“There’s not much to do in this town any more,” opens the first line of ‘Nightlife’ a stomper by The Class – a Luton band determined to do something about it.
The indie-rockers are preparing to drop their debut EP ‘First Class’, striking artwork and all, on Friday and they’ll celebrate it with a headline hometown show at The Castle on Saturday.
At the heart of the short player is a Gen Z anthem to going out — or not — as the case may be. But as five Luton lads, theirs is a desire to see the music and nightlife scene thrive again like the town centre tales they’ve been told by older Lutonians.
But the last time they played The Castle, there were queues out the door, so Saturday’s EP release show promises to be another statement about an emerging live music scene in Luton. Last month’s successful Independent Venue Week shows proved so positive and “overwhelming” that The Castle promised to continue its plans to evolved into a full-scale music venue.
But I meet The Class in the basement of The Hat Factory as they prepare to release ‘First Class’ into the wild, featuring the tracks ‘Beautiful People’, ‘Show You The Way’, and a new versions of their three singles to date — ‘Ignore Me’, ‘Closer to You’ and ‘Nightlife’.
The latter is a spiky, tongue-in-cheek tune that’s five pints deep and rousing. And as the cost of living crisis continues to cripple, it’s a youthful reaction that can apply to almost any working class town in England, but guitarist Aaron Pearson makes it clear that The Class are “not bashing Luton.”
He adds: “Luton’s not rubbish. It’s an amazing spectacle. We want the best for Luton.”
Frontman Callum Lee chimes in: “It was just highlighting what we felt we were missing out on at the time we wrote it. We hear countless stories of people who’ve said the nightlife in Luton used to be so much better.
“And I think I remember reading something that just before Covid, Luton was given a nightlife ambassador or something like that. Someone from the council was told: ‘Right, it’s your job to improve the nightlife.’
“OK, Covid didn’t help, but we didn’t really see much [improvement]. But that tune is not to criticise Luton in any way. And now there’s our band and a few others, so there’s a bit of a spark there. We’re trying to do our bit to help improve it.”
Musicians need places to play and that’s where The Castle comes in as a home for grassroots rock gigs, while across town The Bear Club caters for fans of jazz and blues and The Hat Factory hosts shows too. They’re small capacity venues, but for a town that never had a dedicated music venue for young musicians in their formative years — The Class are all aged from 22 to 26 — it’s an important start. Luton South MP Rachel Hopkins even extolled their virtues in the House of Commons speech.
While, at the other end of the scale, last summer’s Radio 1 Big Weekend of global superstars descending on Stockwood Park, highlighted a town ripe for a live music explosion, that should continue with the 1,800-capacity music venue that received outline planning permission in December as part of Luton Town Football Club’s Power Court stadium plans.
With The Class’ frontman Lee a Hatters season ticket holder, that could provide a focal point to aim for in future. In the short-term, they hope they can once again pack them in at The Castle, which is still no mean feat in a town just finding its feet and its audience as a live music proposition.
But between that venue and the forthcoming Power Court spot, there’s enough evidence to say that Luton is bucking the national trend which remains concerning as the Music Venue Trust (MVT) counted 125 venues that shut in 2023 alone.
“We’re trying to be a part of providing the good night out,” Pearson says, adding: “Hopefully, our gig at The Castle can do that and help highlight what Luton is and what it can be.”
For The Class’ other guitar-slinger Ciaran Wright, there’s hope. “I think the music scene is picking up quite a bit. It’s got a lot to thank for The Castle in that sense. They’re doing gigs every single weekend and highlighting that Luton’s got a lot of talent behind it,” he said.
Lee adds: “It’s good to know there are people like Connor [Willis – events manager] at The Castle, Vandalism Begins at Home and Luton Lives, all trying to push music in the town. It is good to see that there is a lot of music coming out of Luton, though. And we’ve got good camaraderie with Ben [Thomson] of The Looted Youth. He’s helped us with a live session, and Motion are on hiatus at the moment but they’ll be back.”
Luton could even have a Brit award winner in Myles Smith when the gongs are dished out on March 1. The chart-bothering singer songwriter has already been propelled into a different stratosphere, admittedly, with sold out tours and recognition from former US president Barack Obama, but it all reflects well on the town.
“It is good to see that there is a lot of music coming out of Luton,” says Lee. His band are determined to also be part of that resurgence, starting this weekend.
“We’ve played The Castle before and seeing a full room, that’s the best thing,” Pearson says, looking ahead to the EP release show, adding: “It’s good to see that Lutonians will now say, ‘I’m going to go out and see this band.’
“With streaming, you can hear a band instantly but when you see them live and they engage you, it’s a different experience. I think that’s the struggle for people of our age. It’s all on your phone now, but going to a gig, there’s nothing like it.”
That connection rings true as Lee sings the chief refrain on one of their crowd favourites: “People, we are beautiful.”
But looking beyond the EP launch, The Class are acutely aware of the need to build their following beyond the borders of Luton.
“We want to play different venues this year to kind of hear the opinion of different people, because your family and friends will always say, ‘We’ll tell you if it’s rubbish.’ They won’t,” Pearson admits.
Therein lies the challenge for any emerging artist that appears to have cracked it in their hometown because, as the old football adage goes, can they do it on a cold, wet Tuesday night in Stoke? Or maybe Stevenage, for starters. Time will tell.
But they’re making the right moves when you consider that the outlook for bands and groups in general has been quite startling, whether rock, manufactured pop or any other flavour. This was outlined on the popular This Is Entertainment podcast recently, where TV presenter and author Richard Osman told a troubling breakdown of the “complete disappearance of bands” from the top of the charts. In the first five years of this decade, bands have occupied the UK number one spot for a grand total of three weeks, compared to 146 weeks in the first five years of the 80s and 141 in the first half of the 90s.
It’s perhaps no surprise that young bands like The Class have influences from the last millennia, even if singer Lee was in primary school when the Gallagher brothers had one final bust-up too many. Delightfully, though, tracks like ‘Nightlife’ have more in common with cult noughties rockers Art Brut, while ‘Ignore Me’ is a Mod-throb thriller.
Hope is high for a guitar music revival this year with the imminent return of Oasis, though there is many a bone to pick with the Wonderwallers, from ticketing to pulling the ladder on any up-and-comers hoping to support them this summer.
“Richard Ashcroft and Cast are great, but it could have been a real groundbreaking moment for music if they did bring some of the young bands in,” Pearson says.
“We would have liked to see that because you hear them in interviews saying, ‘music’s the most important thing.’ Oasis, I love them and Paul Weller, but that’s looking back and we should be sort of looking forward,” Lee adds before joking: “Basically, what I’m saying is they [Oasis] should have picked us, but it’s great that they’re coming back because it’s bringing guitar music back into the scene, so that’s obviously going to do us a favour.”
The main thing, for now, will be continued importance on Lutonians supporting grassroots musicians – especially one of their own and on Saturday, and at The Castle The Class will be backed by local talent Robbie Herrick and The Greensands.
“We’re buzzing for it,” says Lee. “We just want to get the EP out there, get people listening, and make this gig one to remember.”
Tickets for the EP release show can be bought online.
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