Lippy quartet THE OTHERS are slap bang in the middle of the guerilla-gigging, fan-texting Londoncentric young bands recently coralled together by the NME for their "London's Burning" piece. W&H tend to be wary of press-based scenes, but in second single "Stan Bowles", The Others display a great, ragged charm that looks likely to set the charts alight over the next few weeks. Reason enough to catch up with charismatic frontman Dominic Masters, who's fresh from playing a show at London's new Koko venue that ended with the - by now - customary stage invasion.
Dominic Masters is a true gentleman. Not only is he considerate in insisting on returning W&H's call and paying for it himself, but he also sings a touching version of "Stan Bowles" down the dog and bone to us into the bargain. More about that in the moment, but Dominic, what is it with legendary footballer "Stan Bowles" ? Are you all longtstanding QPR fans to a man or what?
"No, no, I should correct you now before we go any further," replies Dominic, who's fairly brimming over with information.
"It's really about my best mate Peter Doherty, who you no doubt know is a driving force behind The Libertines and Babyshambles..."
Yeah, I think I've heard the odd whisper of him...
"Right," laughs Dominic.
"Well, aside from Peter being a QPR fan himself, there are a lot of parallels between Peter and Stan Bowles. I mean, Stan had a chequered career, moving from QPR to Nottingham Forest in Brian Clough's day, then back to QPR and finally to Brentford. But he was a bit of a tortured soul and had a big taste for alcohol. He liked to get intoxicated and so does Pete, they're both great, mercurial characters."
He pauses for a second.
"So yeah, it's written in tribute to Pete. I mean, I can't even begin to thank him for all the help he's given us. He's helped us put on gigs all over the place, given us supports with Babyshambles, I could go on for ages."
Presumably The Others aspire to the kind of nonchalent genius Pete is famed for himself, but surely the lyrics to "Stan Bowles" are at least partly autobiographical, as well as being about Pete. We make this point and Dominic proceeds to - very sweetly - serenade us with an impromptu version of the song down the 'phone...
"Yeah, it's the story of the two of us....."When I first me you, you were wearing a tunic, eyes glazed over...""
I'm touched Dominic, I must say. I see what you mean and also the reference to "Stan Bowles" with you "playing football in Victoria Park" and Pete being "Stan Bowles, QPR 1974."
"Yeah, well the best way I can think of to say thank you is to write a song for a friend," says Dominic with obvious sincerity. "Especially someone as great a friend as Peter."
Cool. As to Stan's own mercurial behaviour, I heard a great story about the way Stan was always rumoured to be down the bookies 15 minutes before kick-off time at Loftus Road of a Saturday afternoon. He'd be placing bets, then suddenly just turn up before kick-off and invariably play a blinder. A great meverick character, for sure...
"Right, yeah," laughs Dominic, "but later in his career, when he was at Brentford, he'd still be doing that and he'd be in the betting shop as late as 5 to 3. Apparently there used to be a bookies at the corner near Brentford's ground. Talk about cutting it fine."
"There's another great story about his last match, his testimonial at Brentford," Dominic continues, barely missing a beat.
"There was 15,000 people crammed into the ground and he's out in the centre circle and they're interviewing him...and bear in mind they loved him madly at Brentford too....and they say to him, "So, Stan, we love you at Brentford, we bet you've really enjoyed being here the best in your career?"....and Stan just goes "Nah, mate, I enjoyed QPR much better...." Can you imagine?"
But that's genius for you: unpredictable to the last, eh? Anyway, well back to the present day and NME'S "London's Burning" piece. Is London really as exciting as they suggest just now? Do you feel a kinship with bands like Babyshambles?
"Yeah, we do, but you must understand that for us to get as far as we have now talking to you this afternoon...and we're only just on to our second single... has taken us two long, hard years," Dominic stresses.
"Most of us in the bands who were featured in that piece have travelled and worked together in the city and on our way we've built a community with us. It's bands like The Libertines, Babyshambles, The Paddingtons, Thee Unstrung...we always try to select bands as good as ourselves we can have a good party with and help each other out. Our whole thing is about breaking down the barriers between band and fans....that's why we give out our mobile phone numbers to all our fans and we readily encourage our nationwide 853 Kamikaze stagediving fanbase."
