The Fall of the Fainthearts

Track Four: Unwelcome Visitors

Derek Barkley (journalist, author of 'Unfiltered: London Revival): When it came to the young Axel Faintheart, he was relentless at heart. He's never done anything in his life by halves and especially in his prime, nothing was going to stop him from getting to where he needed to be.

Axel is quite complex. In terms of his upbringing and childhood he always felt like the black sheep, or the ugly duckling. His siblings, Harry and Piper, they were perfect models of the Faintheart brand. Axel, not so much - and his father Tim was never shy about telling him that.

He had experienced so much rejection in his life up until Kian had intended to sign them to his label. His father was incredibly critical of everything he did and up until he started to write music his only escapes were drugs, alcohol and parties. These, of course, in turn made his family feel even stronger that he was an embarrassment.

Tim Faintheart did an interview once, all the way back in 1992, the year before the event, and claimed that Axel wouldn't be inheriting one penny from the Faintheart name. He used the fame that Axel had accumulated to cover it up, explained that he simply didn't need it, but it was really just about being spiteful and jamming that knife a little deeper. That was a statement saying that he still wasn't happy with his son, no matter how far he had come. He would never be completely proud of him, and Axel knew that.

His entire life up until the point of getting that address was the perfect culmination of all the negative feelings that turn you into an angsty rockstar. He had this huge sense of ego that drove him forward, like this voice in his head that told him he deserved everything he ever wanted, because he'd gone without it for so long. Because of that, going straight into Kian Cash's studio without invitation wasn't as shocking to him as it was to Kian. It was a right that he had conjured up in his head into believing he had.

Kian Cash: I remember walking out into the lobby of the studio and just saying out loud, "How the fuck are you here?" Looking back, I should've probably been a bit more scared, but I was just in total disbelief that they'd somehow wiggled their way back in after I'd obviously not been impressed enough to invite them formally.

They all stood there, Axel right at the front with his hands in his pockets. Casual, real cocky-like. And he said to me, "We'd love to play you a song." I thought, I bet you would, a lot of people would. The gall just threw me, but it was less entitled than it was confident. Still, I wasn't happy.

Axel: Kian tried to get rid of us a couple times before he finally let us in. He explained it just wasn't our time, that we hadn't gotten his number for a reason, but I turned around to look at the others and could see the disappointment plain in their faces. I knew I just couldn't give up that easily. I knew that they already had, and I needed to find it within me to just poke that bear one last time, for both them and for me. If we left that studio, it was over for us. I knew that they'd all leave. And I couldn't go back to my old life. Not after coming this far.

Kian Cash: So he just started singing. If it wasn't good, I would've thought he was a nutcase. But it was good, I'll give him that. It was an unpolished version of their original song 'Give Me Up'. The boy had talent, and he was backed by a good band, because after they'd realised I was letting him sing Dahlia joined the mix. Vince started to hum the bassline, Bentley drummed the beat to his chest and sung the backing vocals and I had London Revival performing acapella in front of me. I can't say a band has ever impressed me like that before.

Dahlia: It was our one shot and Axel knew that. He wasn't going down without a fight. I can't say that I wasn't slightly embarrassed at first, but when we all came together as a band in the end it was a wonderful feeling. Whether Kian saw our worth or not, I think I can speak for us all and say that we did, in that moment.

Kian Cash: Heavy silence weighed over us when they'd finished their little performance and I thought very carefully about what I should do next. I had a lot of preconceptions about them from the way that Axel lashed out before and I realised quite quickly that he was a bit of a strong character. Not one to back down from a fight, evidently - and the boy could just not take 'no' for an answer.

The guys I had just had in the studio were going to take a lot of work and if that's all I had on the go I wouldn't be doing the company, or my legacy, any justice. So I decided I should take a risk on them. I invited them in for one session, to record a rough catalogue of their original stuff and get a feel for the dynamic. There was no official deal on the table just yet.

Axel: There was definitely a deal on the table. I knew we'd cracked him once we started singing together. He just seemed to soften, like the music was resonating with him. That's why I loved writing about the deep shit, because when you see it click with someone it means something. He was impressed with us and he wanted us signed to his label, why else would he invite us in to record our album?

Kian Cash: I set them up spontaneously. To my credit, can I add. And yeah, we gave them matchsticks, they created fire. Gave them lemons, they made lemonade. But they ran out of songs, and if we were going to take this seriously we needed at least one full album under our belts and they had about six songs. You can't make a debut album out of covers, I needed original hits and I needed them fast. I wanted to put them to the test and really see what they were made of.

Axel: He told us he wanted at least three more original songs by the end of the week if we wanted to make this happen with him. I told him it was a deal, shook his hand, and left the studio. Then as the door shut behind me I realised what I'd just agreed to and how much of an idiot I was.

Vince: Axel was so desperate for Kian's approval that he agreed to conditions that were literally impossible. To have three new, completely original songs in four days? He was crazy and he knew it, you could see it in his face. He's never been very good at hiding how he really feels.

Dahlia: There was no point beating Axel up about the deal because there would be no deal in the first place if he hadn't opened his mouth. We just had to knuckle down and get something on paper.

Bentley: Problem is, all of our songs up until this point were either written by Axel, Dahlia, or both of them together. Me and Vince had never written a song before, we just wrote the tabs. So we had to wait for them to come up with something good before we could even dip our toes in.

Axel: I spent that week banging my head against the wall and hoping something would spill out onto the pages. One day before the deadline we'd managed to write two songs, pretty mediocre at best and very obvious album filler. I needed to go back to Kian with something really special and all I had to work with was random gibberish I'd written down when I woke up from a nap and fell back to sleep straight after. It was hardly my best work.

I drove around looking for anything to inspire me. I parked up, watched people stagger about in the night, drove to bars, clubs, anything I would see something out of the ordinary. By the time the night drew in, my eyes were sore and I was beginning to lose hope. The little clock in the van struck midnight and I hit a harsh curb, so the adrenaline finally shook me out of my daze.

I had one final idea. If I couldn't find some kind of inspiration here, then I had no chance of delivering anything good to Kian and I could kiss my record deal goodbye.

Florence: Axel turned up at The Underground fifteen minutes after closing time. I was just finishing mopping the floor and the sound of his fist on the old door so late at night made me jump. I was in over-tired and not expecting any visitors, in fact I was just about to head up to bed. Opening the door I could see that he was just as exhausted as I was. I said to him, "Axel, you do know we're closed now?"

He said, "I know, but I have nowhere else to go."