Gym Class Heroes - behind the scenes

That Gym Class Heroes owe their sudden success to a Supertramp sample should tickle parents of their predominately teenage fans. At the hip-hop band’s biggest British gig to date, well-behaved boys with their baseball caps worn sideways and groups of middle-class girls in purposely tacky attire were trying hard to assert their independence, but had been snagged by a song from their dads’ dancing days.

Formed six years ago in New York State, Gym Class Heroes exploded this spring with Cupid’s Chokehold, a catchy but corny, transatlantic chart smash based on Breakfast in America, Supertramp’s 1970s super hit.

Serious hip-hop fans were left cold, yet to dismiss the group as a novelty act is selling them short. The quintet’s current album, As Cruel as School Children, blends buoyant raps from the towering frontman Travis McCoy with funk grooves, guitar and beats played by a real drummer. The results are refreshingly fun, if hardly ground-breaking, while lyrics that avoid both gangsta clichés and social politics at least make them unusual.

On a UK tour last year to support their friends Fall Out Boy, whose singer makes a guest appearance on Cupid’s Chokehold, Gym Class Heroes were frequently booed or bottled. In front of an audience aware that their primary mission is to get a party started, they couldn’t put a foot wrong. In a cute start, the band throw their baseball caps in to the crowd – handily, McCoy, who opted to keep his on, had a spare on his mike stand. Fans were encouraged to wiggle their fingers in the air during the swampy Shoot Down the Stars and fast-clap to Taxi Driver, a prefame favourite that mixed Jurassic 5-like bouncy beats with R&B.

McCoy rambled too long on his love of London and beautiful girls, but delivered an impressive punch with The Queen and I, not a high-five to the monarchy, but a rant against girls who drink too much. Needless to say, the drunken females down the front joined in its chorus with a gusto that proved they had missed the point. They then headed back to the bar during a retooled Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations, a step too far into dads’ territory. Yet the forthcoming single Clothes Off!, based on Jermaine Stewart’s naff 1980s hit, went down a storm. At that age, there’s no telling them.

By The Times