The View At The Top

The View continued as if it’s determined to squeeze a year’s worth of career progress into a month as their debut album topped the U.K. chart within a week of release.

The self-proclaimed "gadgies" from Dundee fended off The Good, The Bad and The Queen – Blur frontman Damon Albarn’s latest project – with Amy Winehouse, James Morrison, and The Fratellis occupying the next three slots.

The band’s latest single had already reached No. 3 and Europe’s catching on quickly, following a January 11th slot at Holland’s Eurosonic-Noorderslag weekend that won the approval of several major festival bookers.

Early European Talent Exchange Programme (ETEP) selection meetings suggest that agent Steve Zapp of ITB will be negotiating a lot of outdoor shows for the summer.

Apart from the press attention to the Hats Off To The Buskers album, which shifted more than 100,000 to claim No. 1, the band has also become a media favorite for some good old-fashioned rock n’ roll antics.

After an overnight stay in a Liverpool hotel, where their behavior suggested that "blokes" or "dudes" might be a soft translation of "gadgies," they were banned from all of the Travelodge chain’s 300 U.K. outlets.

Zapp has just finished booking their tour, beginning April 11th, which gives plenty of warning to hotel owners in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Southampton, Norwich and London.