The Carpettes were a very under-rated band in hindsight, bouncing along on a surfeit of catchy pop-punk choons that were the equal of some of the heavyweight bands of the period. There was nothing especially revelatory about the County Durham band’s formula, which moved closer to conventional pop dynamics (though in truth they were never that far away from them to begin with) as their career progressed. But they did it all with a bit of panache and a sense of fun and optimism that was sorely lacking in the circles they moved in. In some ways it’s possible to speculate that it was only their timeframe that separated them from the mod revival movement. Maddison doesn’t entirely dispute this, but believes that, especially live, they had a ‘harder’ sound than the Mod bands. As long-term fan Mick Mercer noted, “As a band, The Carpettes were hamstrung by not having an image, or a scene into which they might fit.They were really firing on all cylinders when they were expected to fit into the birth of indie scenes everywhere, and it wasn’t easy for them. The songs can’t be faulted . . ."( continued at www.thecarpettes.com )