Sounds From The Junkshop #33 - Vent 414

 

"Am I the enemy? Is there a better me? You'd take one look and hope to god you'd say there ought to be..." - Vent 414, Fixer (1996)

It's amazing how when you hit your late teens/early twenties and the bands you cut your teeth listening to guitar music to have mostly fallen by the wayside that you'll suddenly see them resurfacing in new guises giving you a whole load of new groups to listen to. Well, for 5-10 years until the bands they were in to begin with reform obviously...

I mentioned in the 3 Colours Red SFTJ column a few weeks ago how it was mostly their Wildhearts/Senseless Things lineage that drew me to them and the same is true of Vent 414 who featured legendary former Wonder Stuff frontman Miles Hunt and ex-Senseless Things bassist Morgan Nicholls. Also along for the ride were ex-Clash/Eat drummer Pete Howard and, very briefly at the beginning, ex-Cult guitarist Billy Duffy. So the term "supergroup" was definitely being bandied about a bit here.

The group's initial gigs were met with a bit of a reticient reaction in the music press but I remember really liking their debut single Fixer which got a bit of airplay on the Evening Session at the time. This was definitely a much grungier sound than the Wonder Stuff had ever had but it was a naggingly insistent ode to self-loathing (see the above lyrics) and probably caught me just at the right time. I remember going to see the band live at the Duchess in the closing days of 1996 and thought they were good and bought the album soon afterwards.

Unfortunately, I hate to say it but, there was no way that Vent 414's self-titled album was going to be a hit. Produced by none other than notorious noisemonger Steve Albini (Big Black etc), it was an incredibly difficult beast to get into with the angular riffs and general sense of atonalism meaning anyone who was expecting Hup part 2 (or even Construction For The Modern Idiot part 2) was likely to be sorely disappointed and probably give up on the thing quickly. But, I will say this, bear with it and it does have a few gems hidden away under the surface such as the lurching Fits And Starts, Correctional and Night Out With A Foreign Fella (supposedly a comment by Milo about his "Jekyll and Hyde" personality after a few pints back then). On this evidence they gave the impression of a group who with a bit of development would probably have found their sound and done a decent job with it.

Unfortunately it would be an opportunity they'd never get - late '97 would see Morgan Nicholls leave the band to pursue a solo indie-dance direction under the M Organ moniker (as well as hooking up with fellow ex-Thing Cass Browne in the under-rated Delakota). He was replaced by Stuffies guitarist Malcolm Treece (with Milo presumably moving to bass) and slowly but surely Vent 414 would mutate back into the Wonder Stuff with first Martin Bell and then Martin Gilks rejoining. 2001 would see a full blown reunion tour and the group have continued ever since and put out some damn fine albums to boot (2013's Oh No and last year's Better Being Lucky being my personal favourites).

I do remember seeing Miles and Malc doing a couple of solo gigs around this time including at the free Breeze Festival in '98 where the set was mostly new material and a few Vent numbers with a couple of old Stuffies tunes (Circlesquare and Mission Drive if I remember correctly?). It was the first time I'd seen them live (having been a bit too young to catch the Wonder Stuff first time out) but would be the first of many down the years. Indeed, in a case of things often coming full circle, Howard is now a full time member of the Wonder Stuff and has done a good powerhouse job on the cans on the two occasions I've seen him playing live with the band in recent years.

Hold the press though because 2020 brought the news that Vent 414 will be reuniting to do a second album at some point once lockdown is over. Milo released the above demo We Can All Do Better on Youtube and I have to say I really enjoyed it - it's definitely different enough from the Stuffies' recent output that you'd never confuse the two with an added heaviness that was always Vent's calling card. However, I'd say in terms of tunes it's up there with Fixer as one of the best they've done. Hopefully that album will surface at some point this year - if so, I'm definitely looking forward to giving it a review here on Nite Songs.

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