Officer Kicks, Peace n Love n Rock n Roll

PEACE n LOVE n ROCK n ROLL and OFFICER KICKS 24th June 2009 Sweden

There’s a Citywide Curfew coming and at midsummer it hit Scandinavia at a time of the year when the sun doesn’t set. Since the completion of the second Officer Kicks album during Winter 2008/2009, the knock out feedback to promotional copies of the track Tom Thumb, and advance listening copies of the album Citywide Curfew have been positive to the point of double edged.

If it can really be called a down side, the excited reaction has brought on new admirers, further industry interest, support, involvement and even bigger potential – which is brilliant and well deserved – but it means that the Kicks Army of fans, as much a part of the story as the band themselves, have had to wait longer for an anticipated release. It will be worth it.

There is so much promise with no guarantees – that’s show biz - but before even the first single is released on We Make Things Records, Citywide Curfew has already increased the reputation of Officer Kicks that The Six Grand Plot established in summer 2008. And that is definitely an upside.

Also, feedback from live shows is proof that there are music fans who will love these songs.

Not sitting around waiting for anything to just happen, Officer Kicks are pro-active. Getting on stage playing live, passionately. Among the international interest is a Scandinavian release for The Six Grand Plot next month which is previewed by a slot at Sweden’s biggest festival, Peace And Love.

Most appropriately, on the Rock N Roll Heaven stage! It’s their live debut in this land.

Peace & Love is the Festival with an outspoken message of Solidarity, Diversity and Understanding.

Like Britain, and 21st Century Planet Earth in general, Sweden has it’s share of violence problems.

Music lovers stood up and did something about it in a way proven to unite people - festivity. Located in Borlänge, a small, clean, green town with a space port looking shopping mall it is one of Europe’s fastest-growing festivals it had sold 40,000 tickets in advance to become its largest this year. With Pete Doherty and Carl Barat on the same bill this year, Peace and Love is well named.

Past years' themes starring artists including Patti Smith, New York Dolls, Ed Harcourt, Hanoi Rocks, Motörhead, Sugarplum Fairy, The Cardigans, Mando Diao, The Hives, Sex Pistols, W.A.S.P., In Flames and more; Over the last five years, themes of Peace and Love have been 2004 - Freedom of Speech, 2005 – Environment, 2006 – Democracy, 2007 – Revolution and 2008 - Wake Up! 2009’s theme is Passion – They’ve picked the right band for the job. If there’s one group that are, passionate about what they do, it’s Officer Kicks.

So they boarded a plane on a mission to ROCK! Landing in Vasteras Airport on this scorching hot mid summer day, they were met in with a sign held up for Officer Kicks and driven to town through brilliantly green fields under a bright blue sky through miles of forest scattered with giant rocks on the ground. Beautiful 1960s cars were often to be seen, they look so cool.

Among the scenic views are lots of horses and the occasional buggy too. Everything looked so clean.

Keith Wickham, Michael Skorjanec, Jamie Scallion and Jamie Fisher ready to be picked up and driven to the festival site from the hotel car park.

A few hours later, they were at the artist hotel in Borlange picking up their artist passes and having a meal (the promoters looked after the bands really well) before setting off for the festival.

The Motley Crue roadies had set up a drinking session outside the hotel. This involved getting everybody going in or out of the hotel to take a beer or a swig of vodka. Luckily their band were on next day, as they matched every drink they offered. More about that at Officer Kicks myspace...

Fed and watered, they were then driven to the site which was at a large sprawling park in town. They had a few words of Swedish up their sleeves, but most people seemed to have good English.

Arriving at the Peace & Love festival site with their instruments...

There are a few hours before the set which was at 9pm, occupied by giving out flyers and stickers while making new friends, some circus tricks with fruit (Michael Skorjanec is a champion at catching thrown grapes in his mouth). After some further larking about, a wander around and watching the previous bands it’s nearing stage time. Voices are warmed up and instruments tuned in the dressing room. The stage manager is precise about the set time. The band are ready at the side of the stage exactly nine minutes before they are due to go on, he tells them.

Officer Kicks are sandwiched between two Swedish rock bands with admiring followers here for them especially. It could be a daunting task.

The venue is a giant beer hall full, from half way back, of seats, which people had staked their claim on waiting for the headliners who followed. They could possibly play to a lot of people that won’t come near the stage.The band have come from England to start making a name for themselves. This would mean getting some audience response. It’s down their live performance, starting with if the songs can win attention.

There was a handful of rock fans at the very front of the stage as they took to the stage and launched into Murderland. Despite a few initial technical hitches, these music fans “got it” straight away, couldn’t help nodding and clapping along to the strangers on stage. With each song, Officer Kicks held the magic and enticed a growing crowd to join the party. There was a mixture of songs from both albums with Six Grand Plot tunes like Nip N Tuck, Bunny Boiler and Pictures Of Me seamlessly rocking out with Automatic and The Kraken from Citywide Curfew.

It’s not just the Peace And Love Festival in name complete strangers were offering sips of their drink to me, in celebration of the fact that they were getting a kick out of Officer Kicks, and I obviously was a fellow fan... or to say thank you for finding a badge that they’d dropped when the band were handing them out between songs. Britain needs more peace and love, that’s for sure...

It was still bright daylight by the time of Love After Death – the penultimate song otherwise all that was missing was a waved lighter. The audience really did feel it as it built into a powerful pulse of classic rock power.

The finale, Tom Thumb, was a rousing excuse to jump around, Keith ring mastering the crowds every move, Fisher riffing like a mad man, Scallion giving it as much swagger as Jagger and Michael joining the crowd, literally (to their delight), in a gloriously chaotic ending. And then they had left the building...

There was a shouted chant after. It sounded like Eat More Food! But from the tone of it, I do believe the crowd wanted more... I certainly did. There was a feeling of elation in the air, from the audience, the stage crew and the band. The show had gone down well, left people happy and made a definite mark.

After cooling down for a bit in the dressing room, it was off out having adventures around the festival site. Checking out the headliners, who the crowd were mad for and the vibe of this week long event, in general. It had gone 10pm and it was still daylight. It was surreal and a little disorientating but strangely beautiful and intoxicating.

Everywhere, people were singing, dancing, floating around smiling and happy. Then amongst it all some stilt walkers and fire tricks circus as the sun finally nearly went down! It was sort of dark on one side of the sky like dusk, and bright like sunrise on the other. All night.

Fellow brit band, Scaramanga Six rocked the beer tent full on after midnight and by now, Officer Kicks had made quite a few new friends to drink and chat with until the early hours.

It didn’t actually get dark until the following night after landing at Stanstead Airport. The Citywide Curfew had touched people in Borlänge, and all was good..

Private Parts (Kicks Army cadet), reporting.