GuilFest 2006. The 3 Day Guildford Music Festival on 14th, 15th and 16th July 2006

About the bands
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Artist: The Glitterati
Genre: Hard Rock
Performing: 16th July 2005 /BBC Radio 2 Main Stage
Website Address: [www.theglitterati.com]
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The Glitterati formed just two years ago. Paul, Jon, Nic and Billy were in different bands in their hometown of Leeds . Jamie had moved down to London . All had grown frustrated by the limited vision of their peers. But when the five came together in a new band, everything clicked. They shared a love of classic rock ‘n’ roll The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses and a hunger to succeed.

Kerrang! calls them "a stadium rock band done garage style." NME proclaimed them "brash and brilliant." The Sunday Times said they carry the swagger of Thin Lizzy and the glamour of Ziggy-era Bowie . The Guardian says their songs are "strong enough to propel them into the big league."

They are The Glitterati. A rock band so good that the producer of Guns N’ Roses’ world-beating ‘Appetite For Destruction’ album chose to work with them. A band endorsed by GN’R/Velvet Revolver star Slash. A band with self-belief bordering on outright cockiness, who believe they can be the biggest and the best in the world. A band who to quote Kerrang! again "look like God¹s gift to the stage and sound utterly honed for success." In short, a band that matters.

"You need to put everything into a band to get anywhere," says singer Paul Gautrey. "We wanted five people who really wanted to make a go of it, so we got Jamie even though he¹d never played bass before. Fortunately he was a quick learner!"

The first new songs came together quickly. "It was a natural thing," Paul says. The band knew instantly that they were on to something special. As guitarist Jon Emsley explains, "There was nothing contrived about it. We know where our groove is, and we’ve fallen into it nicely."

"We don’t sound like our influences, but we’re not ashamed to admit that we have them," Paul says. "Why else would you be in a band? We all had different bands that we liked, but the ones that we all really loved were Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones classic bands who had classic albums and had a career. They weren¹t just the fashion bands of a moment."

This logic lends a certain irony to the name they chose for the band. It was inspired by a local paper’s review of a hometown gig by one of Paul’s former bands. The reviewer described the audience as "the glitterati of the Leeds music scene." The phrase amused Paul, and it stuck. As the singer remembers, "A lot of people said the name was too flashy, too showy. But," he reasons, "what¹s the point in having a beige name?"

Everything was now in place, but Leeds no longer felt like the right place to be. In late 2003, The Glitterati found a new home in London . As Jon wryly puts it, "There was a rumour going round that the streets are paved with gold." The band shared a tatty, low-rent house in the south of the city. What little money they had was used to finance a tour of shitty little venues in the North of England and Scotland . Considering the tour as simply an extended rehearsal, they billed themselves as ‘Highly Davidson’. In one Scottish pub, they played to three old fishermen.

A three-track demo, recorded earlier in Leeds , had gained interest from several major labels, including Atlantic . But with money running out, The Glitterati needed to act fast. When Alan McGee’s Poptones label offered them a one-off deal to make a single, they took it. Recorded in Doncaster , "cheap as fuck", The Glitterati’s debut ‘Do You Love Yourself’ was released in November 2003. "If it had bombed we would have been screwed," Paul admits. It didn’t. NME called it "so rock ‘n’ roll it made us urinate out the window on passing nuns", and added, "This record so unapologetically loves itself that it’s practically had ribs removed so it can perform self-fellatio." The Glitterati had arrived.

Within a month they had signed to Atlantic . The label’s rock lineage from Led Zeppelin via AC/DC to The Darkness was not lost on them. "We wanted someone who would be into us for the long term," says Jamie. "They also totally got what we were about. They gave us creative control."

2004 was a blur as The Glitterati toured incessantly and recorded their debut album. "We played with any band we could," says Paul, "from David Lee Roth to the Killers. Roth was great. It was our first real tour, and he¹d be saying to us, “Boys, let me tell you some old Van Halen war stories...” and we were like, “This is nice, but the doors are opening in ten minutes and we haven¹t soundchecked!"

With each successive tour, The Glitterati just got better and better. They played with Jet, Kings Of Leon, The Wildhearts, the Datsuns, The Vines. The Wildhearts’ leader Ginger described The Glitterati as "the future of rock." "We feel we can live with anyone live," Paul declares. "We¹ve played with the biggest rock bands to the cool hip bands of the moment, and we’ve always done well."

A second single, Here Comes A Close Up, was recorded with Beck producer Michael Patterson, and released in May. Rock Sound called it "an exhilarating mess of blood, sweat, tears and sex appeal."

In July 2004 The Glitterati flew to Los Angeles to work with producer Mike Clink, the man who cut ‘Appetite For Destruction’ and Guns N’ Roses’ landmark twin double albums ‘Use Your Illusion I and II’. A man who knows a thing or two about rock ‘n’ roll. "I don’t think there’s anybody more intimidating we could have worked with," says Jon. "Or anybody we would have had more respect for." Adds Paul, "It was an honour to be chosen by him. ‘Appetite For Destruction’ is one of our favourite records of all time. You get a chance to work with someone like Mike Clink maybe once in a lifetime and he wanted to work with us!"

Once in LA, The Glitterati did what comes naturally. They spent every night on the Sunset Strip in various rock ‘n’ roll dives. At the end of one particularly drunken night at the fabled Rainbow Bar & Grill, Jamie found himself without any shoes. He had to walk back to his hotel room barefoot. The band also ran up a $4000 bill due to what they describe simply as "bad driving."

And they emerged from the Mike Clink sessions with a brilliant new track. ‘Back In Power’ dubbed a "bona fide anthem" by one journalist is both a celebration of sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, and a snapshot of a pivotal time in The Glitterati’s life. Paul explains, "It¹s about when we first got to London, sticking together, the bright lights of the big city. We were up for anything. It felt like we’d made it."

Returning to the UK, The Glitterati played to packed audiences at the summer’s major festivals, including T In The Park, Download and Reading/Leeds. In London they met Slash. Paul recalls, "He was saying he liked our stuff, and knew Clink was doing it. We had to pinch ourselves. Then it was back to LA for the serious business of making the album.

"We really had our shit together," confirms Paul. "We hardly went out in nine weeks. We knew from the Guns N’ Roses records that Mike Clink was good at getting performances out of people, and that’s what he got with us. He didn’t make us do takes over and over when he felt he’d got the right take, that was it. He thought we could make a great, timeless record. He really made us feel 100 feet tall."

The album was finished on December 23, 2004. It is titled, simply, ‘The Glitterati’. Paul: "We wanted it to sound raw and real but also huge. We wanted it to sound honest and true and to have that live excitement, but we also wanted it to stand up against anything you¹d hear on the radio. These days, most albums are about one or two singles, but with us, every song is as important as the next. It’s always about writing the best song."

"We’re not the kind of band that just goes through the motions," Paul says. "There are bands that have hype and bands that have one great single, but we think we’ve got a great album. And we genuinely love what we¹re doing."

Brash and brilliant. That’s what rock ‘n’ roll should be…That’s The Glitterati.

Biography by Paul Elliott