From the Sussex Coast in England, Blue Stragglers have been tagged as the next in-line buzz band, after recent support slots this summer with Hotwax & Snayx. The trio runs on a mixture of adrenaline and telepathy, combined with an unbridled gift for creating supremely captivating scuzzy, fuzzed-up bangers.

The trio has relentlessly gigged throughout the country, racking up prominent support slots with Wolfmother, Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society, Kid Kapichi, We Are The Ocean, and Phoxjaw, as well as a breath-taking appearance at 2022’s Download Festival. Last year, the three-piece also delivered their self-titled debut EP to high praise from BBC Introducing, Kerrang! Radio, Planet Rock and Gigslutz among others. 

Their raucous new single (see below) is also the title track of their latest EP which was released on the 10th November via Hassle Records. Fool’s Errand captures their wall of sound and ear for anthemic choruses perfectly.

Guitarist and singer from Blue Stragglers, Lee Martin, joins us with a passionate piece where he explains why he loves the 2024 Download headliners, Queens Of The Stone Age.

‘You don’t know what you’ve got til its gone‘

One of many adages that become all the more true with every passing day, a saying so good I’m sure it’s in a song…. Anyway, it’s none more true than in what would I suppose depressingly be called these days a classic rock band: Queens Of The Stone Age.

Much has been said of them over the years. These days the world of Josh Homme is documented more in TMZ clickbait than the pages of Kerrang so, as a music enthusiast, it took me longer than it should to choose who to talk about in this lil’ feature-  Wilco very nearly pipped them to the post but QOTSA were my first love, and a window into my life now in a band and my constant ever-growing love and study of bands and music, so indulge me if you will.

In 2003 an old schoolfriend burnt me a copy of Songs For The Deaf, back when it still felt a bit wrong to steal music. I didn’t really know much of them at the time, my foot deeply submerged somewhere in between 1960s counterculture bands and Pearl Jam & The Smashing Pumpkins. What struck me initially was the brazen disregard for an arc of continuity in terms of singers, musical style, tempo, everything really. One minute there’s a geezer trying to break my eardrums, then a peculiar falsetto followed by gravel thick baritone, the only constant being a guitar tone so creamy and hypnotic I skipped around that album for some time.

I’d be lying if I said it grabbed me first time but It definitely intrigued me, more so than anything I’d heard at the time.  I avidly bought Total Guitar magazine during these formative years. Like a strange sign – in the same month as I received the album, Total Guitar had an article on the two (the only two) constant members of said band – Troy Van Leeuwen and Josh Homme. Also, a subsequent review of two albums citing the band’s name in both – Mark Lanegan’s Bubblegum and The Desert Sessions 9 &10.

And so began pretty much a 23 year study of the most rewarding family tree of music fell upon. Working back from Songs For The Deaf I fell in love with the wonkier-than-wonky lead guitar lines and riffs on Autopilot, I Think I Lost My Headache, and the blissed-out jams of Better Living Through Chemistry. I was completely hypnotised by them. Who was this Band? ! Then I discovered in MVC (showing my age now) the self-titled album, and the one-two punch of Regular John and Avon blew me away – so dumb, so simple, vaguest of vague lyrics. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played those two songs, and I still air drum along to them. The final nail in the coffin of my adoration came in the form of Songs, You Would Know and You Can’t Quit Me Baby off the same album, the latter having just the most euphoric middle 8 I can muster to think of as I type this.

The more I studied the more I learnt of the different lineups, eras, offshoot bands and members – my favourite being Mark Lanegan, who I was immersing myself with at the same time. He was still in the band as I’d somehow got tickets to see them in Brixton back in 2005, but he never showed. That gig changed my life really, it was the first time I’d watched a band that really spoke to me. Hearing Regular John that night (and at the subsequent Reading festival) I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

I’d learned through the band’s website that Lanegan had left around this time, as had bassist Oliveri.  The revolving door of sometime members becoming all the more apparent. To me personally, I didn’t lament it so much – The Desert Sessions series, which was QOTSA’s mood board for songs to siphon from, had the same revolving door policy. It just made me study the eras more and wish I’d seen them – but made me never want to miss a gig for fear of it being the last one of the band’s current form.

Since then I don’t think I’ve missed a QOTSA Southern UK gig since 2005. I’ve been lucky enough to see them at The 100 Club in 2007, in 2005 retrospectively seeing them with Alain Johannes and the late Natasha Schneider from Eleven, and followed every band vaguely affiliated to them, Kyuss and everything from that family tree.

The first 10 years of that experience solidified my love of a band that altered setlists every night.  Hearing unreleased on album rarities such as Infinity alongside Desert Session songs and pre-album compilation songs just felt like a treasure hunt to see what they played in which city – a truly thrilling experience.

One of those highlights being Homme playing Hanging Tree and 100 Days with Lanegan, a melding of my old love and, through discovering him in QOTSA, my now late great idol.

Most people will steer you in the direction of ‘the hits’ with Queens; No One Knows, Go With The Flow, Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret . . .  so I’ll let you into a few of my favourite ones from my little box of rare treats, along with the songs that made me love them –

Autopilot, God Is In The Radio, Better Living Through Chemistry, In The Fade, Regular John, Avon, You Would Know, The Bronze, Infinity.

And some offshoot songs featuring past and present members-

Mark Lanegan: Methamphetamine Blues, Message To Mine.

Desert Sessions: Making A Cross, Crawl Home, Holy Dime.

Members have come and gone, the output is a little flaky these days and the venues are painfully large – but a week after my band’s EP launch at the Black Heart in Camden I’ll don my tune-spotting cap and head out to 4 of the 5 UK Queens shows (one being Stockton-On-Tees) because you never know if that’ll be the night I get to hear Regular John, or dare I say even Born To Hula ?!  Only one way to find out I suppose. Maybe I’ll see you there – I’ll be the geezer drinking piss water lager by the sound desk with a big ol’ grin on my face.

Here’s the title track from Fool’s Errand – “A song for the hopeless from the forever hopeful.“:

Our grateful thanks to Lee – and amazingly, the first time we’ve had a WIL on QOTSA!

Blue Stragglers photo by Lee Bremner

Blue Stragglers online: Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp

You can read more from our extensive archive of Why I Love pieces from a wide array of artists on an even wider array of subjects, here.

Keep up with At The Barrier: Facebook / X (formerly Twitter) / Instagram / Spotify / YouTube