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GOING UNDERGROUND

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10 June 2008

Billy Bragg is the Bard of Barking, Ian Dury was Lord Upminster and the Artic Monkeys are the voice of Sheffield. The folkloric tales of all these musicians have marked them out to be the standard bearers of a certain type of music, standing out from the hordes of generic pop music pumped out by MTV, writes Jill Wilson...

Soon there may be some others treading into the same limelight, but this time telling tales of the streets of Peckham.

Releasing their second single this week The Metros, a Peckham band quickly working their way above the ranks of mediocre bands crowding the Brit music scene still live in the area they love even though others may have been tempted away, romanced by their burgeoning fame.

Songwriter and guitarist Jak Payne said: "We all grew up in south London. I met Fredi at Dog Kennel Hill Primary School and Sauly at The Charter School in East Dulwich.

"We all still live in Peckham and are planning to move into a house together soon."

The band is Sauly Adamczewski on vocals, Joe Panucci on bass, Charlie Elliott on guitar and Federico Von Behr on drums.

They are influenced by Ian Dury and love the attitude of the Beastie Boys. They enjoy the music of the late seventies and early eighties, including Squeeze.

Jak said: "Our songs are influenced by where we grew up. Sauly sings in a London accent but this is not a conscious decision, it is just how he sings."

"The songs come from embellished grains of truth from what we see around us which we exaggerate. I would describe our music as fairground music, stuff you would listen to as you ride the dodgems."

The band were signed by James Endeacott, proprietor of 1965 Records, who famously signed the Libertines to Rough Trade and signed Dundee band The View to his label.

About two years ago he watched The Metros at the Brixton Windmill the night England lost to Portugal in the World Cup.

Jak said: "He was really upset and spent most of the night outside crying but took an interest in us."

At the time, the band were still in school, before they began to record and perform last year. They sold about 10,000 copies of their first single, Education Pt 2, and are hoping that their next single will be even more successful.

For most of 2008, they have been on tour all over the country playing in venues from Southhampton to Aberdeen.
Jak said: "We have been away lately so have not been keeping up with the music scene but have mostly been listening to the Mystery Jets on our tour bus."

They recently played a gig with Madness at the Royal Albert Hall and are playing at a number of festivals this summer including Glastonbury, Reading, Leeds, T in the Park, Oxygen and Summersonic in Japan.

Jak said: "We are really looking forward to playing the Left Field at Glastonbury on Friday night and in Tokyo and Osaka in August.

"It is quite an achievement to go out to Japan and we are really excited about playing there as everybody wants to go there. But our favourite place to play is in London. We love to play surrounded by our friends and people who love our music".

The band is releasing their first album in September and have not yet decided on a name. They have considered Soap Dodgers Anonymous which they think describes them well but are open to suggestions.

They are also looking to expand the band with a saxophone and keyboard player and plan to record a second album in the future.

Their new single, Last of the Lookers, is released on Monday, June 2. More information about the band can be found at www.themetros.com or http://www.myspace.com/themetrosband.

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