The Emanator

Many bands like to think they know how to party. But there ain't no party like a Shitdisco party. How many bands do you know who cart generators half a mile down disused railway tunnels, install light systems and play all night to half a city's ravers? Who else plays lock-ins where you're actually locked in by the bouncers? When did The Horrors last buy a caravan off eBay and build in a soundsystem because they'd been evicted from their flat for too many public order offences? We rest our case. Glasgow's Shitdisco (one of many invented terms coined by the ultra-inventive foursome) shot to fame last year playing and partying their way round the 'turboraves' of Europe, stunning even hardy Klaxons fans on the NME Rave tour in a fluoro frenzy that lasted all year and shot adrenalin into the dreariest of the last remaining schmindie fans. Four post-art school boys raised on a diet of Talking Heads, The Prodigy, Girls Aloud, Donna Summer and anything in between (as long as it's edging towards 2000 RPM), bassist Joe Reeves, other bassist Joel Stone, um, third bassist (and keyboard wizard) Jan Lee and drummer Darren Cullen came together as Shitdisco in 2003. From a disused tenement block in Glasgow's now-gentrified West End, they eschewed the traditional gig scene (a wise move as Glasgow's Sauciehall Street is, in the bands own words, 'like Rome at the height of its decadence') instead hosting massively over-subscribed free-for-all parties. When they do play 'traditional' gigs, it's rarely without an after-party. Their living room jams with Klaxons and The Rapture and the games of tourbus polo (don't ask - it earnt drummer Darren a broken arm) became the stuff of legends.