Scholars
Known for riotous live performances, Scholars will once again hit the road in September to promote new single, Blinda Data.
Torn straight out of the lonely hearts column, Blinda Data is the confession of a man struggling to come to terms with his own entirely unrealistic perception of what love means; the more he searches for the modern day perfect image of love, the more imperfection he reveals in himself.
Vocalist Sam Nicholls explains: "I think having watched a few sappy films over the years, I'd got it into my head that 'the one' was out there waiting for me.
So I'd gone into every relationship with these ridiculously high expectations that no-one was ever going to live up to. Blinda Data is me poking fun at myself for being so shallow and ego-centric. Almost like something from an advice column, only directed at myself... and actually written by me".
The video, directed by Carl Shanahan (The Computers, Amanda Palmer), was shot over several days at an all-girls school and challenges the idea of young girls as malleable fodder for cynical boys in bands. It finds Scholars on self-deprecating form, their posturing, preening rockstar egos shattered as they're ignominiously hounded out of the school.
"It was a surreal experience" says bassist Chris Aylett. "We were dressed up, pulling the most preposterous guitar hero moves in front of several hundred schoolgirls who had been instructed to show us nothing but utter contempt. Sam spent a whole afternoon on his back being repeatedly dragged down a school corridor and the rest of us were set upon by an angry mob.
I don't think we've quite recovered, physically or psychologically".
Produced by Larry Hibbitt of Hundred Reasons - an appropriate choice, with Scholars guitarist Cal Owen currently moonlighting on guitar for H*R - Blinda Data is released 24 September 2012. Scholars' debut album, also produced by Larry Hibbitt, will follow in February 2013.
September
15 Southsea Festival
17 Guildford The Star
19 Kingston Bacchus
20 Sunderland Bar One
21 Hartlepool The Studio
22 Bideford Palladium
27 Southampton Avondale House
28 Ramsgate Red Arrows Club