About

The Fleas The Fleas make sunny music for anyone who?s ever been caught in the rain. Big, bad world, little fleas. The Fleas are scouring dirty London town for decent venues to promote their forthcoming EP, party with their following and prepare themselves for a summer of festivals. It?s a traditional band line-up with a couple of elegant twists; glockenspiel, percussion, tight harmony and a Latin flourish, which colour the West London five-piece?s lovably home-grown folk-pop sound. With this musical range the band waste no time in covering enormous emotional ground, underpinned by Piers? sharply English lyrical style. Live, the band?s loose-limbed and inclusive performances are warm, charismatic and always well received, from all classic London dives to BBC radio sessions (The Session) and indie-festivals like Hamswell and Stansted Abbot. Piers (lead vocals, rhythm guitars) is the chief songwriter. Mannie (drums) is a born showman, bringing Argentinean dynamism and flair to the affair. Bernadette (backing vocals, glockenspiel, percussion) colours the set with brio and gorgeous harmony. Nigel (lead guitars) has a distinctive, lyrical guitar style, spanning understated intimacy to balls-out rock. Steve (bass), the band?s most chilled out member, brings groove from north of the border. Behind the scenes is Malcolm Neill, a (semi) tame artist who creates an alternative Flea world with drawings and animation work ? a kind of sixth-form exercise book answer to Gorrillaz. Compared favourably with ?Magic Numbers?, an ?Indie Abba (but with bigger cojones?) and ?The Guillemots?, The Fleas sound at once both fresh and familiar. Catch them live and be forever bitten. Tags: rock indie folk