In many ways, Leeds' HOUR DAY HOMBRE are a lesson to us all. Kicking around since the early days of the new millennium, they got some good early successes under their belt thanks to a critically-acclaimed, self-released debut single ("First Word Is The Hardest") and triumphing in Radio One's "One Music Unsigned" competition in 2003.
All good for boosting the CV, but none of it was quite enough in an industry then obsessed in a new breed of garage-rock clones (does anyone actually remember The Datsuns, incidentally?). So what was a poor band to do? Keep slogging aimlessly, hoping to get a break against the odds? Split up and head back to the mind-numbing day job?
Well, there IS another solution, said FDH. Instead of taking either of the obvious options, they came up with the novel idea of forming their own label and allowing their still-burgeoning army of fans to own shares in it with them. Ingenious huh? You bet. And now, thanks to further bouts of tireless gigging - attracting secenesters like Chris Martin, Danny Goffey and, er, Kate Moss along the way - FDH have actually got an album ready to go in the new year.
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Thankfully, trailer single "1000 Bulbs" demonstrates that while the band's persistence was surely a factor in all this, their musical ability has also stood them in good stead. I guess the endless conveyor belt of service stations and small clubs must ultimately sort the wheat form the chaff, and certainly here Four Day Hombre acquit themselves with confidence to spare.
OK, I agree "1000 Bulbs" is aiming to illuminate a particularly crowded room at present, as its' bright'n'yearning guitar rock, with anthemic chorus and singer Si Wainwright's inevitable falsetto inflections guaranteed to reference the likes of Coldplay, Snow Patrol and lesser-known near neighbours Samsa.
Yet Four Day Hombre's charisma and presence gets them through and suggests they were on the right track after all. 2006 may well remain kind to the West Yorskhire area.
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