I liked The Maccabees for a while. Physical copies of Colour It In and Walls of Arms sit on my shelf in my bedroom. Still prefer their debut album to anything else they made. Kind of lost me on the third album. It was sad when they split up a few years back. Just another band from my first year of secondary school days that were gone and reminding me that time was moving on.

Looking back I think ‘Latchmere’ may have been the first song I’d ever heard by The Maccabees. Very sure it would have happened during the times when I would be watching MTV2 in the mornings where there would be a program dedicated to the newest music out there. Think it was called ‘Brand Spanking New’? Something along those lines. The version used in its music video (below) was recorded earlier than the one that eventually ended up on the band’s debut album; it’s just a bit different and there are a few lyric changes here and there but nothing too drastic.

The track is dedicated to the leisure centre in Battersea, the place in south London where the band originated from. I feel the lyrics are just made up of phrases that were taken by signs and phrases said by the lifeguards at the place, plus Orlando Weeks’ excitement about the wave machine that’s also there. Also listen to the rapid fire drumming throughout. I would air drum to this thing and there is no let up, especially during the verses.