Bradley Cooke-Catcheside

3112
Lutterworth College
25274

Magazine Article

“There are so many ignorant people out there. So many people who have the stupid
belief that they go onto the latest reality television programme and from this, that they
will automatically be signed up to the world’s biggest and best record company and
achieve instant worldwide fame in just a few brief weeks!” explains Boy Roadside lead
singer, Laura Johnson; “we never wanted that to be the case; we always wanted to be
known for our music, not for appear on some has-been television programme!”

Laura sat in her garden, the January wind had died down for the moment; she placed her
trademark boots onto the weathered garden table. I made my brief introduction to her
and before I had even taken my seat the

The year 2009 has been quite spectacular for the up and coming band from the beautiful
countryside around Leicestershire. In summer of last year, band members Laura Johnson
and Dann Miller were just students receiving their GCSE modular results at the local
college; now they are sell out artists after their appearance at many different festivals
and live events; “Education is vitally important”, continues Laura; “we’re not deluding
ourselves like some people do - we know that fame is not as amazing as we are lead to
believe. Shit happens.”

“We don’t even really know where the success properly came from”, begins Dann; “it
was just, one day, we were just singing in the local pub that evening, it was one of our
friend’s sweet sixteen parties and as we were finishing and packing up then, suddenly
somebody came over to Laura at the end and said that he was interested in hearing
more music from us and that they had heard us before and had been recommended”;
“he took down Laura’s contacts and, in what seemed like minutes; he was recording our
album and there was talk of performing on the BBC Introducing Stage at Reading and
Leeds festival last year!”

“I know that it sounds stupid”, Dann began; “but we have always known that we wanted
to make a hell of a lot of noise” Dann and Laura both laughed at this prospect “when I
was a child I always used to hit spoons and forks together, I always told my mum what I
wanted to aspire to become - I must have been a fucking pain in the ass! Yet, it never
actually stopped me!”

Boy Roadside’s debut single, “By the Roadside” was released at the very end of 2009; “it
definitely plays homage to the bands out there that everybody knows and love”
continues Laura; “everybody sees us that the band with the female vocalist and
suddenly, automatically everybody thinks of bands like Paramore; we’re nothing like
them.” At this it became clear that the comparison was not as complimentary as it
should have been; “Oh? Do not get me wrong; I love Paramore - Hayley’s the fucking
bomb - but we’re completely different, we have absolutely nothing to do with the band
themselves we just love them!”