Outing Joe Lean - The Metros

We’re loving the Metros here at Gigwise, not necessarily because of their indie schmindie, heard it all before pop, but because they’re freaking hilarious. We popped over to Westbourne Studios to chat to Saul and Charlie and my they do like to gass, don’t they?

We’re sat chatting to the boys for about half an hour before we even get onto the interview, they’re busy scoffing their faces, with quite possibly the healthiest food we’ve ever seen pop stars eat. We have a chat about shit bands, as you do, slating the likes of Scouting for Girls and The Hoosiers. “We supported The Hoosiers,” Saul tells us. “They’re fucking weird, man.” Whilst the boys claim to be “Five young chaps from South London, playing a raucous mixture of punk, funk, pop, indie and rockability, sounding a lot like lots of good bands, but not as good” (their words, not ours), The Hoosiers they are certainly not!

Originally hailing from Peckham, the land of ‘only fools’ and Del Boys, we ask if they know any real life Del Boys. Saul is away with the local stories (we cannot be sure how true these stories are, mind), “My dad’s best mate is Mickey Playboy. Half man, half sofa - that’s what we call him! I can’t really tell you what he does for a living. It’s not legal! There’s also Stan, the egg man. He sells eggs and wears a cowboy hat – he’s still about.” When the Metros first appeared on the ‘scene’, we were bombarded with stories about their upbringing. Saul and co. were very quick to dismiss any rumours of them being from a rough estate in Peckham, we ask if this was really necessary. He responds, “I think we just wanted to make the point that we weren’t from a bad area and we don’t have twenty brothers or sisters. That’s the only reason we bought it up really.”

The boys were originally in a band called ‘The Wanking Skankers’, before they changed it for commercial reasons. We enquire why, when bands like Selfish Cunt have sold a shit load of records with a rude name. Saul says, “We were really a different band. We only played the drums and a keyboard – and didn’t even have a drum kit.” We tell them they’re really selling this band to us. “We were really shit,” he continues. It’s probably just as well they disbanded then!

The Metros were spotted by the infamous James Endeacott, the nice man who originally signed The Libertines to Rough Trade, all them years ago. They are one of the bands joining The View on Endeacott’s own label, 1965 records. We ask if they’ve ever seen him, what with him being so famous these days. Saul says, “It’s not like that. James is very ‘hands on’ which can be a bit scary but he’s wicked.” Charlie adds, “He doesn’t manipulate us though, we do what we want and he looks after us.” I enquire if they’re ‘getting at’ NOT being a manufactured band. Charlie nods, “We’re in a really good position because the first band James signed was The View, and they’ve been really successful. It’s given a lot of freedom to the other bands on the label. We get to do what we want.”