A Single Played Live in 2020 and Released Two Days Before Wet Leg’s Chart-Topping Debut
Dreams came out on 6 April 2022, but Last Seen Alive had been playing it live since at least August 2020. The Brighton alternative rock five-piece filmed a version that summer in North London. Two days after the single arrived, Wet Leg released a debut album that went to number one in the UK.
Last Seen Alive’s Dreams sits in the playlist below, with the grunge and post-grunge this desk keeps close, and the Last Seen Alive profile holds the band’s coverage so far. The single came to RockRevival.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Hit play on the 2022 single, then read on for the scene it came out into.
UK Guitar Bands With Women Out Front Reached the Charts and Prize Lists in 2022
Spring 2022 was a strong season for UK guitar bands with women at the front. Wet Leg led it. Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers started the Isle of Wight band, and their self-titled debut arrived on 8 April 2022. It went to number one on the UK Albums Chart. It also made the Mercury Prize shortlist, and it later won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album.
The heavier end moved too. Nova Twins, the London duo of Amy Love and Georgia South, released Supernova in June 2022. That record also reached the 2022 Mercury shortlist. The band then picked up two BRIT Award nominations the following year. Meanwhile, in Manchester, Hot Milk had signed to Music For Nations in 2021. Singers and guitarists Han Mee and Jim Shaw formed that band in 2018.
Those bands all came up through small rooms, and in 2022 those rooms were under pressure. In May 2022, the charity Music Venue Trust launched Own Our Venues. The drive aimed to raise up to £3.5 million to buy nine grassroots venues. By then, the UK had lost a third of those venues over 20 years.
New bands had also found other ways to be seen. In August 2020, HotVox filmed acts for its Live From Cargo Rooms series. Cargo Rooms is a rehearsal and video studio complex in North London. Last Seen Alive were one of those acts, and the song they played was Dreams.
Last Seen Alive Played Dreams Live in 2020 and Released It With a Polaris Films Video in 2022
The Brighton band formed in 2017 out of the pop punk scene. Their first EP was Patronage. Singles including Farewell and Carnival followed. Then, in 2019, they released Alive, Right Here and Edge Of The World. The band has described that run as the point where they found their mix of powerful riffs and dynamic melodies.
HotVox dated that session 14 August 2020. Their studio single arrived on 6 April 2022, and the official video credited a five-piece line-up. Ellie Robinson sang lead. Matt Harlow and Mike Brewer played guitar and sang. Rich Hulder played bass, and Tom Scott-Roberts played drums. Polaris Films made the video, and the single runs 4 minutes 16 seconds.
The band billed Dreams as their new wave of pop rock. Its tags cover alt rock pop, alternative rock and hard rock, and the line-up suits that blend. With two guitarists who also sing behind Robinson, the band is set up for riffs and melody at the same time.
They took the song to The Hope & Ruin in Brighton on 18 June 2022 for a headline show. Blue Eyed Giants, Risking Nostalgia and Jade Stranger played in support. It was a grassroots bill in a grassroots room, the kind of night that year’s venue fundraising was trying to protect. The next single, Sick, followed on 7 October 2022.
Wet Leg, Nova Twins and Hot Milk Sit Closest to Dreams by Last Seen Alive
Wet Leg are the timing match. Their debut landed two days after Dreams. It showed that guitar songs with strong pop hooks could still top the UK chart in 2022. Dreams works the same pop rock seam from a heavier starting point.
Nova Twins are the weight match. Their Mercury-shortlisted Supernova put two women at the centre of a loud, riff-first record. So fans who come to Last Seen Alive for the hard rock side of their sound will find the same appetite for heavy riffs there.
Hot Milk are the line-up match. Han Mee and Jim Shaw both sing and play guitar, and the Manchester band is known for a genre-blurring sound. Last Seen Alive also have two guitarists who sing behind their lead singer. The comparison therefore starts with the arrangement.
From the RockRevival.News curator team: “Watch the HotVox session from August 2020, then play the 2022 single. The song was already in the set during the pandemic. Following it through to release shows how long a grassroots band carries a riff before it gets recorded.”
Stream Dreams and Follow Last Seen Alive Across Platforms
Stream Dreams on Spotify. Then follow Last Seen Alive on Spotify, Apple Music, their YouTube channel, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X.
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