Palma Violets

Palma Violets are Sam Fryer, Chilli Jesson, Pete Mayhew & Will Doyle. They are a thrilling rock'n'roll four piece channelling The Clash, the Mysterians, and the Bad Seeds. From September 2011 they were holed-up in London writing songs "their friends could dance to" and occasionally putting on celebratory, ecstatic parties about which word quickly spread. The opposite of the last significant development in English guitar music when the Arctic Monkeys became the first "MySpace band", harnessing the power of the internet and prompting BBC documentaries and convulsions in major record labels, the Palma Violets? rise has been notable by their total avoidance of the worldwide web. In fact until a couple of months ago, they had no online presence, no music recorded, and no press team working for them, this wasn?t the product of some fiendishly counter-intuitive marketing strategy, it was because all they cared about was playing shows. It?s not hard to see how word of mouth spread about the band.Unsurprisingly, it didn?t take long for record labels to catch on and in the first few months of 2012, Palmas Violets were courted intensely. From the outset, though, they only ever wanted to sign to one, and that was Rough Trade. Their debut single 'Best of Friends' premiered on Radio 1 as Zane Lowe's 'Next Hype', but was heard first by anyone who attended the raucous live shows at their Lambeth art studio/squat Studio 180 house parties. Bassist Chilli sings lead on this track. 'Last of the Summer Wine', which was recorded by Steve Mackey (Pulp), is sung by the band's guitarist and co-frontman Sam.