The 22-20s are from Lincoln, but they don’t have to be. They could be from “Hartlepool, Darlington, anywhere there’s nothing going on." More important is that between them (Martin Trimble; guitar/vocals; Glen Bartup; bass; James Irving; drums) they make the sort of coruscating, primal rock’n’roll noise you’d started to believe wasn’t possible from a young British rock group in 2003. On record (to date, only a limited edition 7” of ‘Such A Fool'/'Baby You're Not In Love') they exhibit a ferocity which moved the NME to declare: ‘The 22-20s are unquestionably the most exciting rock’n’roll rumble since the Gallaghers’. Live, their incendiary performances transmit that same feeling of brooding menace and repressed violence you can find walking through any provincial town centre in England after midnight. “Everything we do is quite abrasive” agrees Martin, sitting in sunshine outside a bar near their Oxford HQ.
“I hate bands who pander to their audience or who want to shake their hands. For me, that’s not what it’s about. I don’t want a band to be like ordinary people. You want to trust someone’s vision. Like Dylan or Neil Young: they’re right and the audience can’t judge them. You have a job to entertain, but it has to be on your own terms.”
The 22-20s have a depth of musical knowledge which belies their tender ages (they are all nineteen). An afternoon in conversation takes in everything from Buddy Guy, the perils of the Low Countries cabaret circuit and how Martin derived the inspiration for a large percentage of the band’s material from an encounter with the ‘biggest cunt in the world’. But it still doesn’t quite explain the how the most exciting young British group since Oasis got here. After two hours unravelling their story you find yourself asking, where, really to begin? Martin affords himself an inscrutable smile. ”At the beginning?”
Martin Trimble and Glen Bartup grew up in separate villages within a fifteen mile radius of Lincoln, North Yorkshire. Having met at secondary school, the pair bought their first guitars on the same day from a shop owned by Martins uncle. It was 1997; they were both fourteen. “I’ve always been into the blues.” explains Martin. “It was the first music I heard. My uncle was in straightforward rock bands but he loved blues. He used to come to our house at Christmas and bring his guitar over. He’d play me all these amazing records: Muddy Waters, BB King. He took me to my first gig. Buddy Guy when I was sixteen.”
Soon the duo were immersing themselves in the blues by day and rehearsing in their bedrooms by night. By fifteen they’d realised a huge gulf was opening up between them and friends who were falling prey to temptations well beyond ‘Smokestack Lightning’.
Protection - we do a lot of it these days. Sun cream for our skin, sunglasses for our eyes, condoms for you know where - but do you remember to protect your hearing?
Click to find all the information you need to look after your hearing now so you can enjoy music for years to come
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V Festival Confirms More Acts!
