The Scratch are a five piece rock band from St.Albans. Firm believers in the DIY ethic The Scratch decided to release their first single as 7” vinyl only, on their own Ponyland Records imprint in 2002 and gained some good reviews and was stocked by Rough Trade in London. 2004 saw the first album – DIY, (burned at home and sold at gigs).
An amalgum of T.Rex, the Velvet Undergroud and other good things including a big dollop of themselves. The Scratch do eccentric english rock ‘n’ roll, with weird but catchy riffs over the top of it all. At times dark and other times funny, they don’t do po-faced indie thank god! [Marco Pirroni, The Wolfmen]
“DIY (album title) by The Scratch, as the title of the record suggests, got tired of waiting for the music industry to give them a chance and like many artists we talk about on W&H have decided to make their own way. The fact that they’ve achieved such a diverse yet coherent set of songs and that it sounds so damn professional is to be applauded.”
[www.whisperinandhollerin.co.uk]
Following a couple of years of solid gigging in London, second album Night Bus or Milk Train was released in 2006 through itunes and ponyland.
Overall, ‘Night Bus or milk train’ is a fine album. Whilst they draw greatly on their influences, it’s an album that is very fresh, and very now, and one which indicates exactly how much they deserved their title of ‘XFM Manchester’s best unsigned band’.
Natasha Wynarczyk [www.tastyfanzine.org.uk]
Things moved up a gear in 2007 with the patronage of XFM DJ Clint Boon who via a listeners votes competition on his Manchester show offered the band the chance of opening the Versus Cancer show at the sold out 22,000 capacity M.E.N. arena. Opening for the likes of Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller The Charlatans, Ian Brown and Echo & The Bunnymen, this led to a live session on Clint Boon’s Exposure show and three further appearances on his Drive Thru and evening session programmes.
“Guitar Gold dominated their sound and their set is full of great tunes”
[John Robb - Live review at Manchester’s Night and Day music venue]
2008 saw the release of two further singles with the supporting videos being shown on heavy rotation on cable music Channels, numerous Internet and Student radio playlistings and a short promo tour saw supports to The Holloways, appearances on BBC 3 Counties and boutique festival appearances, in the company of Alabama 3, Buzzcocks and Goldblade. A second regional XFM response session with Colin Frances at XFM Wales was also of note. The year finished on a huge high with a spot at the prestigious In the City music festival in Manchester.
‘You want the world‘ is a superb narcissistic cutie”
[losingtoday.com]
2009’s highlights included the release of third album ‘Whatever happened to Friday night’… featuring 4 tracks that have all achieved top ten’s in the London Tourdates unsigned chart, with ‘You want the world’ in June/July and Teen Idol in Oct/Nov reaching number 1. Added to this, plays on Tom Robinson’s BBC 6 radio show, a live session at BBC 3 Counities radio, numerous regional radio appearances and self promoted local supports to Goldblade and Clint Boon as part of a bi-monthly residency at local venue The Horn in St.Albans (the current buzz town of the uk!)
“A glorious ballsy, ramshackle anthem, ‘I relax to spiral scratch’ is an infectious tribute to The Buzzcocks, infused with the spirit and energy of The Damned, Dolls, Ramones and their like. If it had first appeared in the late 70’s it would subsequnetly have appeared on every British punk compliation since.” [Phil Suggitt, Sindig Magazine]
2010 saw a new drummer join the band Super. The new line up immediately set about homning a new bunch of songs as the band enhanced it’s live reputation at a string of dates including a festival spot with The Damned at Endorse IT in Dorset, the Recharged Radio awards at 93 Feet East, The Great Escape Festival as part of a mini May tour and also radio play on numerous stations including Gary Crowley on radio london, Tom Robinson on BBC 6, Hugh Davenport on CRMK and Verulam Radio in hometown St.Albans. This is not all however, in May the band achieved it’s 3rd tourdates number 1, as X-RAY EYES raced to the top spot and they then took it one better in July when the follow up I Relax to Spiral Scratch did the same, making it number 4 1’s in a row! The year finished on a huge high with the re-issue of the bands debut album ‘DIY’ on digital formats and an amazing 5th number 1 in a row with ‘Alcohol’s a depressant’.
Numbers, when played on his XFM Xposure. “It’s a beauty, absolutely top, old school Punk rock, I reckon” [Clint Boon XFM]
2011 saw us release a vinyl single 'Homely Crackle' and play an instore for recordstore day. We headlined the recharged radio stage at the alt great escape, we opened the main stage of the Endorse it festival on the bill with Rezillos and New Model Army amongst others, we played our 2nd BBC 3 Counties session, we also debuted at Leopallooza festival in Cornwall and released our first single from the new album WAG potential in November.
2012 started with Tom Robinson playing our track Girl's world on his BBC 6 show.
