The Demise Of Viva Brother

Since the dawning of popular music, bands have been splitting up over personal issues. From The Beatles to The Smiths, right up to LCD Soundsystem, amazing bands have been disappearing and leaving a irreverable mark upon the history of music. So now we move on to Viva Brother.

Since releasing their debut album last year; the Slough foursome have been faced with nothing but trouble. Firstly, a Celtic trio threatened with the lads with a lawsuit over claims that they were performing as Brother long before the Berkshire boys. Rather than go wild and start afresh, the band stuck the word Viva in front of their name, thus forming Viva Brother.

However, the band have been rather quiet for a while, except for the recent announcement of their second studio album on the band’s Facebook page. This was soon followed by a tweet from the band on the morning of 1^st April, claiming that Viva Brother were no longer. People initially believed the band were skylarking around on the day of all fools, yet it was soon officially stated that there was no intention for the statement to come as a joke.

The tweet read: ‘Thank you to everyone that has ever supported us or believed, It has been an unbelievable journey. This is us signing off. Goodbye.’ The apparent reason for this is the fact that the NME placed them into the category for ‘2012 Worst Band’ at the recent NME awards. Followed by the band’s famous last words – ‘And as for NME. Shame on you.’

Following Viva Brother’s social networking suicide note, a number of ideas have been circulating our minds. Perhaps the band’s new album wasn’t quite up to scratch, thus proving it better for them to fizzle out now than to release the album and gain even more journalistic put downs. Or, perhaps the reason is that Viva Brother cannot take a bit of criticism? Either that or Lee Newell is struggling to come to terms with the fact that he is the only person to have a large poster of himself upon his bedroom wall.

Either way, where does the ‘new wave of Britpop’ stand, as of now? Will Viva Brother’s ever be replaced? The answer is, probably yes. Meanwhile we still have legendary bands such as Blur and Pulp resurfacing, so lets wait and see. For the meantime, Viva Brother did reveal one last song, from their second LP, which will be under lock and key, for the foreseeable future. However, here’s Viva Brother’s curtain call – I Don’t Want To Be Loved. Then what's all the fuss about?

Jonathan Hatchman