The first time I saw On A Friday I was so drunk I couldn’t remember a single thing about them. The second time I saw them I thought they were really good, and a little weird. Ironically it was at a pathetically attended gig at the Poly [now Brookes University], with a crap sound and a ludicrously curtailed set that I finally realised what a great pop group they were. While they battled against intermittent feedback and fluctuations in sound levels they looked well pissed off, but they didn’t curl up and die or throw tantrums like many bands do. They got on with their stuff and the only people not bowled over were those who weren’t there. What puts On A Friday at the head of the field of young hopefuls is their fusion of different styles into one whole in a way that makes it impossible to lump them in with other scenes or sounds. They have a pop side to them, owing a bit to their friends The Candyskins, but also to The Beatles’ psychedelic stuff. They are equally as much a rock band, with REM leanings. Add a few dashes of indie, dance and country and you have an eclectic melting pot. While their music is lively, catchy and intense and easily good enough to stand up on its own, what makes On A Friday just that much better is singer Thom’s voice. He is possessed of that rare and special thing: a naturally musical singing voice. How may other good bands have you seen ruined by a bad or boring vocalist? Thom doesn’t just deliver his lyrics, he uses his voice to interact with the other instruments, as if it were one itself.

OCTOBER 1991
On A Friday play Oxford Poly, with Freak! and Death By Crimpers.

Ronan Munro: I remember absolutely everything went wrong, the sound was atrocious, the equipment kept fucking up. Thom was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown onstage. But what made it so incredible was that they still came across brilliantly.
This time I took more notice of the rest of the band. Phil had hair then – quite a lot of hair. Jonny had a real schoolboy spod haircut. He was even more sunken-looking then and looked really ill. Everyone always used to refer to them as Oxford’s thinnest band. I remember thinking They could be as big as Ride.

 

source : http://citizeninsane.eu/s2001-08Q.htm