Will - Andy - Simon

Monday, 25th October 2010
The Donkey
Welford Road
Leicester

After the timely demise of their old band ‘GreenStax’, Andy Wales (guitar, vocals) and Simon Bland (drums, vocals) recruited Will King (bass) from the similarly demised ‘OK Kane’, and Adam Watson, one time Weave member, (guitar, vocals). Spending far more time than was strictly necessary, they wrote and later performed around Leicester as ‘Tallulah’ and ‘Delta-9’.

After slimming down to a trio (with the dismissal of Watson put down to ‘everything’), half the band (Wales and Bland) settled on the name ‘Belvoir Sweet’ (pronounced 'beaver suite') and continued to build up songs. (King, to this day dismisses their striking moniker as ‘rubbish’ and ‘a tad gay’, but so far hasn’t managed to come up with anything better, usable or not involving profanity and/or deviant sexual behaviour.

Not afraid to acknowledge their influences, Belvoir Sweet put their sound down to them playing their instruments and singing, often choosing to do it in a style vaguely reminiscent of The Beatles, The Stone Roses, The Who, Big Star and early Suede - though musicologists will have a tough job forming hard evidence of this for the courts.

Never tempted to conform to the ideals and values of conventional bands, Belvoir Sweet do just as much as they can be bothered, which isn’t very much and or often. They also laugh in the face of convention when it comes to marketing and advertising their performances, preferring to retain an underground cult following by sometimes spreading information by word of mouth (mainly so their girlfriends know where they are).

Despite this seeming slackness, Belvoir Sweet remain highly thought of in musical terms and are tight, proficient and melodic. Often preferring to play first on a bill, they play and then vanish into the night*, leaving the audience wondering who they were and where and if they can be seen again. (*Usually because they want to go home and watch tv and drink.)

Although they have been together for around five years, Belvoir Sweet have spent little time recording their material. Recordings that have been made have occasionally been leaked to the outside world and occasionally crop up as bootlegs on eBay (search used items for “unwanted gift”). Rumours persist of a completed album which remains in the bands’ vaults. When pressed on the matter, the band revealed that they began recording an EP last December but that the studios they were using burnt down shortly after in mysterious circumstances. Plans for an anthology style best of album are repeatedly shelved with delays put down to general apathy, lack of communication and, particularly, inebriation.

Ultimately, Belvoir Sweet feel that people do not deserve to listen to their recorded material and have little interest in pandering to the demands of the public, or each other.

(Despite the bands guardedness regarding their music, recordings of live performances are in abundance, many thanks to Del-Boy, who has made battlefield recordings of most, if not all of Belvoir Sweet’s performances. Two such recordings are available to listen to on this very site.)