Steven O'Rourke posted on September 23, 2009 20:00
'We weren't Spanish. We just liked crowns!'
That's the message greeting visitors to the Future Kings of Spain Myspace page this morning. In fairness, I've heard rumours of the band's demise for more than a month now but, to see it beco
me official, makes Key Notes feel very sad. For years they were, by a long way, my favourite Irish band and, while my musical tastes have changed over the years, they remained a band whose records would always be on my mp3 player and whose gigs I would always keep an eye out for.
I still have very fond memories of my first time seeing the Kings. They were supporting Biffy Clyro in the Temple Bar Music Centre and, aside from my future wife and brother-in-law, the only other people there were members of Snow Patrol and JJ72. It was one of those nights where you know you're witnessing something special and you just wish that there were more people there to see it too. That night, the Kings blew Biffy off the stage and I was hooked.
They were also some of the nicest blokes you could meet in music. Key Notes interviewed lead singer Joey Wilson and drummer Bryan McMahon in advance of reviewing their sophomore album, Nervousystem. What was supposed to be a 20 minute interview turned in to a two hour discussion about everything including table tennis, diabetic chocolate and fictional TV detectives and continued into the night when this blog and Joe O'Shea (of Seoige & O'Shea) ended up discussing the appearance of sea monkeys on his wikipedia page. It was, to quote the youth of today, random. As far as interview material went, most of it was unusable and would result in this site being sued for several million Euro, but it did give me a much better insight into what the album was really all about and helped to colour (though, of course, not influence) my review.
It's always sad when your favourite bands call it a day but, I suppose, you always have their music to remember them by. The Future Kings of Spain leave behind two great albums and a fantastic EP, Les Debemos. My favourite Kings' song will always be Meanest Sound but the best thing they ever wrote was surely Syndicate which also had a pretty cool video.
Future Kings of Spain: Syndicate
The Kings are Dead, Long Live The Kings. Adios.
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