nantes, France), rhythm guitarist Francesco Buffone (from Calabria in southern Italy) and drummer Raoul Khayat (from Beirut, Lebanon). Attracted to the UK like moths to its creative flame, the quintet arrived in Camden from their separate corners of the globe and magnetised to one another with one electrifying vision: “We came here to be f**king rock stars” says Harry.
Forming in 2019 and finding a natural chemistry, The Gulps gained an instant notoriety on the live stage, with riotous early shows at the likes of The Alleycat in Denmark Street and Camden’s The Monarch, and later performances at major festivals like Truck Festival and Mad Cool in Madrid; each hallmarked with their own insanities, from stage invasions and fights with security, to stories of almost scalping a fan whose hair got caught in a flailing bass guitar.
Spending the past 18 months intensively writing and rehearsing in their shared Camden apartment (dubbed “The King’s House”), The Gulps have emerged from lockdown with a bristling, brilliant batch of songs that will form the backbone of a planned LP. With early recordings already impressing a certain Noel Gallagher, expect songs about love and darkness, technology and Warhol to line a debut album produced by the legendary Youth Martin.
“Stuck In The City” is the first of those spoils to hit the nation and one destined to shake it from its current comatose state.
Take a deep breath and swallow hard, here come… The Gulps.
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