Right. I've read about how you organise parties for the fans where they can socialise with you after your shows. I admire the idea entirely, but is it really workable as the band become more of a commercial property?
"Yeah, because the kids can hang onto us," says Dominic, and it's difficult to doubt his altruism, the way he speaks.
"They can find out who we are. We've nothing to hide. We get kids calling us at 3 in the morning. I'm often getting calls from young kids all over...."Hi, this is Kelly from Blackpool...am I really talking to Dominic from The Others?"...they can hardly believe we really mean it this much. They're shocked. But, y'know, I feel priveleged to be doing this."
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Does your significant other mind you being so available?
"Well, obviously I have to turn the phone off at times," he replies, "but I am contactable most of the time. I wouldn't want it any other way."
But with fame/ notoriety come the inevitable trappings. You just played a high profile NME-rated gig @ Koko, formerly the Camden Palace and you're all over the place in terms of coverage. How are you coping with this surge of interest?
"It's pretty incessant, yeah," agrees Dominic.
"But you have to deal with it all, it's all part and parcel. We've just done a David Bailey photo shoot actually."
Really? What's he like in real life?
"He's very professional," considers Dominic, "but it's very much just work with him. Whether you're a writer, a TV personality, a band...whatever, it's a conveyor belt with him. He's very Austin Powers the way he talks...everything's "groovy, baby" y'know. You couldn't have like an iconic friendship with him. Having said that, he's done a brilliant session with us for the NME yearbook."
That's supposed to be quite an accolade. Do you feel that about it?
"Well, yeah, we're flattered because that suggests they think we're a band who will stand up in 10 or 15 years. We are dead serious, we want to be a band like The Charlatans who will be around for a long time. We want our album to be this generation's "Definitely Maybe".
That's quite a billing to live up to, but certainly Dominic talks a credible fight. And his band aren't averse to literally taking their muse directly to the people, often via guerilla gigging and performing spontaneous sets on tube trains. Dominic, what's with all this?
"Well, you're a journalist, you must often see, what, 200 gigs a year?"
It's been known, yeah.
"Right, well I bet a lot of those are in established venues, same for the kids who go to shows, week in and week out. I mean, I'm sure they love lots of the gigs they go to, but the memories of them all merge into one, right?"
Fair enough, yeah, in some cases anyway.
"Well, it's something different to get 200 kids watching a band on a tube train going from Hammersmith to Liverpool Street and playing a great, 35-minute set, ain't it? We've done that..we got a police escort an' all," he finishes proudly - or should I say - pauses for a second or three.
"Yeah, and we done a gig in a tree in Regent's Park and lots more. Play in places like that and security guards don't know what's hit them. We did a gig early in the morning on the zebra crossing at Abbey Road with 100 kids there. Why not? That's what you can achieve with the internet and text messaging....it's the best possible way of starting a riot in the middle of the road. Being in a band should mean something, it should get you noticed if you've something to say."
The Others certainly do have plenty to say. Their manifesto on their website: www.letskilltheothers.com states that with The Others, it's "not fame, but notoriety, not music, but the message" that drives the band. But Dominic, mate, before we have to leave you, what would you really like to achive above all things with The Others?
"I want an 853 stagediving pub chain across the country!" he replies excitedly.
"I've promised our fans we'd buy youth clubs because it's hard as fuck for kids due to clubs having a strict over-18s policy. I mean, as it is, twice a week I bring 60 kids back to my two-bedroom flat, and while I love doing that, obviously I can't do it forever - i need some privacy. But I want to provide safehouses for kids to stay out all night and socialise without getting into trouble."
You really mean this, don't you?
"Yeah, I do," he says, quite openly.
"I've no illusions about the business side. We won't be able to do it with our first album, or the second, but if the debts get paid off and all the advances settled and the money's on the table, then maybe we can make it a reality. You watch."
We will, don't worry. Yes, it's easy to scoff at such youthful idealism, but whatever the result, it's clear Dominic Masters and his compadress will give all this their very best shot. The Others are a new breed of agent provocateur out to shake the system. So far, the foundation shifting seems to be going according to plan.
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