Catfish and the Bottlevan?

Recently Catfish and the Bottlemen released their latest album, an 11 track LP consisting of mostly old singles. Don't get me wrong it I think it's a good album, I think they're a band producing some great music but not necessarily a great set of people.

On Wednesday 17th September Van McCann (now revealed to actually be called Ryan???) did an intimate acoustic instore set playing a few tracks off of the album and a couple of unheard, he is a brilliant showman I give him that. But DEFINITELY not the most mature of lead men.

A friend of mine, who shall remain unnamed, labelled Catfish's debut 'The Balcony' average, as far as I am concerned everyone is entitled to their own opinion, correct me if I'm wrong. And my friend gave his, there was an immediate backlash on the social networking site 'Twitter', people began comparing 'The Balcony' to Arctic Monkeys' chart topping debut 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not'. Obviously this led to a verbal battle of harsh words, Catfish's lead man Van even commented on this debate declaring their debut to be better than Arctic Monkeys'. This caused an uproar and gave Van a strong essence of pure arrogance, please bear in mind all my friend said was the album was 'average'.

Upon arriving at the instore I had a wait of approximately 2/2 1/2 hours, this wasn't a problem as I enjoy their music greatly and any chance to see a band I love I will grab willingly with both hands. After a couple of songs and a few comments made here and there by Van my friend decided to leave the set as he found it quite dull, him and his friends tried to leave silently but were spotted by Van. Mid song Van then decided it would be appropriate to 'slag off' a 17 year old boy because he said the album was average, in my eyes and most likely everyone else's this was highly immature and irresponsible. As a possible purchaser of the album and fan people are entitled to give criticism and opinions towards releases by bands, it is the nature of the business, you cannot please everyone. Van McCann then preceded to lie about my friend in question, went on to say how he had been a fan of the band for long time, (this is true) and how overnight my friend had completely changed his perspective of the band purely because the album had reached no 1 in the iTunes Alternative charts. This is totally false, Van then encouraged booing and name calling from the crowd at the intimate gig whilst my friend was still trying to exit HMV to simply catch a train home. The lead man then said my friend had only turned up to 'cause shit', which again was untrue.

Catfish and the Bottlemen have caused controversy in the past, especially concerning a review of a gig of theirs in Nottingham back in 2013, requesting girls take their tops off, and hanging a questionable merch poster (left side) with supposedly funny lines like '6 tugs of the porridge gun £5'. Accusations of sexism and misogyny were flying around everywhere. As a woman myself I know 'lads can be lads' but their behaviour is non-excusable, abusing your position of power can never be thought of as right.

Personally I think they're a good band with a few good tracks, my opinion has changed and upon reflection I can't believe I ever saw the appeal, they try to use this supposed working class background to their advantage, some blindly following. In truth it isn't Catfish and the Bottlemen, it's Catfish and the Bottlevan. The other members are almost nonexistent, blending into the background in a fog of crappy black clothing they cannot seem to pull off. Lads you're no Horrors alright, just stop the tight black jeans don't work for everyone.

If you're interested read the review of the Nottingham gig that created all the drama: http://www.impactnottingham.com/2013/10/live-review-catfish-and-the-bottlemen-bitter-strings-bodega-271013/

Georgie.