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Music / Kenickie

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from left to right, Johnny X, Emmy-Kate, Lauren and Marie.
Kenickie were a 3-girl, 1-boy Britpop/Pop Punk group from Sunderland, UK. They took their name from the T-Birds leader in Grease. Active from 1994 to 1998, their career achievements included coming top of John Peel's Festive Fifty for 1996 with "Come Out 2Nite", a top 30 hit with "In Your Car" and a top 10 album, At the Club.

Line-up:

  • Lauren Laverne - vocals, guitar, cello
  • Marie du Santiago - vocals, guitar
  • Emmy-Kate Montrose - bass, occasional vocals and trumpet
  • Peter Gofton (originally credited as X, then Johnny X) - drums, keyboards

Kenickie provide examples of:

  • Brother–Sister Team: Lauren and Peter wrote most of the second album.
  • Car Song: Subverted by "In Your Car". The narrator enthuses about a boy's car... but she's not actually interested in the car, or even the boy, she just wants a lift because she doesn't feel like walking home.
  • Downer Ending: "Acetone" on both the Skillex EP and At The Club.
  • Last Note Nightmare: Their cover of "Save Your Kisses For Me".
  • Love Is a Weakness: "Robot Song"
  • New Sound Album: Get In was significantly less rock-oriented than At the Club, leading to a lot of They Changed It, Now It Sucks! reactions.
  • No Communities Were Harmed: Averted toward the end of "Lights Out in a Provincial Town" when the location, which is of no importance whatsoever, is unexpectedly revealed as Prestatyn.
  • Hard-Drinking Party Girl: One is mentioned in "Come Out 2Nite".
  • The One Guy: Drummer Peter Gofton, the only male member in an otherwise mostly female band.
  • One-Letter Name: Peter Gofton was credited as X on "Catsuit City". During the "At The Club" era he was known as Johnny X. Presumably the reason that the songwriting credits at that time were given as full (stage) names rather than surnames only, was to avert this trope.
  • Oop North: They're from Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, and have the accents to prove it. They don't mind if you call them Mackems, but do NOT mistake them for Geordies (from nearby Newcastle).
  • Power Pop: Especially on the first album.
  • Pretty Butterflies: The video for "I Would Fix You".
  • Rearrange the Song: Although "Catsuit City" fell victim to Canon Discontinuity, three of its songs were remade as B Sides in the "At The Club" era: "Skateboard Song", "Private Buchowski" and "Perfect Plan".
  • Shout-Out: The Non-Indicative Title "Lunch At Lassiters" comes from the Shooting Stars tie-in book.
  • Small Town Boredom: "5am" inverts it, "Lights Out In A Provincial Town" plays it straight.
  • The Something Song: "Robot Song", "Skateboard Song"
  • Take That!: "Punka", against indie labels and especially Slampt, who released their first EP.
  • Theme Naming: The ladies all adopted city names as stage names.
  • Word Salad Title: "Kamikaze Annelids"

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