Cabbage on the boil

Cabbage

ON their own band website, Mossley ravers Cabbage describe themselves and their music as “idiosyncratic, satirical, discordant neo post-punk”.

Now, going off that resume I really wasn’t sure what to expect.

However, having listened to Cabbage over and over, they’re a class act. I can fully understand exactly why there is such fuss and furore surrounding them.

And this from a clearly talented band who have only been together for six months.

Agency deals, BBC radio attention and a long list of forthcoming prestigious festival dates are testament to exactly how highly Cabbage are regarded and why many punters believe they genuinely are the next big thing.

What I initially wanted to know when I met Cabbage — vocalists Joe Martin and Lee Broadbent, guitarist Eoghan Clifford, bassist Stephen Evans and drummer Asa Morley — was where the band name came from.

I was enlightened by keen performance poet Martin, who revealed: “I woke up one morning with ‘Cabbage’ written all over my body.

“Seriously though, in time we want it to just take on its own entity. It’s just going to be about what we produce as a band.

“We got a bit bored with little one-word named bands. People do try too hard with names, that’s the key, so we went with a pretty anti-band name I suppose. We’re very serious about our music, but at the same time we don’t take ourselves too seriously. There are a lot of bands out there that do.”

Of course Cabbage are delighted with the incredible support they’ve received in such a short space of time since they got together, not least from Inspiral Carpets legend and now popular radio and club DJ Clint Boon.

“Clint’s been instrumental for us,” added Martin. “He came to watch us at our first headline gig at Aatma in Manchester in February, and we just bumped into him later at one of our mate’s parties.

“We gave him a CD and he liked it. His enthusiasm is second to none. When he gets behind a band you know he really means it. He’s been extremely passionate and he’s helped us a lot.”

That CD contained five-track EP “Le Chou”, released in February, with all tunes — “Kevin”, “Dinner Lady”, “Contactless Payment”, “Austerity Languish” and “White Noise” — hooking me in almost instantly, for a vast array of different reasons.

Cabbage write great lyrics, tie in wonderful beats, but this is just the beginning.

Clifford said: “It’s still early doors so we just want to improve.

Pressure

“We’re happy to keep out of London for now — we just want to conquer the North first.

“That’s no easy thing to do of course, but there’s no rush.

“We’ve got so many ideas at the moment, we just want to keep writing music. We’re awash with ideas, so we just need to make sure we do them all justice really.

“I hope there’s a bit of pressure on us to do that. We’re not in this just for the short-term, but if even if that pressure isn’t there, we’ll still carry on with it. At this time we’re flowing with bursts of creativity.

“But also we’re not even close to being where we want to be.

“It’s been brilliant so far, and a lot of fun, but we’ve got a lot more to do.”