22 March 2007
A lot has changed since 2007 – for instance, you now know 21 Demands by a different name. However, in 2007 a lot had already changed too. 21 Demands came to prominence that year as the runner-up in the latest series of You’re A Star, which by now had recused itself from Eurovision selection duty to become a plain old reality TV talent show. Also, ‘Give Me A Minute’ is the first-ever single to top the Irish charts on download sales alone, with the side-effect that this is the first Irish Number Ones entry which doesn’t have a physical artefact as the image up top. (You’re seeing a publicity photo of the band instead.) And 21 Demands in 2007 are the first non-U2 Irish rock band to have an Irish number one single since, depending on how broadly you define Irish rock, The Saw Doctors with ‘Hay Wrap’ in 1991 or No Sweat with ‘Heart And Soul’ in 1989. Does this, plus Westlife’s final Irish number one with ‘The Rose’ shortly before this, spell the end of the Irish boyband era? We’ll soon see.
Of course, one could argue that 21 Demands were a boyband too, after a fashion – purely going by the fact they were finalists in an X Factor-style show and share the cut of McFly and Busted’s jib in the photo above. I was out of the country at the time, but they look a bit too callow to have been the ‘authentic’ rock faction in any Cowell-esque protest vote. Sonically too, ‘Give Me A Minute’ is the sound of four young lads throwing all their ideas into their first—and perhaps only, who knew?—shot at a high-profile record. I hear indie, ska, emo and US alt-rock in there, along with some mild teen-angst lyrics and unshowy production. I don’t hear a precocious talent for catchy hooks or juggernaut choruses. You’d normally call this the competent first demo of a fresh new band and reserve judgement until hearing a full set, but in 2007 You’re A Star was still pulling semi-raw acts out of the frying pan and into the firing line; that much hadn’t changed. However, 21 Demands survived that trial by fire. We’ll meet them at number one in Ireland again, new name and all.
