Alan McGee, the former head of Creation Records, always seems to find himself at the foot of fate. He famously signed Oasis in King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut club in Glasgow back in 1993, as everyone is aware, after the gobby Manchester band dominated the bill. It took a flying Croc to get his attention when he signed Forgotten Pharaohs to his new label Creation Youth.
Frontman Christian Pattemore remembers their fortuitous encounter: “I was participating in an egg-and-spoon race for the dads at a school sports day in Hay-on-Wye in South Wales, and Alan McGee happened to be there.” An introduction was somewhat forced when one of my Crocs fell off as I crossed the finish line and landed on his foot. He claimed to have noticed my will to succeed and thought, “Well, this kid has some fight in him.”
Following a demo exchange, McGee consented to collaborate with Pattemore, and in 2018, he invited him to his London flat for a composing session. Drive, the first song to eventually make the final cut on Forgotten Pharaohs’ upcoming debut album King of Mirrors, emerged from that, a moving anthem reminiscent of the West Coast in the 1970s.
Martin “Youth” Glover, the bassist for Killing Joke and a labelmate, was given the song by McGee and indicated interest in recording a record with Pattemore. The vocalist, however, insisted on bringing in a guitarist to collaborate with him on the album sessions rather than going it alone.
Pattemore says, “I thought it would be fantastic to have Skin [Cast guitarist Liam Tyson] on this record, and Alan manages the band Cast.” “He said he would love to work with me when Alan asked him if he would.”
With Pattemore’s brother Sam on drums, Forgotten Pharaohs finally travelled to Youth’s studio in Spain to set up the last recording sessions for their debut album. With references to Steely Dan, Neil Young, and Led Zeppelin, the end product was a smokey West Coast-style record that was infused with blues, folk, and psychedelic elements. The album’s finest piece, the blues-infused premiere single “Carousel,” chronicles a darker period in Pattemore’s life when he ended up working on a lavender farm in the Welsh mountains.
He claims that the song is about him working in the trenches on a lavender farm, getting covered in excrement, and having to ride his bike up a huge hill during hailstorms. “It’s about having the perseverance and willpower to keep going.” “Skin” persuaded Robert Plant to listen to King of Mirrors after playing in his bands the Strange Sensation and the Sensational Space Shifters throughout the years. The guitarist exclaims, “He called me and asked if I would like your support because he was so impressed with the record.” “We never got to play with him after that because he bloody forgot.”