The Garage Flowers are ready to show the world exactly what they are made of. After a few quiet months, the boys will be back on the radar for fans, friends and frankly, anyone who can handle them.
A confused period saw front-man Joe Capaldi deciding to give up the bedroom-dweller recordings and look for someone to start making music with. What he found was guitarist, Jonny Webber, on one rainy Wednesday in a dreary pub in Bristol. As the pair got talking, they realised it was time to join forces and make something good work out of their current boredom. They found musical common ground and after one too many drinks, The Garage Flowers were born.
And how far the pair have come! A few minor lineup changes later, and here you have it: the debut single, released via Blaggers Records, ‘Miss Maggie May’. The lyrical finesse of the song is in how it deals with the anxieties of moving on after a difficult break-up. The boys recorded the single with Paul Tipler (Carl Barat, The Horrors). The track boasts authentic vocals, loud guitars and meticulously fierce drum beats and testifies to their notoriously raucous live shows. Perhaps the most memorable part of the song is the brazen refrain, “Reach for the stars, don’t let it pass you by”, followed by a cannonade of chords. The surging chorus resonates, showcasing a brilliant coming-together of the band and encapsulates The Garage Flowers’ confidence.
Those who say that living in the city ain’t so hard must have it easy. Everything they own is stashed away in The Garage Flowers’ HQ and sleeping-space, which is actually a car, permanently parked on the outskirts of London (where there’s no parking charges). They dust off the steering wheel and rev up the engine only for trips to gigs and recording studios, where the guitars, feather boas and amps are let loose. Other than that, when they venture out into the big city, the underground barriers are bunked and they cruise into the capital. An average night for the band involves causing havoc in all the best bars Camden Town has to offer – The Garage Flowers: ‘Minesweeper Extraordinaires’. They’re obviously prepared to follow their dreams no matter what adversity faces them. That is just one part of what makes these lads exciting.
Consequently, ‘Miss Maggie May’ is The Garage Flowers’ middle-finger to all of those same-old ‘psych-out’ bands flooding the charts and suffocating the venues. Now it’s time to get back to where it’s at. The Garage Flowers are the Lost Boys of London, keeping the spirit of raw, real rock’n’roll alive.
Words by Alicia Carpenter