Far From Abominable: Yeti

Over the past few years there's been something brooding underneath the London scene and although this musical monster has reared its head on numerous occasions, it has only been seen by relatively few. But now with the release of ‘The Legend Of Yeti Gonzales’, the band are ready to step into the limelight. After a series of issues with management contracts, line up changes and subsequent work on new material and inner turmoil, Yeti are stronger than ever.

The first member we meet is Mark Underwood who’s first words are “Hi my name is Mark and I’m an alcoholic” and assures Festivalwise that “Graham (Blacow) can quote verbatim for any good comedy program; pretty much, John does a very good impersonation from Dungeons & Dragons and Andy is very helpful if you’re looking to buy a house”. Apparently Graham is “annoyingly good at all instruments in the band though he makes everything sound like the theme tune to Pot Black” and joined Yeti through an exaggerated ad, Mark is, or was, an actor and Andy went to the prestigious Yale University. But as this is all said with a wry smile it’s hard to work out whether they’re having you on or if they are as honest as the day is long. Yet with the next question we ask about the difficulty about breaking away from their past labels and associations, especially with that of The Libertines (band member John Hassall was part of the legendary group), and the band start shifting in their seats drawing themselves up to answer.

“I think it's only as difficult as you make it yourself” begins John, “If one has no problem asserting oneself as an individual band then people will react accordingly. It's all up to the protagonist. I don't mind being associated with The Libertines”. Graham continues saying “I don't think we'll ever shake off The Libertines association. The fact of the matter is they were one of the biggest bands to come out Britain in the last ten years and John was part of that so some people will always make that connection.  In the early days you'd get a few people turn up to our gigs wearing Royal guard jackets and Libertines t-shirts, but it doesn't take long to realise that our music is nothing like theirs and our band has a completely different dynamic. So over the years we've built up a healthy following of people who like us for who we are and the songs we play... not for the band one of our members used to be in”.

“In an ideal world it'd be nice to see where the band would have ended up without all this Libertines stuff hanging over our heads,” chips in Andy before Graham continues: “ We've never been part of any scene as our sound is far from modern .so wherever progresses to, I’m sure we'll be outcasts”.