Mclusky
Encyclopedia
Mclusky originally known as Best, were a three-piece post-hardcore
group formed in Cardiff
, Wales
. The group consisted of Englishman Andy "Falco" Falkous (vocals, guitar
) from Newcastle Upon Tyne
, Jonathan Chapple (bass
, vocals) and Jack Egglestone (drums
), who replaced previous drummer Matthew Harding in late 2003.
. The pair met Chapple a short time afterwards at the Reading Festival
when they caught him urinating
on their tent
late in the night.
More realistically it has been suggested that Andy and Matthew met when working together at Anglian Windows, a small double-glazing call centre
in Cardiff. They discussed their musical ambitions after a conversation about Reading Festival, Falkous gave Harding a tape of songs he had written on his own, and shortly after they formed a band called Best after early Beatles
drummer Pete Best
. The original bass player for Best was Geraint Bevan, Harding's old musical comrade from The Derelicts.
Best existed in this form for almost a year before Geraint left to concentrate on his acting
career, but not before Best had played a show with a band called 'Myrtle' who happened to feature one animated character on bass guitar: Jon Chapple.
Shortly after the departure of Geraint the remaining two members managed to convince Jon to join the band; this was based on the strength of the three track demo Best had recently finished at 'Ocean Studios' in Cardiff (this cassette - which was sold by the band themselves - was the unofficial debut, entitled the Benedict EP).
Best signed to London label Seriously Groovy
and released their official debut record, the 3-track single Huwuno.
The band changed its name to Mclusky in 1999, releasing their first full-length album
My Pain and Sadness is More Sad and Painful Than Yours
in 2000 on the Fuzzbox imprint before drawing international attention with their critically praised second album Mclusky Do Dallas
in 2002. In 2004 they released their third album The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire
to positive reviews.
They worked frequently with recording engineer Steve Albini
.
Little was said of the reasons behind mclusky's split, but it later emerged that tensions had arisen between Falkous and Chapple. The root of these tensions can be traced back to an incident in 2004 when all of the band's equipment was stolen on the Arizona
leg of their American tour (this equipment - worth over £5000 - has still not been recovered).
, came out in February 2006; a limited-edition version came with two additional CDs
of B-sides
(labelled as B-sides and C-sides), rarities and live recordings from their final headline performance at the University of London Union
(The band would make one further live appearance on 01/12/04 supporting Shellac
at the Scala in London). This compilation is, without doubt, the final chapter in mclusky's nine-year saga, as Falkous informs in the Mcluskyism liner notes
, "that's it, then. No farewell tour... no premature deaths (at time of writing), no live DVDs...". With the revelation in 2007 that Falkous and Chapple have not spoken since 2005 (and are no longer on the same side of the equator
), it is probably safe to assume that there is no possibility of a reunion.
The first mclusky member to release material after the band's demise was Chapple, with his outfit Shooting At Unarmed Men
- Chapple had dabbled with the band as a side project to mclusky in the years prior, and wasted little time in making it his first priority after mclusky disbanded. The band released two albums before Chapple emigrated to Australia
in 2006. He has since revived the band in Australia with a new lineup, and released another album with the Australian lineup. Shooting at Unarmed Men disbanded shortly after the release of 'With The Youthful Energy of a Zealot'. Chapple is now playing drums with Melbourne
band Poor People who are set to launch their first single in 2011, and playing Bass and providing vocals for the 6 piece outfit Harmony, who also feature Tom Lyngcoln of The Nation Blue
.
After Falkous had conducted a handful of interviews discussing the then-fresh mclusky breakup, he and Egglestone were not heard from publicly for a number of months. Almost immediately, rumours began to swell that the pair were collaborating with some members of also-defunct Cardiff noise-core act Jarcrew
(the project, which received no official title for eighteen months, was jokingly referred to as "Jarclusky") - however, the full extent of the collaboration was not known until Falkous created an unassuming MySpace page for the group under the name Future of the Left
, complete with unpolished recordings of the band's first songs.
