The Indelicates
The Indelicates are a Sussex-based English indie rock band. Formed in 2005 by Julia and Simon Indelicate, the band's songs are known for their mix of dark, cynical lyrics and tuneful rock melodies. The Indelicates came to attention with their early demos, which were released for free on their website. The band signed to independent record label Sad Gnome Records in 2006 and released several singles and an EP. After leaving Sad Gnome in 2007, the band signed to another independent label, Weekender Records, which issued their first album, American Demo, in 2008.
After Weekender found itself in financial difficulty, the Indelicates asked to be released from their contract. In 2010, the band formed Corporate Records, through which artists could sell their own work on a pay-what-you-like basis and retain the bulk of the profits. The band's first release through the label was Songs for Swinging Lovers in 2010. Four more albums followed, including the concept album David Koresh Superstar in 2011, based on the life of Branch Davidian religious sect leader David Koresh. Their most recent album was released in 2025, Avenue Qanon. The Indelicates are also known for their innovative and progressive marketing techniques, including crowdfunding their fourth album before Kickstarter had a UK presence, "Super Special Editions", and virtual reality and 360-degree music videos.
The band remain favourites in the blogosphere, but although they received positive notices in the mainstream music press and achieved some popularity in Germany, they have never had a breakout hit. While Simon and Julia have been ever-present, the Indelicates have featured several line-ups since their formation, sometimes with a rotating roster of backing musicians for live shows, which they continue to perform in the UK and Europe.
Early work
Formation
The Indelicates were formed in 2005 in Brighton, UK, by Julia and Simon Indelicate, who had met five years previously at a poetry slam. The pair created several independent and joint artistic projects, which they promoted through their individual MySpace pages. Julia was also a documentary photographer and Simon had been a performance poet on the cabaret circuit. Simon also wrote a musical based on the Book of Job. In 2003, Julia co-founded indie pop band The Pipettes, but left in early 2005 to form the Indelicates with Simon.The band began playing venues in September 2005, with a line-up that initially consisted of Julia on vocals and piano, Simon on vocals and guitar, Jack Stone on drums, Kate Newberry on bass guitar, and Alastair Clayton on rhythm guitar. Ed Van Beinum later took over from Stone.
Demos and recognition
In late 2005, the band released several songs as free downloads on its own website, including "Waiting for Pete Doherty to Die". The song helped the Indelicates build a fanbase, but was also a source of "controversy and misunderstanding". Dan Hancox in New Statesman described it as "attention-seekingly controversial", and Julia stated that the band received a lot of letters and e-mails attacking the band over the song. She described these as coming from people who had only seen the title.Simon said of the reaction, "I have never met , nor have I ever written a song about him." Simon also said that some fans of Babyshambles attended the Indelicates' concerts to find out how hateful they were, only to learn that the intent of the song was not about wishing Doherty would die, but about the "hypocritical" media machine that profits from the deaths of musicians: "circling vultures waiting for the end". In its 2005 yearbook, NME chose the song as its "most controversial pick of the year".
Hancox went on to praise "Waiting for Pete Doherty to Die" as "a bitter-sweet, folk-tinged bit of acoustic soul searching typical of this fascinating new band." Jetzt magazine said that the song captured the impression one would get from reading the English press that Doherty was on a death spiral and that with the song "media criticism, cynicism, nihilism and beautiful music come together perfectly". Author Neil Gaiman said of the song, "I was hooked in one, as they took apart, with bitter grace, the media/academic obsession with and delight in the downfall of stars and idols."
The Indelicates also made available "Burn All the Photographs", "Vladimir" "Julia, We Don't Live in the 60s" and "New Art for the People". NME described "New Art for the People" as "stunning", and Exclaim! said that the song's "unmistakably twee ... delivery" made it "beguiling" and "distinctive".
Sad Gnome
The Indelicates' website also featured an early recording of "We Hate the Kids". In 2006, the Indelicates signed to independent record label Sad Gnome Records and on 24 July released "We Hate the Kids" through the label as a two-track 7" vinyl single and four-track digital download. The song was a re-recording of the original demo, which had been recorded in Alastair's bedroom and was removed from the band's site ahead of the release. The new version was produced by Keith Mahony and co-produced and mastered by Les Carter. It was Sad Gnome Records' first release.Hancox had called the first version of the song the Indelicates' "most exciting ... a cynical, disaffected, lo-fi anthem", and "We Hate the Kids" received positive reviews in NME and Rolling Stone. In 2012, "We Hate The Kids" was used on the soundtrack of German film Drei Zimmer/Küche/Bad, and in September 2020, God Is in the TV listed it at No. 67 in its list of 100 songs deserving to be rescued from the indie rock "landfill" era.
