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The Highway To Bell

What do Q-Tip, UNKLE, U2, PJ Harvey and Depeche Mode have in common? They’ve all at some point been an influence on Paul Noonan and Dave Geraghty who sit down with Peter Murphy to talk about musical heroes, the evolution of their own chart-conquering career and how they learned to embrace the Gary Numan within on their new album, Bloodless Coup. Plus, find out courtesy of our exclusive Hot Press competition how you can lure the Bellies to your living-room for a private gig.

Peter Murphy, 19 Apr 2011

Let us now praise famous men and women. Paul Noonan and Dave Geraghty of Bell X1 are gathered here today to come clean about the plethora of the artists that have influenced the band over the course of five albums: Neither Am I, Music In Mouth, Flock, Blue Lights On The Runway and the brand new Bloodless Coup.

For an hour they argue their choices and whittle down the list, and it soon becomes clear that they’re an avowedly modernist lot. No Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zep, Beach Boys or Clash in 2011. The oldest artifact dates from 1979.

There are ties for certain places: the pair are hard pressed to decide between Q-Tip, UNKLE and DJ Shadow, between Talk Talk and David Kitt, between U2 and Depeche Mode. And when challenged to select a single PJ Harvey album from the canon, Mr. Noonan professes himself stumped. As for a common thread?

“There are certain sorts of producers that I’ve liked,” Paul says. “Jon Brion did the soundtrack for Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, and there’s a version of The Korgis’ ‘Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime’ that Beck recorded, it’s so beautiful. And Neil Young’s Harvest is something we’ve talked about a lot in terms of describing that marriage of acoustic guitar, bass and drums. Some Van Morrison records are like that too, the acoustic marries with the snare and hi-hats and they have that beautiful one-ness. Really satisfying. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours would be another one in that neck of the woods.”

After more than an hour of intense discussion, the pair finally settle on a shortlist that testifies to their impeccable taste. Athough when pressed for a guilty pleasure, Mr. Noonan admits to one reddener:

“Live’s Throwing Copper. I was big into that back in the day.”

Enough preamble. Let’s see what they’ve brought to the table.

1. Counting Crows

August & Everything After (1993)

Paul: “We were trying to think of records that we listened to a lot that may or may not have influenced us while we were recording. We were thinking back to the days when we started making music and we lived in a country house. August & Everything After was definitely a formative influence on the album Neither Am I. That and Jeff Buckley’s Grace.



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Peter Murphy

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