It’s been seven years since Six Towns released their award-nominated album, S.P.I.T.F.I.R.E. A decade ago, the rock n rollers were considered one of Stoke-on-Trent’s biggest wave makers, with sell out gigs in Staffordshire’s biggest venues, a following throughout the UK, support slots for some of the UK’s biggest underground touring bands and an ever growing support in the industry.
The band hadn’t released any new music since 2016, having taken an extended hiatus – life gets like that, doesn’t it – but this Christmas gifted fans a seven-track record of previously unreleased anthems that would have otherwise gone unheard in the form of the album Welcome To Asylum.
Recorded in 2013-2014, some 10 years ago, bassist Matt Litherland recently rediscovered the tracks and felt compelled to get them out in the ether. “A few months ago I found an old USB stick in the kitchen island (see how old I am now) and decided to stick it on. I felt a little bit excited at first, but that was soon replaced with being slightly gutted that none of this stuff ever really got ‘out there’ in the wild.”
After uncovering a few more tracks that never quite made it to be singles or onto EPs, Six Towns soon had seven new tracks that might have never seen the light of day, and turned them into a nostalgic record of anthemic choruses and attention grabbing riffs that hark back to the glory days of gritty guitar music.
“There were two kinds of EP’s we looked at around that time and neither ever made it to release,” Matt explained. “One was a concept EP called Welcome to Asylum, recorded at Tremolo in Silverdale, and the other, a three-track EP recorded at Animal Farm in Bermondsey, London, which did have a video release on Wasting Away, but never got released digitally. This was the peak of our kind of exploratory phase I suppose on what we could get away with and our first delve into a bit of a deeper, more epic sound.”
The album kicks off with Wasting Away, and immediately captures the essence of Six Towns’ indie rock sound. Energetic guitar and Liam’s distinctive vocals set the tone for what’s to come, giving listeners a taste of what it might have been like if Richard Ashcroft fronted Stereophonics.
For the People maintains the momentum with a powerful combination of lead guitar work and solid bass lines. The lyrics – punctuated by punchy drum fills – convey a sense of resilience, echoing the band’s connection with a predominantly industrious working-class audience. Aggressive in parts, akin to Kings of Leon’s heavier work, you can really feel their desire to branch out as they made a considered effort to define their signature sound.
Bass-driven K.I.A takes a darker turn, with a brooding atmosphere and moody instrumentation complimenting lyrics laden with military lingo. Meanwhile Stop The World introduces a more contemplative side of Six Towns, with a lengthy introduction, but gravelly vocals soon make way for explosive instrumentation, loosely comparable to Can’t Stop by Red Hot Chili Peppers. The da-da-da’s in this would no doubt go down a treat in a packed out Sugarmill – they’ve really got an intoxicating live feel even with their recorded material.
Mistress Mysterious injects a dose of raw energy back into the album, the uptempo beat and infectious guitar riffs make this track an instant crowd-pleaser. It has that iconic indie sleeze feel to it that was incredibly popular at the time, think Libertines or Arctic Monkeys with storytelling lyrics of drunken nights out, but has a timeless appeal that comes with quality rock and roll that could just as easily find itself on Radio X in 2024.
Sinking back into a swagger is Jack The Ripper, which is a testament to Six Towns’ ability to balance intensity with melodic hooks, offering huge build ups that erupt into anthemic choruses.
But it’s the final track, Asylum, that quickly becomes the star of the show. “Asylum is probably my favourite track that we ever did and it just never got the chance to be heard,” said Matt. “People who watched us live before might have heard them here and there, and some have a bit of a cult following as Asylum was that track we always ended a set on but people never had the opportunity to listen when they got home. I’d rather they were in the hands of maybe even a handful of people who still look for us and listen to us, but at least they will be getting more air time than in my kitchen island drawer.”
The track follows the tale of a ‘troubled man’ in a seven-minute story who slowly comes to realise that it’s in fact a warped society having him believe he’s gone mad. “It resonated with us in so many ways, and it really is a song of epic proportions, definitely our longest ever track, but one that I really feel takes you on a journey through a warped mind.,” Matt concluded.
The dynamic shifts in the expansive instrumentation add so much depth to this track, and paired Liam’s emotive vocals, it’s a song that really shows each and every member of the band at their strongest. It’s a bold and ambitious way to end the album, and should it be the last record we see from Six Towns, it would be a fitting way to conclude their chapter.
The whole album showcases the band’s versatility and willingness to explore different sonic landscapes, as well as their wide ranging influences from the likes of the Stones and The Who, to the modern influence of Kasabian and Courteeners, which make it easy to understand exactly where Six Towns got their big sound from.
Welcome To Asylum showcases Six Towns’ ability to craft memorable rock anthems, packed with ear-catching tracks that take existing fans on a nostalgic journey, while introducing these unreleased gems to a new audience. The album encapsulates the band’s evolution over the years, including the heavier, dirtier sound they would move towards, and is a truly epic way to release these tracks that would have otherwise been lost to Litherland’s kitchen island.
