SOLDIER

http://www.facebook.com/soldiersmusic

They say that there is '15 degrees of separation' with everyone in the world, what this basically means is, you know someone who knows someone who is related to someone.....  to someone famous. Well I'm related to someone who's Boyfriend is a friend of  'Scotty Balboa'  the singer of Soldier. Ok, its not a great claim to fame but it's how I heard of this band. I first properly head about Soldier from my Aunt telling me that her and the BF were seeing this lot support someone called 'Brother' (The BF told me that the next time he saw brother Soldier blew then off the stage).
'Brother' or 'Viva brother' as they are now known are the Voldermort of Indie mention them to any Indie kid and you will see them get slightly uncomfortable. However the band I saw Soldier support way back in 2011was MONA (another hopeful from 2011 but unlike Brother these guys really did deserve to be huge) Though it was Soldier I came to see.
A friend of mine saw them live doing an acoustic gig  and wasn't impressed, yet I keep telling him you have to see Soldier as a proper plugged in Rock band, because when you do they are brilliant. Their songs are the sort that Oasis or The Manic Street Preachers would have played to stadiums back in the 90's. Their song 'We love you' is slightly reminiscent of the  Manic's 'You Love us'. On stage 'Scotty Balboa' is the ultimate weekend rock star* he obviously models himself a little bit on Liam Gallagher, but not enough to be a pastiche, he's a good singer and has a lot of character and presence,  I remember him saying on-stage 'well see some of you at our next gig... at Wembley' that quote pretty much sums up Soldier, it was obviously a joke but these guys are rock 'n roll dreamers, and in an alternate universe they are probably playing Wembley right now.

Their Broken Bones EP has 5 tracks on it, 'We love you', Hurricane, Lifeline, Time on my side and Broken Bones are all full of riffs and choruses and pretty good production quality despite the band being unsigned. unfortunately as far as I know to get a copy you'll need to meet the band and ask for one.
since the gig I saw them at they've carried on supporting bands and playing local gigs, and building up a following, they've been a little quiet these past few months but their facebook shows signs that they're gearing up to make 2013 a big year, give these guys your support, they're one of Birmingham's best bands.

http://www.facebook.com/soldiersmusic
http://www.soldiersmusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/soldiersmusic
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesmartin...

* I don't mean that as an insult, just that his main day job is a bit more ordinary