About
It's not a phase, Mum
Never Dakota are a 2000s pop punk and emo covers band from Northampton. We play the songs you screamed along to at 15, loud, in your local.
Why "Never Dakota"?
"Play Dakota!"
If you've ever played in a pub covers band, you know the shout. Somewhere around the third pint, someone at the back yells it. And the band plays it, because that's what pub bands do.
We'd heard that shout at gigs more times than we could count, and we were sick of it. So when Jack and Sean (our founding drummer) started this band, the first thing they decided was what it wouldn't be.
The idea was simple: play the music we actually want to play. Not what we think a pub expects, not the songs on every other covers band's setlist. The pop punk and emo we grew up on and still blast in the car. Our bet was that if we loved it, enough other people would too.
So the name had to say that. Never Dakota is a nod to every "Play Dakota!" we've ever heard, and a promise to ourselves that we'd never play those songs. No pub-covers staples. Just the songs we love.
There are loads of great bands already playing the usual pub set, and if that's what you're after, you won't struggle to find one. We'd rather be the different one.
How it's going
From one rule to Emo Night
Never Dakota started in Northampton three years ago. Between us we'd played in originals bands, party bands and covers bands. What brought us together was the music we actually wanted to play.
Then the pubs started booking us back. The same faces kept turning up, bringing their mates and knowing every word. Somewhere along the way it stopped being "a band on Saturday" and turned into Emo Night: one two-hour set, straight through, with a room full of people who never really grew out of it.
We're a covers band and we know it. We didn't write "Teenagers" and we won't pretend we did. But we'll play it like we mean it.
And we still won't play Dakota.
The band
Jack Betts
Vocals // Guitar
Nigel Ferguson
Guitar // Backing vocals
Dan Merrey
Bass // Backing vocals
Dave Gopinath
Drums
What we play
- Blink-182
- My Chemical Romance
- Fall Out Boy
- Paramore
- Green Day
- Sum 41
- All Time Low
- Jimmy Eat World
- Foo Fighters
- Bring Me The Horizon
- You Me At Six
- Arctic Monkeys
- And more…
For venues
The practical bits
- One 2-hour set, no half-time break.
- We bring our own full PA and lights, unless you'd rather we used yours.
- We load in two hours before we start.
- We need space for a drum kit, PA speakers with a sub, two guitarists and a bass player.
- Two plug sockets near where we play.
And we sort the promo
You just open the doors
- Posters for every gig: A4 for print plus social versions.
- A Facebook event, co-hosted with your page.
- A ready-to-post caption for your socials.
- Free entry for punters, 18+.
