Great Moments In Pop – The 2000s Part 33.

This is another British group, although it is rather hard to determine what genre they fit into, are they indie, are they dance? Well whatever they were, it was a rather good sound, but once again, their moment of fame turned out to be rather brief. There had already been a group called Klaxons, they were from Belgium, and they had a minor hit single in 1983.

But this Klaxons formed in London in the mid-2000s, and they were one of the last indie-type acts to succeed on the chart and get there through the cycle of people buying their CDs, their music videos being shown on the TV, and appearing on the cover of music magazines when there were still plenty of new bands to champion (and it’s remarkable how quickly that all changed).

It seems that the line-up boasted some people including Captain Strobe and The Colourful Swan, so how could they fail. In November 2006, they had their first hit single with “Magick”, although it was 2007 that was really going to be their year. In January 2007 “Golden Skans” was released, and this reached no. 7, to become their first and only Top Ten hit single in the UK (or indeed anywhere else).

It was rather exciting to see them going up the chart, and their fanbase was increasing. In February 2007 their album “Myths Of The Near Future” was released, which reached no. 2. And this would also win them the Mercury Music Prize. Now this has got to be considered to be their most high-profile award, and this seemed to be a rather popular choice of winner.

Their next single in April 2007 was “Gravity’s Rainbow”, which reached no. 35, but it’s what they did next that I felt was a rather special moment. In June 2007, “It’s Not Over Yet” was released. In the mid-90s, there were a lot of great dance singles around, and one of my favourites was “Not Over Yet” by Grace, which was a production group that featured some rather talented knob-twiddlers.

When I realised that this was a slightly-retitled cover of that one, I was unsure of how anyone could possibly match the original, especially as this was going to be in a different genre. But I was rather pleased with how all of this turned out, you can’t really go wrong with this song, this was indeed an exciting take on this classic, and this reached no. 13.

But after this, Klaxons never made the Top 40 again, and once again it was rather disappointing that their success dropped off so quickly. They did release some more singles and albums, but they were nowhere near as successful, after hoping that they would continue to do well, they didn’t really, and they eventually split in 2015. I can only wonder where The Colourful Swan is now.