Blameless – Town Clowns
The northern city of Sheffield is fertile ground as far as bands are English bands are concerned. Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, Richard Hawley, Jarvis Cocker, Cabaret Voltaire, Joe Cocker, Def Leppard… the list goes on, and on. In the early 1990s in particular, against the backdrop of harsh economic deprivation, the steel city produced some of the best music that the Britpop invasion had to offer.
One of the bands that rode this wave was rock quartet, Blameless. Formed of Jared Daley, guitarist Matt Pirt, bassist Jason Leggatt and drummer Jon Dodd, the group promised great things through their biggest single, Town Clowns. It was included in the Rough Trade Singles Club, and caught the attention of labels who were soon vying for the band’s attentions. They eventually signed with China Records, and were duly shipped to Boston to record their debut album. The LP, ‘The Signs Are All There’, failed to chart, and although the band had a little minor success with a follow up single, attempts to re-release their debut album failed. The band broke up in the mid 1990s, another casualty of the Britpop movement, who were destroyed by the hype almost before they had the chance to get started.
Though the band may have only left a limited body of work, their single Town Clowns remains one of the seminal anthems of the Britpop era. Long live Britpop!