The band's last release while signed to Sad Gnome was the EP "The Last Significant Statement To Be Made in Rock'n'Roll", on 12 February 2007. The six-track CD consisted of the title track, plus "Sixteen", "Heroin", acoustic track "Unity Mitford", live track "Stars" and a remix of the title track. The EP was released to tie-in with the Indelicates' tour of Germany in the same month. Jetzt chose "Sixteen" as one of the most interesting song releases of the week, calling Julia's vocals irresistible and complimenting the song's brevity. The magazine also praised the EP as a whole, in particular the way in which Julia and Simon "complement each other, support each other, drive each other on ... they harmonize so perfectly".
Weekender years
Touring and singles
Through 2007, the Indelicates had continued to play venues in the UK and Europe. In Germany they headlined several times and played support for Art Brut, whose lead singer, Eddie Argos, had previously called the Indelicates his favourite band. In April 2007, for British Music Week the German edition of Vanity Fair profiled "the most important" British bands that were playing German cities that year, calling the Indelicates' "We Hate The Kids" and "Waiting For Pete Doherty to Die" "so very brilliant".By mid-year, the Indelicates had left Sad Gnome to join another independent label, Weekender Records, and in July released "Julia, We Don't Live in the 60s" as a CD single and 7" vinyl. The latter featured "Point Me to the West" as a B-side, while the CD release added to that song a live version of "Unity Mitford". Artrocker magazine called "Julia ..." "intelligent, poetic indie-rock". The Guardian called the song "reasonably agreeable", while noting that for a rock song that was "not really a compliment". Gigwise, reviewing a live rendition of the song, cited its "soaring riffs" and "wry, nostalgic and deliciously doom-laden" lyrics. Eddie Argos appeared in the music video.
The band's final single of 2007 was "Sixteen", released on 8 October on CD, 7" vinyl and digitally. The vinyl release contained "Sixteen" and B-side "The Sequel to Peter Pan and Wendy", while the CD release also featured a remix of "Fun is for the Feeble Minded". Julia said that "'Sixteen' is a song about people never growing up, and behaving like little kids for as long as possible, even when it bites them in the arse."
Several industry publications, including Rolling Stone, had predicted mainstream success for the Indelicates for several years, and though the band had achieved popularity in the blogosphere, by the start of 2008 a breakout hit had eluded them.
On 24 March 2008, the band released its fourth single, "America" on CD, 7" vinyl and digitally. The vinyl release B-side "No Religion" was joined by "The Last Bombed City" on the CD release. Clash magazine called the song an "entertaining polemic, whose lack of subtlety extends to the suitably big, brash rock musical soundtrack." Room Thirteen said the song was "truly refreshing ... a great track which is up-beat and powerful" and said that both Simon and Julia's vocals were "excellent and certainly complement the political nature of their music." The reviewer also praised both B-sides, saying the release added up to a "knockout combination".
''American Demo''
"America" preceded the Indelicates' first album release, American Demo on 14 April 2008. Produced by Brian O'Shaughnessy at Bark Studio, and issued by Weekender on CD and as a 12" vinyl LP, the album featured 14 tracks and included new and previously released material. The album was released simultaneously in Germany through Weekender's sister label.George Bass, writing for God is in The TV, called American Demo "rewardingly consistent" and said that it "breaks none of the promises have spent the last three years making". Bass remarked that while the album might look like "most machined poprock" it was "deeper than your average post-rock gatefold." He singled out critical favourite "New Art for the People" in particular as the band's signature track, "a raw monolith that's lost none of its veracity in the jump from the stage to the studio." Jo Vallance of Room Thirteen called the album a "fantastic debut" that "blows away all the indie bands claiming to make a difference and say something that counts" and further praised the album for its "variety of sound".
Neil Jones of MusicOMH called the album "a broad set of tracks that which spit immaculate bile here, vintage melodies there, and its very first track is a musical statement if ever I’ve heard one, Julia ... etching out a violin contrapuntal to make the hairs stand on end." Jones complimented the way the album married the album's "sweet" melodies with the more barbed lyrical content, and concluded, "Corrosive performance poetry and pop music passion, this is an album on immaculate themes. American Demo really is the aesthetic arm of the outsiders, and The Indelicates right now are pretty much unbeatable."
To support the album's release, the Indelicates toured Europe, notably Germany. They also headlined a stage at the Frequency Festival in Austria. The band played venues in the United States, including support for The Vaselines in New York, and at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.
Mayer Nissim, writing for Digital Spy, later said that American Demo had been "one of the best guitar-pop albums of the decade", while noting that "inevitably it didn't exactly set the charts alight". The Indelicates said that the album "didn't sell terribly".