Post-hardcore
Post-hardcore is a genre of music that developed from hardcore punk, itself an offshoot of the broader punk rock movement. Like post-punk, post-hardcore is a term for a broad constellation of groups...
group formed in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. The group consisted of Englishman Andy "Falco" Falkous (vocals, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
) from Newcastle Upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
, Jonathan Chapple (bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, vocals) and Jack Egglestone (drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
), who replaced previous drummer Matthew Harding in late 2003.
History
According to the band, they originally formed in 1996 when Falkous and Harding met at the Blackwood Miners Institute, a venue in their home town from which they were both ejected for dressing as minersMining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
. The pair met Chapple a short time afterwards at the Reading Festival
Reading and Leeds Festivals
The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend, sharing the same bill. The Reading Festival is held at Little John's Farm...
when they caught him urinating
Urination
Urination, also known as micturition, voiding, peeing, weeing, pissing, and more rarely, emiction, is the ejection of urine from the urinary bladder through the urethra to the outside of the body. In healthy humans the process of urination is under voluntary control...
on their tent
Tent
A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over or attached to a frame of poles or attached to a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using guy ropes tied to stakes or tent pegs...
late in the night.
More realistically it has been suggested that Andy and Matthew met when working together at Anglian Windows, a small double-glazing call centre
Call centre
A call centre or call center is a centralised office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. A call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outgoing calls for telemarketing,...
in Cardiff. They discussed their musical ambitions after a conversation about Reading Festival, Falkous gave Harding a tape of songs he had written on his own, and shortly after they formed a band called Best after early Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
drummer Pete Best
Pete Best
Pete Best is a British musician, best known as the original drummer in The Beatles. He was born in the city of Madras, British India...
. The original bass player for Best was Geraint Bevan, Harding's old musical comrade from The Derelicts.
Best existed in this form for almost a year before Geraint left to concentrate on his acting
Acting
Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play....
career, but not before Best had played a show with a band called 'Myrtle' who happened to feature one animated character on bass guitar: Jon Chapple.
Shortly after the departure of Geraint the remaining two members managed to convince Jon to join the band; this was based on the strength of the three track demo Best had recently finished at 'Ocean Studios' in Cardiff (this cassette - which was sold by the band themselves - was the unofficial debut, entitled the Benedict EP).
Best signed to London label Seriously Groovy
Seriously Groovy
Seriously Groovy is a London-based, guitar-oriented indie rock record label and publisher.As of 2005, Seriously Groovy bands are Jet Johnson, Econoline, Emetrex and Mother Goose. Bands previous signed to the label include Mo-Ho-Bish-O-Pi....
and released their official debut record, the 3-track single Huwuno.
The band changed its name to Mclusky in 1999, releasing their first full-length 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...
My Pain and Sadness is More Sad and Painful Than Yours
My Pain and Sadness is More Sad and Painful Than Yours
My Pain and Sadness is More Sad and Painful Than Yours is the first album by Welsh rock band mclusky. It was initially released on Fuzzbox in 2000 and re-released by Too Pure in 2003...
in 2000 on the Fuzzbox imprint before drawing international attention with their critically praised second album Mclusky Do Dallas
Mclusky Do Dallas
Online music magazine Pitchfork Media placed Mclusky Do Dallas at number 94 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000sOnline music magazine Coke Machine Glow placed Mclusky Do Dallas at number 15 on their top 100 Albums of the 2000's.-Track listing:...
in 2002. In 2004 they released their third album The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire
The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire
The Difference Between Me and You Is that I'm Not on Fire is the third and final album from Welsh indie rock band Mclusky. It was released to positive reviews by Too Pure in 2004...
to positive reviews.
They worked frequently with recording engineer Steve Albini
Steve Albini
Steven Frank Albini is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman, and Flour, and is currently a member of Shellac...
.
Breakup
The band called it quits on January 7, 2005, with Falkous making the following announcement on the band's website on three days later:- The three piece rock band known as mclusky have disbanded, as of Friday January 7, 2005. The reason for this parting is private, though probably not as entertaining as you'd imagine. Personally, I would like to thank all the people, places and times that occurred on or near us. I'm grateful for the love and to a lesser degree, the hate. There'll be more music soon, from all of us.
