Dugong @ The Phoenix, Taken by myself

Nathaniel Green - ABBA Medley
from the 2003 album Same Time Tomorrow

In the year 2000 I started my A-Levels, and with it I discovered D.I.Y. punk properly, although without realising I was already part of the scene and the attitude that is D.I.Y. was already something I firmly believed in, and I still do. As far as I'm concerned music is not a commodity to be bought and sold it is an art-form which is given over to the people, for the people. Anyway that is going off the point a bit.

As with most of my stories a girl was involved, Carly, she took me to see the, no defunct, Hot Water Music. It was a gig that changed my life, not because of the music but because of the people I met there. Shortly after that gig I was spending most of my time at Leeds D.I.Y. gigs, mainly run by one group of promoters known as Collective AKA. They put on everyone from touring international bands right down to local bands playing their first gig. Everyone seemed to know everyone and I wanted part of it, so I made myself part of it. frequenting record shops like Out Of Step (which to this day is one of thhe best record shops I've been to) and the afformentioned Collective AKA gigs. Every August there would be a mini festival run at Jospehs Well called Out Of Spite which showcased mainly local bands on local labels such as Bombed Out Records (A contender for the best Leeds based record label ever)

The first year I went to Out Of Spite I came across Dugong, a melodic punk band, in a similar vein to The Get Up Kids, but with a bit more balls. Duugong's first album The Eastmoor Rules became one of my all time favourite records and the last track, Null And Void always seemed to me like the place where the band Nathaniel Green started because it brought an acoustic guitar and Fender Rhodes piano together with Matt Broadbent's voice for the first time, I was truely mesmerised by this one track and it was played almost constantly at that time in my life.

Thankfully for Carly shortly after buying The Eastmoor Rules, Nathaniel Green's first EP Down To You Then, Supergirl was released - The poor girl must have been getting sick of the repitition of that one track. Nathaniel Green is made up of Matt Broadbent (Dugong) and Rob Taylor (Pylon) and they took directly from Null and Void keeping the stripped down sound, and only adding Rob's voice into the mix.

This is typically Northern music, there's lots of dry wit and colloquialisms in their lyrics and the way they sing over each other is sweet, without ever becoming sickly. I couldn't help but fall for this EP.

Roll on to the following year's Out Of Spite festival, it's barely Sunday afternoon and neither Carly or I have really slept from the night before because we'd finally broken up that night, after 3/4 months of teetering on the edge of separation. Out of dedication to music we loved we still ended up at the festival together, sat on the floor of the back room of a sweaty punk club. Nathaniel Green were the first band to take the stage and Abba Medley was the first song they played, off their then upcoming first album, Same Time Tomorrow.

The enormity of the break up hit me there and then and I was in a state of paralysis while listening to some of the most amazing music I've ever heard. 'so stop it before it starts, before you break someone's heart, I know you will. Just give me a little more time, just hold the fort 'til I get home' was my breaking point. I never did see the end of their set but I left the gig with mixture of heartbreak and elation which was confusing for me back then, hell, it would probably confuse me now.

A few years later I had the pleasure of putting on Nathaniel Green at The Phoenix in Manchester, it was the first time I'd seen them since, although I'd been listening to their music nearly constantly since. It was an amazing gig, and I'd advise anyone to go see them given the chance, and its only usually £2/3 for the honour, and trust me it will be money well spent.

To Hear ABBA medley check out their myspace page:
www.myspace.com/nathanielgreen

I tried to find some music by Dugong for you to listen to but theiir myspace and website seems to have been removed since they split up.