The Twang Tickets

Details of The Twang and the Ticket Luck value

The Twang
A baggy- influenced indie rock band from Birmingham, England, the Twang garnered national acclaim, fame, and fortune when the influential NME magazine produced an article on music acts, in which the fellow Midlanders Ripchord and The Enemy featured prominently also. The band hence came second in the BBC News website's Sound of 2007 poll. The band also managed to win the Phillip Hall Radar Award at the 2007 NME Awards.

Wide Awake was the band's debut single, which was released on March 19, 2007, and on June 4, 2007, their debut album, Love It When I Feel Like This was released. The record reached number 15 in the UK singles charts. It was produced by the band's long-term collaborator Gavin Monaghan (who has also worked with Nizlopi). Produced at The Magic Garden Studio, in Wolver Hampton, Gazz Rogers assisted in the production of Wide Awake. It has had lots of play on the Radio Station XFM Manchester, as well as on other national and local Radio Stations.

Early Days
Phil Etheridge and Jon Watkin formed the band in Quinton, Birmingham. Lead singer Phil Etheridge is an Aston Villa fan, Saunders is a Birmingham City fan whilst the rest are West Bromwich Albion fans as stated in a Live Lounge Session on Radio 1 presented by Jo Whiley. Home to Kaiser Chiefs, The Automatic and The Ordinary Boys, the B-Unique label is what they are signed to.

In the early days before Stuart Hartland joined the group, lead singer Phil Etheridge and bass player Jon Watkin swapped instruments on numerous Neon Twang tracks (Cloudy Room, Push The Ghost and Aimless With An Aim being surviving tracks from this period). Etheridge frequently played bass guitar and sang, whilst Watkin played lead guitar. The addition of Hartland in late 2005 enabled Watkin to take over Bass duties permanently and allowed Etheridge to perform songs live with much more enthusiasm, although the front man's trademark dancing was still evident whilst playing Bass.

Name Change
The Twang originally performed in and around Birmingham under the name Neon Twang. However, this was allegedly changed due to numerous scuffles between the band's fans and punters in various pubs. These events prevented them booking gigs in some venues, hence the need for the name change.

The band have been quoted saying that they don't promote violence at their performances and have criticized the lack of doormen and security at local venues. During the Neon Twang period the band's sound was very similar to how it is now, some very early track names being: See It Thru, Big Day Out, live favorite Shoot To Kill, Time Waits, Push The Ghost, Aimless With An Aim and the reggae influenced Fake ID. Aimless With An Aim later turned up as the B-Side to the bands first single Wide Awake.