Goldblade
Encyclopedia
Goldblade are an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 band from Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The band formed in early 1995 when ex Membranes
The Membranes
The Membranes were a post-punk band formed in Blackpool, Lancashire in 1977, the initial line-up being John Robb , Mark Tilton , Martin Critchley and Martin Kelly . Critchley soon left, with Robb and Tilton taking on vocals, and Kelly moving to keyboards, with "Coofy Sid" taking over on drums...

 frontman, John Robb, put the band together with Wayne Simmons and former A Witness
A Witness
A Witness were an alternative rock band formed in 1982 in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, by Rick Aitken , Vince Hunt and a drum machine, in 1986 replaced by Alan Brown...

 vocalist Keith Curtis on bass, Rob Haynes on drums and Jay Taylor on guitar.

The band signed to Ultimate Records and released their first single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

, "Soul Power", before releasing several more singles and two album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

s - Home Turf (1996/97), and Goldblade Drop the Bomb (1998) before Simmons departed. In 2000, Goldblade then recruited a new percussionist, Martin Gray, into the line up and recorded two further singles "AC/DC" and "Who Was The Killa?" together with a third album Do You Believe In The Power Of Rock 'n' Roll all released in 2002 on a new label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

, Twenty Stone Blatt.

In 2001, Jay Taylor left the band to concentrate on his Bonebox project, and two new members Johny Skullknuckles and Pete 'Gorgeous' Byrchmore were recruited to begin work on the next album, Rebel Songs (2004). Second percussionist Gray left shortly after the recording sessions, and the album was released in 2005 on the Captain Oi! label. The band continued gigging and recording as a five-piece, with the next album Mutiny (also Captain Oi! Records) released in 2008. Both "Rebel Songs" and "Mutiny" were also issued internationally - Rebel Songs being released in both the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 (Anarchy Music) and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 (KB-Records), Mutiny was also released in Germany (KB-Records) as a limited edition white vinyl.

Goldblade continue to tour extensively across the UK, Europe and beyond. They regularly appear at all the major UK music festival
Music festival
A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...

s, including Glastonbury, Reading, Wickerman, Rebellion etc., and several smaller ones (Strummercamp), and have also appeared in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, where a crowd of 25,000 greeted them in St Petersburg. They have also played in Serbia and, in early 2010, played in Algiers, being one of only a handful of western bands to do so.

In March 2010, Skullknuckles departed to be replaced by another guitarist Andy Taylor (not the one from Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...

).

Goldblade issued a compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

, Beyond God & Elvis in China (Kids-Union Records) in September 2010, with dates in Beijing set to follow.

Early history

Goldblade formed in Manchester in the mid 1990s playing what they called "punk rock hooligan blues", and what was described in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

as "a shamelessly fundamentalist collision of The Ramones, James Brown and The Stooges". The band toured a lot and signed to Ultimate Records. Their debut single, "Soul Power", was single of the week in the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

, and their third single "Strictly Hardcore" was a minor UK UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

 hit. The band's debut album Home Turf was well received in the music press.

Home Turf

Home Turf was released in 1997 on the Ultimate Records label, as both a vinyl album, and a CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 (TOPPCD058), and was produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

 by Gavin Monaghan.

Drop The Bomb

With added brass, Goldblade's second album, Drop The Bomb was recorded in Brighton at The Levellers' studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...

, and again released on Ultimate Records (TOPPCD071). The first single from the album, "Hairstyle", got daytime radio play, and be named as a BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

's Single of The Week, and an appearance on Ant and Dec's Saturday morning show CD:UK
CD:UK
CD:UK was a British music television programme. Originally run in conjunction with SMTV Live, the programme was first aired on ITV on 29 August 1998 to rival the BBC's Live & Kicking and was the replacement for The Chart Show, which had been airing on the network for nine and a half years.In...

followed. The week the single was released, Ultimate Records went bankrupt and the single did not reach the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

.

Do You Believe in the Power of Rock 'n' Roll?

The band toured Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 previewing new songs for the album. Guitarist Jay Taylor left shortly after recording, to concentrate on his own band Bonebox. The album was released on the UK independent record label, Twenty Stone Blatt Records, but the label followed Ultimate Records in to bankruptcy.

Rebel Songs

Rebel Songs was released by Captain Oi! Records
Captain Oi! Records
Captain Oi! is a punk rock and Oi! record label based in High Wycombe, England. The company has released over 300 albums by many notable punk and Oi! bands of the late 1970s and 1980s. The label was set up by Mark Brennan, former bassist of The Business, who had previously co-run Link Records and...

 (AHOYCD252) in 2005. The label's manager had seen Goldblade perform at the Rebellion (then Wasted) Festival. The first single release was "Psycho". On the back of the album's success, Captain Oi! the released Strictly Hardcore (AHOYCD286), a compilation of the band's four albums.

Mutiny

Goldblade's album, Mutiny was released by Captain Oi! Records (AHOYCD305) in September 2008. "Riot! Riot" was used on the soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 for Green Street 2, whereas "Jukebox Generation" was released as a single. This came as a 7" split with Argy Bargy. The name of this album was given to an all-day concert, for which Goldblade and the Stiff Little Fingers
Stiff Little Fingers
Stiff Little Fingers are a punk rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They formed in 1977, at the height of the Troubles. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star , doing rock covers, until they discovered punk. They split up after six years and four albums, although they...

 headlined at Bridlington Spa on the 16 May 2009.

Albums

  • Home Turf (1997) Ultimate
  • Drop the Bomb (1998) Ultimate
  • Do U Believe in the Power of Rock 'n' Roll? (2002) Twenty Stone Blatt
  • Strictly Hardcore (2002) Navena Muzik (Brazil only)
  • Strictly Hardcore (2003) Thick Records (USA only)
  • Rebel Songs (2005) Captain Oi!
  • Punk Rockers in the Dance Hall (2006) SOS Records (US only)
  • Kiss My Ass (2004) Antrop Records (Russia only)
  • Mutiny (2008) Captain Oi!

Singles

  • Introducing...Goldblade EP (1996) Ultimate
  • "Black Elvis" (1996) Ultimate
  • "Strictly Hardcore" (1997) Ultimate - UK
    UK Singles Chart
    The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

     #64
  • "Not Even Jesus" (1997) Ultimate
  • "16 Tons" (1998) Ultimate
  • "Hairstyle" (1998) Ultimate
  • "AC/DC" (2002) Twenty Stone Blatt
  • "Who Was The Killa?" (2002) Twenty Stone Blatt (limited edition)
  • "Psycho" (2005) Captain Oi! Records
  • "City Of Christmas Ghosts" (2008) Damaged Goods (featuring Poly Styrene
    Poly Styrene
    Poly Styrene was the stage name of Marianne Joan Elliott-Said , a British musician, songwriter and singer, most notably in the pioneering punk rock band X-Ray Spex.-Early life:...

    )
  • "Jukebox Generation" (2008) Captain Oi! (split with Argy Bargy)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK