With little fanfare – or even a bass solo – the all-bass supergroup, Freebass, founded by Peter Hook, Andy Rourke and Mani have unveiled their debut release. The four-track EP Two Worlds Collide, including vocals by the Charlatans' Tim Burgess, is now available for purchase.
Freebass's three bassists (get it?) have contributed to most of Manchester's greatest bands – Joy Division, New Order, the Smiths and the Stone Roses. When the project was launched five years ago, the idea was to trade on this celebrity, emlisting five-star guest singers like Liam Gallagher, Ian Brown, Billy Corgan and Bobby Gillespie. However, that didn't quite work out.
"We asked them but we're all jobbing musicians so it's impossible to fit it in," Hook told BBC 6 Music. "We had Liam at one point but you really just can't fit it in." Instead, Freebass recorded a handful of tracks with Burgess, the Mighty Wah's Pete Wylie, and writer Howard Marks. These appear on Two Worlds Collide, with a full-length album to follow in four weeks.
On their debut LP, all songs will feature Freebass's "real" singer, Gary Briggs. He was chosen in "a sort of indie Pop Idol". "It took us about a year and a half to find a singer," Hook explained. "So we ended up with four guest vocalists and a proper vocalist." Briggs is best known – or, er, merely known – as the former singer for Haven.
"The problem with [Freebass] was that when it started, we had a lot of time on our hands – Mani, Rourkey and I. And then as soon as we started it, our respective band leaders, in their wisdom, decided to work. So it's had a lot of false starts," Hook said. He also called it a "living hell". This is, coincidentally, the same phrase we would use to describe an all-bass supergroup.
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