The Horrors are a mess of sharp elbows, big hair, feedback and monochrome clothes, since that gig at The Spread Eagle in Shoreditch, the band have played gigs everywhere from LA to Hull and Tokyo, been tipped by Jarvis Cocker as the future of British rock and appeared on the cover of NME after only two singles. They've made a video starring acclaimed actress Samantha Morton with legendary director Chris Cunningham and then had the same video swiftly banned by MTV for excessive strobe use and general gruesomeness.
They've caused $10,000 of damage during a near-riot at a gig in New York after signing to Island Def Jam (home to Kanye West and Jay-Z) in America. Likely to win over the floating voters more than annoy them, it's little wonder that The Horrors' debut album sounds so assured - this band have squeezed more into one 18 months than most groups do in a lifetime. It also helped that, all being fanatical collectors of vintage music from '50s rockabilly and '60s garage to '70s post-punk and '80s no-wave, the band had a very clear idea of what their first album should sound like.
"The album was recorded over the course of a year," explains Webb of the large number of producers "just because we were playing gigs all the time. Recording was great, though: we were singing in toilets, drilling through guitars, playing the bass with drumsticks and creating electrical interference to all of the TVs in the studios."
Not only does 'Strange House' not sound like anyone else, but, much like the early Manics, it manages to take all of the band's disparate influences and recast them into something that could only be The Horrors. It's a landmark record. However manic the last twelve months have been, the future can only get stranger still.
