Mamas Gun are a five-piece soul funk band based in London and released their debut album 'Routes To Riches' in 2009. They have promoted, toured and released material from this album in over 9 countries achieving considerable exposure and support. In late 2009 the band became an overnight success in Japan where they became the most played international artist in Japan. They are slated to release their sophomore effort, 'The Life and Soul', on the 6th of June, 2011.

Formation

The band was formed by Andy Platts, the lead singer/composer/producer in 2007 and was joined by bassist 'Professor' Rex Horan, keyboardist Dave 'Eighties' Burnell, Terry 'Spiller' Lewis and drummer 'Union' Jack Pollitt after scanning the internet for inspiring and talented musicians.

Andy Platts was born in a military hospital in Kowloon, Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

, to a nomadic father who had landed in the Far East as a police recruit in their battles with underground triad organisations, Platts soaked up the musical ether that surrounded him (which included the Beatles, the Doors and ELO from his father, and a Filipino mother who played Spanish-influenced guitar), attending countless schools in the process before winning a place at Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

’s LIPA institute. Subsequently, Platts played on Corinne Bailey Rae’s hugely successful debut album and then, in 2006, landed his own publishing deal with Zomba Music. This led to collaborations with an extraordinary song-writing A-list that included Rod ‘Thriller’ Temperton, John Oates, Jed Leiber (son of hit-making legend Jerry) and former Gil Scott-Heron collaborator Brian Jackson.

The band is named after Erykah Badu album Mama's Gun

Mama's Gun

Mama's Gun is the second studio album by American recording artist Erykah Badu, released November 21, 2000, on Motown Records. Recording sessions for the album took place from 1999 to 2000 at Electric Lady Studios in New York City...

.

UK Releases

Mamas Gun first single, "Pots of Gold", was released in August 2008 on Candelion Records and was playlisted on BBC Radio 2 with Chris Evans championing the track. Following its success, Mamas Gun recorded their debut album and released their next single "Let's Find A Way" in June 2009. In September 2009, Mamas Gun released their third single "You Are The Music" and their debut album "Routes To Riches" followed in October 2009. The album was co-produced by Producer/Engineer Julian Simmons at his private studio Din in East London, mixed by Producer/Engineer Jack Joseph Puig at Ocean Way, Los Angeles and mastered by Bob Ludwig.

On February 28, 2010 Mamas Gun released "Wishing, which was playlisted on BBC Radio 2, Jazz Fm and Smooth Radio.

Japan Releases

Routes To Riches was released in November 2009 and achieved a number 3 sales slot on the Japanese Billboard charts.

Albums

Year	Album details
2009	Routes to Riches Released: 28 September 2009 Deluxe Edition Released: 1 March 2010 Label: Candelion Formats: 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 ,... , Deluxe CD, Digital download Music download A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
2011	The Life And Soul Release: 6 June 2011.

Singles

Year	Single	Album
2008	"Pots of Gold"	Routes to Riches
2009	"Let's Find a Way"
	"You Are the Music"
2010	"Finger On It"/ "Wishing"
		Routes to Riches: Deluxe Edition

Videography

• "You Are the Music" (2009)
• "Let's Find a Way" (unnofficial video) (2010)
• "Finger On It" (2010)
• "Pots of Gold" (2010)
• "On a String" (2011)

Critical reception

Despite their being relatively unknown, the band have received almost universal good reviews in the press. Uncut (magazine)

UNCUT (magazine)

Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...

 gave Routes to Riches four stars, saying "[It's a] masterclass in blue-eyed bubblegum soul, as heart-warmingly catchy as anything from Stevie Wonder's '70s purple patch". The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

 said the band perform "gorgeous, melting soft rock” and “redolent of Young Disciples' long-lost 90s Brit-soul classic Apparently Nothin'". They were also featured in The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

' Why you must hear feature.