Up Close and Personal With To Kill A King

Greg Morley sees a close friend on the brink of the big time.

I didn’t expect it turn out this way.

Let me paint the picture. About three years ago I was introduced to one of my housemates’ close friends, Joshua Platman. I got on well with this Leeds University graduate and we too became good friends. As a mate of his, I would make polite noises whenever he started talking about his mod folk band To Kill A King. Yes, I’ll come and see you play someday, I always said. A couple of weeks ago I finally got round to it.

I was wary about going to the gig. Back home in Eastbourne there were schoolmates who went on about being musicians. Result: turn up in a field somewhere, listen to some out of tune guitar, drink some very questionable beer; all the while telling yourself, never again.

You can see why I wasn’t keen to repeat the experience. But it was getting to the point where not going to hear Josh might have caused a rift between us. So go I did, putting to the back of my mind the prospect of telling him I didn’t think much of his precious music.

I need never have worried.

The support band were a good omen. Keston Cobblers Club: far from being a load of; closer to the sublime. And they were just the warm-up!

Then it happened. Josh and the rest of his band, including frontman Ralph Pelleymounter, took the stage.

They kicked off with their single, ‘Fictional State’; the crowd immediately went mad – and stayed that way for the entire set. I couldn’t stop thinking, hey, I’m best mates with someone who is about to hit the pop superstar stratosphere.

At the after show party, I wasn’t exactly sure how to talk to Josh about the gig – was I a journalist interviewing the next big thing, or a close friend of this guy who happens to be a musician?

To Kill A King are about to go on a European tour. By the time they get back, they may be way out of my league. But I’ll always be glad I saw them while Josh was still a friend first and foremost.

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