The band which has given me the most pleasure over the past six years is Oceansize, a rock band from Manchester. Over four albums Oceansize has produced the most exhilarating, exciting, glorious rock music and given live performances of such thrilling energy I still had faith in music in a world saturated with autotuned X-factor bilge and happy slappy rap garbage.
Which is why I am so fucked off that Oceansize has split up. Not just disappointed. Honestly fucked off.
Oceansize is - was - something truly special. Oceansize had so many facets - on MySpace the band described itself as Progressive Death Indie - that you didn't know where it was going to go but you knew you were going to follow it to the ends of the Earth.
Oceansize even did some tracks I wasn't that keen on, but that too was part of their genius. In the same way that I think OK Computer is better than The Bends because its high points are so high, so the best bits of Oceansize take it into a world of its own.
Silent/Transparent from Self Preserved While The Bodies Float Up.
Trail of Fire from Frames.
Ornament/The Last Wrongs from Everyone Into Position.
Incredible, life-affirming, heart-pumping rock music.
There is - was - no-one like Oceansize.
We have not been given a reason why Oceansize has split. Which is fair enough. Oceansize don't owe us anything. Sure, I bought all the albums and went to the gigs but I didn't do that so that I would be reimbursed. I did it because listening to Oceansize's music improved the quality of my life. And we all want that, don't we?
And even if there was a reason for the split, would it help? I don't think so...even though part of me really wants to know why.
Maybe one of the problems is that Oceansize didn't realise just how good Oceansize was. Maybe Oceansize don't fully appreciate the impact they have had on a number of rock music fans around the world and splitting up is no big deal. No, that's ridiculous. Even if the five members are glad the band is no more, in the way you are glad to be out of a bad relationship yet still mourn its ending, they couldn't be that flippant about their demise.
Or maybe the opposite is true. Maybe the five members felt - rightly - that they had made the best rock music of the last ten years but fame had still eluded them so what else was there to do but quit? But I'm pretty certain they were not doing it just for the fame. I believe they were doing it to make magnificent music, which they achieved admirably.
Since the announcement a month ago I haven't been able to listen to any of the albums. But then last night I listened to the first one, Effloresce, on headphones and today I've played the other three. Redundancy has its perks.
For the last four weeks I actually told myself that there was no point in listening to Oceansize anymore, seeing as it didn't exist. That is crazy. I still listen to the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. Obviously.
But the thought of listening to Oceansize recently has actually pained me. So I didn't. Now I have. And, of course, am loving the music as much as ever, albeit with a bittersweet taste now that they are no more. And it has encouraged me to write this, which may or may not be a good thing.
Perhaps it is ridiculous to mourn the end of a rock band.
I don't think so. Music, apart from my wife and son, is the most important thing in my world so I am experiencing a genuine sense of loss that there will be no more Oceansize albums, that there will be no more Oceansize gigs to go to.
I'm sure Messrs Vennart, Heron, Hodson, Ingram and Durose are happy with their decision and I trust they will go on to make more great music in their lives.
But it won't be Oceansize. It can't be. And I just can't be happy about that.
