Young, dumb, living off mum!
Rat Boy at Truck festival 2016
Rat Boy (Jordan Cardy) is not your typical Essex lad, with his second hand trackie jacket, rough look hair and slurred voice he took to the main stage at Truck Festival in Oxford, July 2016 to stake his claim on grunge style indie rock. At age 21 Rat Boy has won an NME Award for Best New Artist in 2016 and had his hit song MOVE in the UK charts for weeks last year; he is celebrated for his gutsy, honest lyrics and catchy riffs. The Guardian described him several years ago at the birth of his fame as ‘the authentic voice of disaffected youth’, a very appropriate description for someone ‘young dumb and living off mum’ as he sings in his hit song SIGN ON. Rat Boy, named so for his grimy looks had a hard time at school of which he expresses in some of his songs; however this and his dyslexia didn’t stop him from writing songs since a young age and his quick, uncalculated wit is part of his infectious charm.
Rat Boy didn’t seemed phased by the sight of thousands of people jeering at him in an Oxford field, admitting that he had to fly off to Barcelona afterwards to do a show and wanted to go nuts before being stuck on a plane. And nuts he went, climbing on the stage scaffolding, dancing, swooning about the stage and even throwing bottles of water into the crowd which were a welcome cool off in the July heat. The rest of the band, Harry Todd on lead Guitar, rhythm Guitar, sampler and Keys, Liam Haygarth on bass Guitar and backing Vocals and Noah Booth the drummer were dressed in their cousins hand me down joggers and Adidas sweatshirts that oozed young care free attitudes to match the lyrics.
Rat Boy truly was an outstanding act from Truck Festival 2016. Amongst established Indie bands and artists such as Catfish and the Bottlemen, Jack Savoretti and Blossoms he proved he can please a crowd with his rowdy, energetic performance. The mass of young audience members was a credit to his passionate outcries to all youth; if you’re a fuck up at school, it won’t last forever, everyone has creativity to show so own it.
Image Sourced from: Chloe Chaplin - http://picssr.com/tags/jordancardy/page3