DPS Article

Below is the article I will use for my Double Page Spread

The band that stole the Internet

Despite their hugely successful viral marketing campaign for ‘Bottled Up,’ Queen Anne’s Revenge isn’t quite a household name, and Madeleine Moore would like it to stay that way.

The first thing I ask her on our walk together is why. ‘It’s nice staying stealthy,’ she remarks, as we drift leisurely through Leicester square. Heads turn to scrutinize her as she walks, but it’s not because she’s famous. It’s simply because of the endless charisma she gives off. She walks in great, graceful strides, the tails of her jet-black Victoriana coat fluttering in the wind. Every now and then she sweeps her head in a wide arc, making the simple act flipping her half-red hair from her eyes into something mesmerizing.

By the time we arrive at the coffee shop, I’m chilled to the bone, shivering profusely. Madeleine just looks at me and giggles a little, before gliding inside and immediately choosing a table by the window. Obediently, I sit.

She opens the interview with a question of her own. ‘So, first impressions?’ I hesitate for a moment, but before I can answer she cuts me off. ‘I’m sorry, you’re the one who’s supposed to be doing this.’ I chuckle a little, flipping through my notes, when suddenly she plucks a page from my hand and begins to read aloud.

‘What’s your favourite punk song that isn’t one of your own?’

She thinks for a moment before answering with ‘Rise Against – Savior. What’s yours?’

The conversation goes on like this for about twenty minutes, and eventually she’s telling me the entire history of Blackbeard, and why his infamous vessel inspired the band’s name.

‘We actually had real trouble choosing a name for ourselves, and our drummer, Dan, was big into history, and he suggested the name Queen Anne’s Revenge… We weren’t sure at first, but then he told us a story about Blackbeard, and how he used to attack Navy ships. Allegedly, he would pull alongside the ship, and only then raise his flag. I guess that’s kind of what we did with ‘Bottled Up.’

Indeed, ‘Bottled Up’ was one of the most ingenious marketing campaigns the genre, or even the industry, has ever seen. Released as an EP, those who purchased the album soon discovered that one of the songs was in fact a sequence of numbers; a download code for the full album. This is not the first ARG, or ‘Alternate Reality Game’ we have seen in the industry, with Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Year Zero’ still fresh in our memories even years on. Madeleine flashes a genuine smile as she reminisces. I take the opportunity to ask the question every QAR fan is dying to hear answered; ‘So what’s the new album called?’

Madeleine pauses for a moment, then smiles and looks down at her Latte.

‘I’m dying to tell someone, but I can’t. It’s killing me.’ And with that she launches into a different topic, tactfully blocking me from rephrasing the question. ‘It’s funny, actually, how we met… Dan and I. I accidentally tripped him up when he was staggering home drunk. Saw his Guns N’ Roses T-Shirt, started talking about music, and the next day he introduced me to his band. They were called ‘Weevil Kneevil’ at the time, can you believe…’ She throws her head back and breaks down into hysterical laughter, and every head in the place turns to watch her. She pulls a face of faux-embarrassment and continues. ‘The guys asked me to sing something, because I told them I’d sung in a band when I was 16, which was true… a school band.’ She chuckles. ‘Anyway, for some reason I sang ‘Basket Case’ by Green Day and for some reason they liked it, so here I am.’

Everything in Madeleine’s career seems to have gone flawlessly. ‘Queen Anne’s Revenge’ were signed just over a week after revealing their identities, and ever since then their record sales have grown… so why doesn’t Madeleine want to move further into the limelight?

‘Ultimately, there’s always this pressure to change when your audience grows. Just look at the Arctic Monkeys. I’m not saying what they did was wrong, as such, but the drastic change in style lost most of their original fan base. We know who we are, and who we want to be, and that’s how it should stay.’ When I ask if the rest of the band agree, she simply shrugs and moves on.

‘I love London at this time of year. It’s beautiful.’

It’s remarks like this which break through that icy stage persona, and expose that in fact, Madeleine Moore is not merely a fantastic musician, but an incredible and complex human being.