Celeste - An Introduction and a Profile

  by Andy Gardener

published: 18 / 1 / 2002

intro

Celeste may not be signed yet. They may even claim that as long as their art remains real they don’t even care. But these rock ‘n’ roll romantics have the ingredients which could make a real-life glamour-drenched pastiche rock-movie. Phil Clements, th

Celeste may not be signed yet. They may even claim that as long as their art remains real they don’t even care. But these rock ‘n’ roll romantics have the ingredients which could make a real-life glamour-drenched pastiche rock-movie. Phil Clements, the frontman, (vocals/ keyboards), who writes most of the lyrics, is carefully philosophical when describing the group’s idealism with “the poetic narratives of William Burroughs. Vocalist/ guitarist Dan Davies, who also writes lyrics for the for the group, comes across as a sensitive yet mischievous imp-man who gets off on penning his songs simply for himself or dressing up like Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust days. Gary Cumberland on the other hand, bass guitarist, with tongue firmly in cheek and an eager "please don’t take all this too seriously" attitude, reckons they are just rock ‘n’ roll nobodies who “live together like The Monkees, lives full of decadence, recording in farmhouse studios, playing at Liverpool’s Cavern club, bedding loads of women, stuff like that…” This Romford, Essex five –piece are a far cry from low-rate stage apes, with not a lot more to show than their electric guitars and a highlight gig at the Army & Navy, Chelmsford. They are contrasting, complicated, intelligent and dare I say interesting. Musically, well, no one likes to pigeonhole a band but think Radiohead-meets-Coldplay-meets James 'Gold Mother' era and you might get a slight taste of what Celeste sound like. But of course this is all short-cut superficial bullshit descriptively speaking. Celeste sound like Celeste and after two and a half years of dedicated rehearsing, recording and writing, have carved out a defined blue-print for the ride into the bigger league. Hear ‘em and decide for yourself but I believe it’s only a matter of time. Phil, a talented writer, allows his lyrics to be spurred on by his passion for literature, notably Oscar Wilde and William Burroughs. He treats us to text-tags on the CD cover- a teaser to his lyrics. “My lyrics are about what nobody knows about, but what everybody wants to know about” he said. “The text on the CD cover is intended to be abstract bursts of romantic art condensed into narrative, which is also the way I attempt to write my lyrics”. Whatever your opinions are on this, Phil’s statement is food for thought- and perhaps more importantly, fodder for the hungry music media who want something a bit more meaty to tear apart rather than the souless, monotonously guarded pop-star lifestyles of the all too many boy bands out there today. We want something to look at, music to really move us, icons to be inspired by, a force to take us away and give us something heavenly to grasp onto- like I said, Celeste have the right ingredients. Visit www.celeste.org.uk for more details.

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