Mike Price - Lead Vox
Maz Behdjet - Guitar/Writer
Nick Repton - Bass
Bonehead - Guitar
Sean O Donnell Beats/Writer
Jaxx - Backing Vox
"Always trust in Manchester music. The Vortex are set for big things,
They have been setting the controls for the heart of the northern anthem as if Kasabian never existed."
Alan Mcgee
Influences
The Stone Roses; Lennon; Oasis; Dylan; Ian Brown; Primal Scream; Happy Mondays
Alright lads, just seen u's r playin in the box glasgow...november that'll be a mutts nutts! Keep up the good work! Were can i get a copy of dirty soul? its a banging tune!
Couldnt of put it better myself!!! See ya's soon!!
In recent years, new Manchester bands have divided into two categories, those that choose to completely eschew the sound of their city and those that whole-heartedly embrace it and feed off it. The Vortex sit firmly and unashamedly in the latter category. Imagine a band as edgy and menacing as Oasis were in those heady, early days. Then throw in the dance sensibility of Happy Mondays and the bass groove of The Stone Roses and you are starting to get somewhere close to the sound of The Vortex. The only missing ingredients are a twist of 'Screamadelica' era Primal Scream and the sprinkling of modernity that a new band will inevitably bring to the party. 'Dirty Soul' is their debut single and what a joyous introduction it is. The guitars are as loose as a clown's pocket, whilst the subtle use of horns add a touch of genuine class. Newly added backing singer Jaxx's soulful vocal perfectly complements the Gallagher-esque rasp of front man Mike Price as the song takes hold of your entire body. Some may call it indie-dance. I just call it pure quality. The 7" vinyl release is packaged as a double A-side and rightly so because 'Revolution Sometime' is another four minutes of baggy heaven. The vocals of Jaxx are again used sparingly but to total perfection as the pounding drum beat drives the song to a new level. Oh, and some chap called Bonehead plays on it too. Prepare to be drawn into the vortex because resistance really is futile.
Just Stumbled across this boys fucking Mint!!! IN the late Nineties one Noel Gallagher, irked that he was not attracting the credit he felt his songwriting skills merited, observed that if he’d written Live Forever during The Beatles-era, 30 years before, he would have been hailed a genius.
Others respectfully suggested that he would not have written Live Forever if it wasn’t for The Beatles in the first place. A chicken-and-egg style debate rages to this day.
The Vortex are not The Beatles and they are not Oasis. Nor are Oasis The Beatles. Keep up. Nonetheless, plucky and determined souls insist on wondering if The Vortex is the band Oasis ‘should have become’.
None of which really matters of course and it certainly doesn’t seem to be pre-occupying Mike, Maz, Nick, Sean, Jaxx and Bonehead (yes, the very same) as they hijack the stage once more.
True enough, their edgy, soulful, pounding brand of indie-rock is evocative of much that was good about their forebears and, yes, they have that distinct (and marvellous) Manchester swagger.
Yet here’s the thing. They are cocky and egotistic – they really are - and their music bristles with simmering menace and jaunty arrogance. And people love it.
The crowd tonight want sounds that claw at them with soul and energy, they want rock, they want roll, and they want their front men swearing and swaggering and staggering.
The Vortex do not disappoint, kicking and punching at the vocals, bombing the bass and smashing through deafening chords with nonchalant anger. The whole place pulses and you can feel the room itself sweating; hearts straining, legs twitching.
The venue struggles to contain the sound; walls split at the seams and ears bruise as the band explodes through Never Negotiate, Revolution Sometime and the rousing All Over Now.
Last year’s Dirty Soul – an apt title if ever there was one – is the highlight of a 30-minute set; the opening strains crackling across the soaked heads of the heaving
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