Hope & Pray / Something / The Garden / Help Me Make It

TUNEPONY

Playing earnest indie rock that sticks firmly to the middle of the road, Van Tramp are a band who manage to sound like the unfortunate pairing of James Morrison and the Stereophonics.

Their ULTRAVIOLET EP is a quartet of slickly produced by-the-numbers indie rock songs that make Snow Patrol look like bleeding edge musical pioneers.  Opener HOPE & PRAY finds vocalist Tim Howar crooning like the Morrisons' Van and James over plodding guitar chords and smooth piano work; the song struggling to hold your attention, all too frequently drifting off into dull MOR territory; all very daytime Radio 2.  SOMETHING is a similar sounding story, all very nice and pleasant, but lacking anything approaching excitement, energy or enthusiasm.  Elsewhere, THE GARDEN finds Van Tramp doing their very best Stereophonics impression; Tim Howar reaching for that gravelly Kelly Jones tone whilst with HELP ME MAKE IT, the band move into sleepy eyed acoustic territory, fake American accents and the whiff of Garth Brooks not making for a particularly pretty site.

THE ULTRAVIOLET EP is slickly produced and plodding sounding stuff, Van Tramp dealing out dull middle of the road pop here that fails to leave much of an impression beyond mild indifference.

BIOGRAPHY

Ole Trampers! We know we've been a bit quiet - the business end of r'n'r beckoned...But the deal is done, the wheels are turning and the Ultraviolet EP will be coming to a radio near you SOON courtesy of our new label, Tune Pony...

So if you're an old friend of VT keep sharing the love... and if you're new to VT then check out the EP tracks, join as a friend, use us, abuse us, and keep us entertained...We'll be back on track replying as much as possible to every message we get and we'll keep you posted on all the developments in Trampland as they happen... 

Oh, and did you know that New England was used on BBC 1's Grandstand football coverage every single Saturday afternoon during the football season??! An audience of millions at last and pretty appropriate given that we recorded it in a football stadium!!! Check out the New England clip below, along with the "Something" video and an exclusive behind-the-scenes mini film of our recent trip to NYC where you can see just how funny we really are(n't)...

KEEP ON TRAMPlN'!!! 

LINE UP

Tim Howar

Patrick Mascall

Mike Potter

Guy Snelgar

Andy Tinning

DISCOGRAPHY

THE ULTRAVIOLET EP (Tunepony>2007)

Hope & Pray

Something

The Garden

Help Me Make It

LINKS

Van Tramp>www.vantramp.com

FURTHER LISTENING

Stereophonics

Snow Patrol

Ryan Adam