Review: Doubtful Bottle's certain hit

The Doubtful Bottle: Eye (single)
Cracking new single - The Doubtful Bottle from North Yorkshire.Cracking new single - The Doubtful Bottle from North Yorkshire.
Cracking new single - The Doubtful Bottle from North Yorkshire.

Timeless guitar chords, catchy hooklines, Bedale and Masham’s The Doubtful Bottle may change and evolve over the years but they remain a classic jingly-jangly British band. Harrogate knows them well from numerous appearances at the Blues Bar, not just in their current line-up but from their previous incarnation as The Conspirators.

In truth, fans of those early days will still recognise the sound on the new single Eye, paired with Trickery.

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The core of lead guitarist/vocalist John Gillies and lead singer Genevieve Gillies is still at the heart of everything this classy four-piece band turns its hands to, bolstered by bassist Nathan Reeves and drummer Jim Beadle.

Eye, with its socially-aware lyrics about the dangers of Big Brother (that’s today’s all-seeing surveillance society, not the TV reality show), has more edge than usual both in John’s singing and his darker, stinging, more experimental guitar lines.

Trickery is more conventional, though still memorable thanks to Genevieve’s superb soaring vocals with that slightly folky tinge as befits a band from a rural county.Recorded at The Metway studios in Brighton, made famous by The Levellers, the single sparkles with vim and vinegar without ever losing its cool.

The Doubtful Bottle may flirt with the dark melodrama of previous great British bands like Echo & The Bunnymen but they’re too sunny to fully embrace it.Word is the band may shortly be playing London. If you don’t feel like travelling that far, you can catch them this Saturday night at The Castle Tavern in Richmond.

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