Sleaford Mods

Sprechgesang electro-punk duo Sleaford Mods pull no punches either live or on record and not one inch of their rhetoric – alternately cheeky and blood-and-guts, occasionally both – is inauthentic or posed.

Thrown out of school and disdainful of the options presented to him, frontman Jason Williamson forged his own path. A move from Grantham to Nottingham brought session gigs for Spiritualised and Bent and a meeting with Andrew Fearn in 2009, which expanded Sleaford Mods from a stage name to a duo.

Armed with a drum machine, rudimentary basslines and Williamson’s seemingly boundless rage and disgruntlement, embittered explorations of austerity-era Britain and working class life, delivered in his distinct East Midlands accent, the duo, buoyed by great reviews and hugely successful tours, have gone on to enjoy numerous UK Top 10 albums.

Often compared to Mancunians Shaun Ryder, John Cooper Clarke and Mark E. Smith, Williamson’s disillusioned, frustrated, alienated rants have found the minute sliver on the Venn diagram of profound and profane, certifying the band as unafraid truth-tellers, the last sane men in a world gone mad.