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Former Alfie star to form supergroup
Lee Gorton calls on Elbow, Snow Patrol and The Flaming Lips
Former Alfie frontman Lee Gorton has launched a campaign to form a "pyschedelic supergroup" for a special project.
The singer has asked The Flaming Lips, The Zutons, Elbow, Snow Patrol and Athlete to lay down vocals for a compilation album which will be written and recorded by a host of up-and-coming bands.
He told NME.COM: "I've talked with all these heads and they've all said, 'Lee you fucking nutter, sounds great'. So I've planted the seed and asked them and now it's my job to find a load of great songs that will suit them which will be written by up and coming artists and bands like Jim Noir, The Monks Kitchen, John Stammers, The Draytons and The Junipers because they're all dying to write the songs. Then we'll just try and get the big boys in to sing them because then we're asking nothing of 'em.
"I wanna have proper folk tunes on there, pyschedelic tunes, northern soul tunes, straight up Beatles-esque, Wings-esque pop classics."
The project - entitled 'Red Thread' after Lee's Manchester roots - has been set up to try and bring a host of unsigned bands to the fore through major artists.
He explained: "We're just trying to get loads of bands working together, writing with each other, dropping all the stand-offish playground mentality attitude that bands have with each other sometimes when they think they've gotta scrap it out. A lot of em have got good hearts and are doing it for the right reason and that's why I don't mind going to Garvey and all the others and saying 'C'mon don't you remember what it was like to be unsigned and what it was like trying to get a break when you started out?'."
Although the project is still in its tentative stages, the singer is currently on the lookout for a studio where tracks can be layed down for the record.
He went on: "All I need now is some crazy old last of the English eccentrics, some old dude who's got a decrepit mansion anywhere, even if its in Bulgaria, the Isle Of Skye, Wales, anywhere that'll have us for two or three weeks a month. I'm aiming to take a few producer mates, a few laptops and mics and just cane it. So if anyone has got a fucking mad mansion gis a shout."
Meanwhile, Gorton has also recorded a track with James Lavelle for the forthcoming UNKLE album 'The Future Is Unwritten'.
Lee added: "I was pleased to be asked. I only spent a couple of days on it and it was all a bit impromptu but they really liked what I'd done. It's pretty simple stuff, it's only two chords and its a pretty monotonous melody that builds into a harmony."
