The Len Price 3

Weaned on the two-minute blasts of passion and raw attitude from the Who, the Kinks, and the Clash, the Len Price 3 formed as a high-energy garage trio in the Medway district of North Kent, United Kingdom. Glenn Page handles guitar and vocals, Steve Huggins plays bass, and Neil Fromow sits behind the drums, though no member of the group actually carries the name Len Price. Their beginnings trace to a Maidstone pub that let bands rent rehearsal time by performing for the bar’s paying patrons. After the venue barred the trio for excessive volume, they adopted a fresh name and secured another slot just weeks afterward. An audience eventually embraced their fast, unadorned attack, leading to shared bills with acts ranging from the Libertines to the Buff Medways, the latter fronted by British garage figure Billy Childish.

Australian imprint Laughing Outlaw Records discovered the Len Price 3 in 2005 and issued the band’s first single, “Christian in the Desert” b/w “Dorolea,” followed by the debut album Chinese Burn. Strong critical notices accompanied extensive United Kingdom touring and a maiden American excursion that included a 2006 appearance at the South by Southwest Music Conference. Later that year the group aligned with Wicked Cool Records, the label launched by garage-rock advocate Steven Van Zandt. Lingering miscommunication among the band, Wicked Cool, and Laughing Outlaw postponed the second album, Rent a Crowd, until its eventual release on May 29, 2007. Early 2010 brought the slightly more polished and garage-distant third effort, Pictures. Following an extended hiatus and an unsurprising label shift, the Len Price 3 resurfaced in early 2014 with Nobody Knows.

In a Vice Magazine conversation, Billy Childish characterized the trio as taking his songs and simply grafting a pop sensibility onto them. Incensed by the remark, the Len Price 3 answered with the track “Childish Words,” which opens their 2017 album Kentish Longtails.