Seeing Scarlet

Biography

Danger, anxiety, surveillance, fear. Perhaps we are all contributing to that sound down in the valley, all in some way responsible, and maybe that's why you're always looking over your shoulder. We're a paranoid lot at the moment.

It's nothing new for Charlie Beall, lead singer of Seeing Scarlet, who grew up in apartheid South Africa, the son of an anti-apartheid activist mother. They had their home ransacked, phones tapped, car trailed; on one occasion the family returned from a day trip to find the walls of their home strafed by bullets; a subtle reminder from the Bureau of State Security that they were being watched. Finally, to avoid a second spell in prison, Charlie's mother fled to England.

When Charlie followed her to London he met a teenaged guitar virtuoso named Tom Goodfellow. Then, while studying at Cambridge they joined forces with Jim Bell, who learned to play bass in two weeks to help form the first version of the band. Destiny or good luck provided the final member when Charlie 'Sticks' Layton happened to be drumming in the room next door to a percussionless Seeing Scarlet.

Through intensive rehearsing and demoing, lovingly-crafted melodies with trademark harmonies and bittersweet lyrics were complemented by searing guitar riffs and a Fort Knox-tight rhythm section. In little over a year since their first gig, the band have made friends in high places from Music Week to Xfm, and recorded their debut single (the stunning double A-side Ugly Girl/Never Good Enough) in Townhouse Studios.

Quite a journey so far, and in this case extraordinary formative experiences have led to extraordinary music and a unique lyrical outlook, that takes a warped magnifying glass to aspects of everyday life from alienation to elation - sometimes in the space of a song.

O what is that sound which so thrills the ear? - Seeing Scarlet are set to echo from the rooftops; a sound to thrill for its own sake and yours.
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CDs

• Ugly Girl/Never Good Enough

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