Basement venues are still my favourite type of music venue... well, as long as the fire exits are clearly illuminated and signed!

There was one such underground establishment that is no longer around. It was demolished to make way for the redevelopment of the Tottenham Court Road tube station. This venue was called The Metro.

It was just down the road from the 100 Club (thankfully still there) and close to the London Astoria, which suffered the exact same fate.

The Metro is where I first saw Kings of Leon. They later went on to become a massive stadium band, but back then, it was just me, Pelle Almqvist (lead singer of The Hives), and a few hundred other people watching the first UK gig of the "Lords of Leon," as they were sarcastically introduced by the support act! In fact, I actually think Kings of Leon might have been supporting Deltronic themselves.

But enough reminiscing; we have an archive to make.

Kings of Leon consisted of three brothers, Caleb, Nathan, and Jared Followill, along with their cousin, Matthew Followill. They were from Tennessee, and I first read about them in the NME. I liked their earlier stuff the most. It fit perfectly into blues rock, and as I have proudly noted before, I like blues rock.

However... looking back twenty odd years on, I don't think the lyrics from that era have aged particularly well. I still love the tunes, but the lyrics feel a bit weird today, and I can't avoid them. Humming or "la-ing" over them just doesn't work.

So, I'm going to go with "Charmer." Released a few years after I saw them, it features those iconic high pitched screams while maintaining that raw, early authenticity I enjoyed from their first releases. It's a little less blues rock, but it avoids the stadium rock sound they later adopted, which I tend to avoid, particularly in...well.. stadiums.

Charmer by Kings of Keon