The Harrisons – Monday’s Arms Remix 12″

They look like a scruffy version of the Small Faces, they strut around like a proper gang and their own brand of earthy northern rock has been making waves ever since debut single Wishing Well proved that Sheffield has more to offer than a string of Arctic Monkeys wannabes. The band, of course, is Harrisons, and they’re about to surprise you with their next release – a 12″ white label remix.

The track in question is Monday Arms, the band’s anthem for weekenders. It’s a song about packing as much into those precious days off before you’re “back in the cradle of Monday arms”, and it’s a feeling the four lads know too well. “We’ve all had rubbish jobs: joinery, fixing gutters and that,” they say.

The inspired remix transforms Monday Arms into an instant indie-disco classic via a bounding disco bassline, a four-four beat and some searing echoed vocals, with a sound pitched somewhere between New Order’s Blue Monday and edgy Sheffield electro punk. As for the remixer, well, he’s going by the name American Pop Band (and he is American) but that’s all we’re saying – it’s up to you to puzzle over the rest.

But this doesn’t mean that Harrisons have ditched guitars for samplers. The lads are currently working on an album of gritty, urban rock ‘n’ roll – the kind that made Wishing Well and its chant-along follow-up Blue Note into instant classics. Formed two years ago in Steel City, the band built up a reputation for rousing gigs and no-nonsense lyrics drawn from stifling small-town frustration.

Those weekends just keep getting better…