Kenickie: The Other Side of Spice

The members of Kenickie seem ready to pinch themselves in disbelief as they lounge by the rooftop pool of a West Hollywood hotel.

From under eyelids slathered in purple shadow and silver glitter, Emmy-Kate Montrose, Lauren Laverne and Marie Du Santiago gaze at the Hollywood Hills. “Last night when we were up here, we said to ourselves, ‘Wait, this time last year we sat in school doing our exams. Now we’re sitting in a Jacuzzi in Hollywood,’ ” says Montrose, 18. “It’s almost obscene!”

Maybe so, but no one who follows Britain’s pop-music fluctuations would be surprised that Kenickie has made it to Hollywood.

Rising in the charts below the Spice Girls’ rocket-like ascent, the quartet (drummer Johnny X, Laverne’s older brother, is the fourth member) has been championed as a cool, raunchy, smart and gloriously tacky foil to England’s prefabricated pop queens. In sharp contrast to the Spice Girls, Kenickie offers street glamour and everyday grit.

With their made-up, comic-book-style names, the members of Kenickie have made an effort to reinvent themselves as rock ‘n’ roll supervixens, and so far they’ve managed to leap many hurdles, primarily geographical: The group hails from Sunderland, a predominantly working-class mining town in northern England that’s far removed from the vibrant music scenes of Manchester, Liverpool and London.

“It’s sort of unheard of,” says lead singer and guitarist Laverne, 19. “There’ve been no girl bands from the north at all.”

The three members met in Catholic grammar school. Hankering for the street-glam pop-star style of Blondie’s Deborah Harry and disappointed by what local bands had to offer, they donned fishnet, platforms and leopard prints and picked up guitars in 1994. The band name was taken from a character in “Grease.”

“It was really just an excuse to be together,” Laverne says. “It wasn’t, ‘What noise sounds good?’ It was, ‘What noise can we make?’

“Eventually, I think we surprised people that we got it together on our own when we’re sort of from the sticks.”

Driven by a love for punk stars and a Catholic-school work ethic, the band played intensely and developed a strong following in Sunderland’s small scene. They had four hit singles on an English independent label and made an appearance on rock TV stronghold “Top of the Pops.” After signing with Warner Bros. Records last summer, the group twice graced the cover of the pop weekly Melody Maker, and its debut album, “At the Club,” reached England’s Top 10.

Inspired by Blondie, Iggy Pop and the rough-edged boogie band Royal Trux, the record, which was recently released in the U.S., is a high-combustion jolt of gamy girl power cut through with a good sense of humor and plenty of attitude. Rolling Stone has praised the album, citing its “nothing-can-stop-me teenage arrogance.”

Since arrogance in a pop band is basically a given in the U.K., British tabloids have glommed on to Kenickie’s feelings about its pop-star foils the Spice Girls.

“I think every girl band in the world is getting compared to the Spice Girls, so we don’t take it personally,” Laverne says, spooning up some melting ice cream. Instead, the group cheerfully lists some of the British press’ more ridiculous Spice-related questions: “If you were fighting the Spice Girls and fell into some mud, would you stop, even if it was going all over your body?” remembers Laverne. “Will Kenickie beat up the Spice Girls when they meet them?” adds guitarist and singer Du Santiago, 18.

“We wouldn’t have anything to say to them,” Laverne says, “What are we going to say? ‘Hey, “Girl Power!” Can you play any instruments?’ ‘No, we can’t.’ ‘OK, bye.’ ”

So are they surprised that the tabloid press had a field day when Kenickie called the Spice Girls “Tory scum”? Nope. Says a stoic Laverne: “Everyone likes a cat fight.”

* Kenickie appears with Bis on Aug. 2 at the Roxy, 9009 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 8 p.m. $10. (310) 278-9457.