
by Craig Ablitt
I went back to Ireland for New Year about three or four years ago and got a ticket to see The Undertones play a homecoming gig in Derry. Supporting them was a nervous band of yoofs from Dundee armed with a barrage of ferocity in their sound that turned out to be The View. I wasn't the least bit surprised when they exploded with 'Wasted Little DJs' to be honest....
From being a covers band playing the back room in the renowned Doghouse in their native Dundee, The View have become one of the most talked about and loved bands of 2006. As with any band they asked each other that oh so eternal question: How to get a record deal? Bombard labels with demos? Get yourselves up on Myspace? Play a load of gigs? Not The View.
Talking from the bands tour bus bassist Kieren Webster sounds extremely sprightly and explains how one of Britain’s brightest talents went from zeroes to heroes the direct way. “You want to know how we got signed?” he asks in extremely strong Scottish accent, “We waited outside a venue in Dundee for Pete Doherty to turn up with Babyshambles and when he did we gave him a copy of our demo. He took us on their tour bus, liked what he heard and gave us a support slot that night,” he laughs. “The demo then got passed on to 1965 Records and we got signed, we also got to do a full UK tour with Babyshambles too,” he says as matter of fact.
Unbelievable considering that just over a year ago The View were just another hopeful guitar band playing the usual local circuit. Their rise to fame has come so quickly that even Webster admits the band has found the transition all rather odd. “We’ve been talking about how different things have become quite a lot recently,” he explains. “At the moment, adjusting to success quickly is difficult yet very exciting. We’re just trying right now to get a hold of everything but we’ve just got to learn how to do it. I guess the reason we are working our arses off right now is to be at the position we are getting to right now,” he points out.
Talking from the bands tour bus bassist Kieren Webster sounds extremely sprightly and explains how one of Britain’s brightest talents went from zeroes to heroes the direct way. “You want to know how we got signed?” he asks in extremely strong Scottish accent, “We waited outside a venue in Dundee for Pete Doherty to turn up with Babyshambles and when he did we gave him a copy of our demo. He took us on their tour bus, liked what he heard and gave us a support slot that night,” he laughs. “The demo then got passed on to 1965 Records and we got signed, we also got to do a full UK tour with Babyshambles too,” he says as matter of fact.
Unbelievable considering that just over a year ago The View were just another hopeful guitar band playing the usual local circuit. Their rise to fame has come so quickly that even Webster admits the band has found the transition all rather odd. “We’ve been talking about how different things have become quite a lot recently,” he explains. “At the moment, adjusting to success quickly is difficult yet very exciting. We’re just trying right now to get a hold of everything but we’ve just got to learn how to do it. I guess the reason we are working our arses off right now is to be at the position we are getting to right now,” he points out.

The band are also on course to score a consecutive hit with next single ‘Superstar Tradesman’, “probably the song I am most proud of,” Webster adds, but the question on everybody’s lips is when will there be an album? “The album will be out in January,” he assures. “Owen Morris (former Oasis cohort) will be producing it because he really got into us when he came to the 1965 Records launch party,” he says. “The record is going to sound as live as possible which people might not get hold of because of that sort of rawness, but we want to make a record that represents our live sets and be an album you can play in your bedroom and go mental too.”
As former school friends prepare to go to university or start working a nine to five, we ask what the band have planned for their long term future, something that the they have obviously not given thought to during their whirlwind rise to fame. “A long term plan?” he laughs out loud. “We don’t have one mate! Our long term plans reach about as far as next week. We are taking nothing for granted, we take each week as it comes although I’m sure there are record company people who have some long term plans for us.”
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