The Beginning Of The Twist

Album: This Is Not The World (2008)
Charted: 20
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Songfacts®:

  • Along with the rest of the album, this song was produced by Youth (Primal Scream, The Verve). Frontman Barry Hyde told local Portsmouth newspaper The News: "Youth is a fantastic producer. I find that producers have very different methods of working, but Youth's main goal from a session is to get the musicians in the right frame of mind - the frame of mind to be creative."
  • The song's video has been compared to a-ha's promo for "Take On Me." James Appleton, who directed the video, explained in The New Musical Express March 1, 2008: "I was definitely keen to avoid the clichés of performance videos like the band playing in a huge warehouse and big stadium lights in the background. So while I was working on the early stages of the treatment, I thought of doing a video that actually exposed the mechanics of video production itself. My aim was to try and get the video to have one foot in the '80s and one foot in the modern era. There's definitely an influence of 'Take On Me' by A-Ha in there, but without the love interest. I grew up in the '80s and that was a video that I remember everyone talking about in the playground when it first came out. There's another reference to that decade with the blue and red arrows with zig-zag lines in them-they're based on a pair of curtains I had when I was a kid! I thought Barry Hyde's bow-tie added a touch of class too-he bought that along himself because I think he's been wearing it on tour."
  • In a video which appeared on YouTube, Futureheads singer Barry Hyde explained why the band released this single and their new album on their own record label, Nul Records: "We're trying to prove that bands don't need to be exploited by record companies in order to make music. We just want to make pure music for your enjoyment." Guitarist Ross Millard added: "If we can get this single in the charts on our own terms with the help of our fanbase then that is a real achievement and a real message to the dinosaurs in the music industry that their tried-and-tested techniques aren't working anymore and the future of music lies with the fans and the artists."
  • Bassist Dave "Jaff" Craig explained to Digital Spy about this song: "'The Beginning of the Twist' refers to when things start to change - that could be about us starting our own label or about the music industry in general. Then of course there's the whole allegory with relationships and things like that."

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