The Return Of Embrace

Ahh... Embrace doing the England World Cup song. You see, I got into them very early on, seeing them play a not very full tent at the Phoenix Festival back in 1997 at about four in the afternoon. I think "One Big Family" had just been a minor hit and at that time they were seen as Oasis wannabes with singer Danny McNamara mouthing off in the press every month about how great they his band were and how crap everybody else was. Certainly there was a something about them that struck a nerve, even if his live vocals were a bit shaky, with songs that seemed destined to connect with a larger audience, with their big singalong choruses.

And as 1997 shifted into 1998...Britpop entered it’s dying days; The Verve had finally made it big and about to implode, Oasis had released the audio equivalent of Return Of The Jedi, and the Spice Girls were about to be shifted off their podium place by All Saints. There was a gap in the market for a certain type of band in the Oasis vein - Travis, Stereophonics etc - and that Summer, Embrace filled that vacancy, releasing their debut album,"“The Good Will Out"” which was practically a greatest hits already, packed with the tracks they'’d been playing live and releasing on E.P. over the preceding 12 months. Gorgeous songs like "“Fireworks"”,"“Come Back To What You Know"”, and rockers such as "“The Last Gas"”. Glastonbury headlining slots awaited, and the band filled the hole that the Gallagher brothers & Mr Ashcroft left.

The following year saw them releasing "“Hooligan"”, a quirky little song unlike anything that had gone before, showing a more mischievous side to them, also seen in their superb cover of "“3 is the Magic Number"” in their live shows of the time (Blackpool Tower Ballroom being the one I saw). However the chart placings began to get lower, "“Drawn From Memory"” wasn'’t the big seller that the previous album was, and by the time of the third album (which was like "Good Will Out"-lite) it seemed that the British public had fallen out of love with Embrace. Certainly the record company had as they were dropped in 2002.

2004 came, and the musical climate had changed again -– Coldplay were king, the likes of Keane & Snow Patrol were massive and the time was right for the return of Embrace. They'd been forgotten about, and having had to start again more or less from scratch, found that the best way to succeed was to knuckle down and write quality songs. Of course, having Chris Martin give you one of his cast offs ("Gravity"”) obviously helps, but they showed thay could do it themselves, following that up with a great single "“Ashes"” and an aptly titled album "“Out Of Nothing"” putting them back up there. The knock backs and years of experience had stifled their Yorkshire arrogance, and everybody loves a comeback story, so they seemed to fit perfectly into their role as the people'’s band.

Having seen them the other week for the first time in 6 years at the Preston Guildhall, you can see why they'’re up there again. Their new stuff mixes seamlessly with the old, many of the new songs structures may be cribbed from Coldplay/U2 but so what? There'’s a confidence now about the delivery, they know they'’re good, and they're not about to blow it this time. Whilst it'’s a bit sad that they don'’t take the risks of the second album anymore, they deliver anthems like no other group around at the moment.

The old fans appear to still be there, there's younger fans who never heard "The Good Will Out", but new or old, they love this group. Like James before them, there'’s a genuine bond between the band and the fans which you can'’t fake, and their popularity at the moment is such that it's obvious why the FA chose them to do the England Football song. Unfortunately, whilst "World At Your Feet" is a reasonably good Embrace song, as World Cup song it's up there with Spice Girls & The Bunnymen.

Pity they didn't re-release "Hooligan"....