大象传媒

In 1978, at the height of the Cold War, the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was murdered in London. The playwright was stabbed with a poisoned umbrella while he walked across Waterloo Bridge close to his office at the 大象传媒 World Service.

Markov defected in 1969 and was an outspoken critic of the communist/Stalinist/Soviet regime in his home country. The case is unsolved and presumed to be hidden forever in the murky world of East-West espionage.

In 2006, four young men in Haverhill were inspired by a television documentary on Markov to call their band Umbrella Assassins and now they're on the 大象传媒 website. What can it all mean?

Singer-guitarist Steve Church said there's no international conspiracy: "I had some songs written and I didn't know anyone else who played an instrument. We thought the story of Markov was fascinating and the name sounded good."

The rest of the line-up is Bunge (guitar), Garry Mckervill (bass) and Luke Andrews (drums). They went to Samuel Ward and Castle Manor schools in Haverhill, but met in the usual way - out and about and in pubs.

"We don't like each other a lot and avoid talking at all costs. We don't consider ourselves virtuoso musicians. Finding our own sound and expressing ourselves in any way we can is what we're about.

"Everything seems staged these days. People try far too hard to stand out from the crowd, when actually they all dress and sound the same."

Bitter sweet

The first fruits of the band's work can be found on the four-track Bitter Zoet (that's Dutch - the Umbrellas had a couple of gigs in Amsterdam in 2008) EP. Wrong Casino and Blackouts & Flashbacks are taken from the EP.

"We've got a huge range of influences, but our tunes come from jamming and refining. We try not to over-complicate things, because simple is best.

"I don't mind being called indie, even though it's become a dirty word at the moment. It seems to be that if you've got a guitar in your hand, you're called indie, even though a lot of it is just pop.

"If I had to say anything, I'd say we were garage-punk, but we try and let people make up their own minds and not box ourselves in.

"Our latest song has a bit of ska in it and we use tunings used by Robert Johnson [early 20th Century blues legend] and Slipknot."

On the road

The band gigs regularly in Haverhill, Bury St Edmunds and Cambridge, but they've also played at the Bull & Gate and Bloomsbury Bowling Alley in London.

"Our live show is all about energy. We play seven-song sets and put everything into them seven songs.

"Our local scene is quite good given the size of our town. We go and see other local bands who're doing their own thing and we're good friend with some of them.

"Two of our favourite local inspirations are Pig Ion and Thirteenth Chime who never had big followings but made the music they wanted to.

In the studio and garden

The band's planning to record a new EP in 2009. It'll be done at Old School Studios in Norwich apart from a cover of Townes Van Zandt's Rake which is going to be recorded in Steve's shed.

"We haven't got some master plan. Our motivation is just to make more music and getting the sound that we really want.

"We're not desperate for money or fame, but we do enjoy going to new places for new gigs. The biggest crowd we've played to so far is about 150 at the Man On The Moon in Cambridge.

"It's something other than the day-job, really."