Little was said of the reasons behind mclusky's split, but it later emerged that tensions had arisen between Falkous and Chapple. The root of these tensions can be traced back to an incident in 2004 when all of the band's equipment was stolen on the Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
leg of their American tour (this equipment - worth over £5000 - has still not been recovered).
After Mclusky
A compilation of the band's singles, McluskyismMcluskyism
Mcluskyism is the final release by Welsh rock band Mclusky. A hits and rarities package, it is released in two formats, a one disc hits only package, and a three disc format.-Track listing:Disc One :# "Joy"...
, came out in February 2006; a limited-edition version came with two additional CDs
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 ,...
of B-sides
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
(labelled as B-sides and C-sides), rarities and live recordings from their final headline performance at the University of London Union
University of London Union
The University of London Union is the university-wide students' union for the University of London...
(The band would make one further live appearance on 01/12/04 supporting Shellac
Shellac (band)
Shellac is an American group composed of Steve Albini , Bob Weston and Todd Trainer...
at the Scala in London). This compilation is, without doubt, the final chapter in mclusky's nine-year saga, as Falkous informs in the Mcluskyism liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
, "that's it, then. No farewell tour... no premature deaths (at time of writing), no live DVDs...". With the revelation in 2007 that Falkous and Chapple have not spoken since 2005 (and are no longer on the same side of the equator
Equator
An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....
), it is probably safe to assume that there is no possibility of a reunion.
The first mclusky member to release material after the band's demise was Chapple, with his outfit Shooting At Unarmed Men
Shooting At Unarmed Men
Shooting at Unarmed Men was the music project of former Mclusky member Jon Chapple , Steve Morgan , and Big Joan member Simon Jarvis . The original bassist for the band's formal incarnation was King Alexander member Simon Alexander , although the band had existed as a sporadical joke since circa 1999...
- Chapple had dabbled with the band as a side project to mclusky in the years prior, and wasted little time in making it his first priority after mclusky disbanded. The band released two albums before Chapple emigrated to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 2006. He has since revived the band in Australia with a new lineup, and released another album with the Australian lineup. Shooting at Unarmed Men disbanded shortly after the release of 'With The Youthful Energy of a Zealot'. Chapple is now playing drums with Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
band Poor People who are set to launch their first single in 2011, and playing Bass and providing vocals for the 6 piece outfit Harmony, who also feature Tom Lyngcoln of The Nation Blue
The Nation Blue
The Nation Blue is a rock band formed in Tasmania and based in Melbourne, Victoria, noted for their intense live performances and bleak subject matter. They have toured nationally in Australia and internationally in Brazil, America and Japan and have supported Helmet and Foo Fighters...
.
After Falkous had conducted a handful of interviews discussing the then-fresh mclusky breakup, he and Egglestone were not heard from publicly for a number of months. Almost immediately, rumours began to swell that the pair were collaborating with some members of also-defunct Cardiff noise-core act Jarcrew
Jarcrew
Jarcrew was a five-piece progressive rock band from Ammanford, Wales. They were a relatively well known underground band for approximately five years between 2000 and their early 2005 split...
(the project, which received no official title for eighteen months, was jokingly referred to as "Jarclusky") - however, the full extent of the collaboration was not known until Falkous created an unassuming MySpace page for the group under the name Future of the Left
Future of the Left
Future of the Left are an alternative rock group based in Cardiff, Wales.- Beginnings :Future of the Left were formed by singer/guitarist Andy "Falco" Falkous and drummer Jack Egglestone, both previously of Cardiff band mclusky, alongside singer/bassist Kelson Mathias, formerly of the...
, complete with unpolished recordings of the band's first songs.
Official full-length releases
- My Pain and Sadness is More Sad and Painful Than YoursMy Pain and Sadness is More Sad and Painful Than YoursMy Pain and Sadness is More Sad and Painful Than Yours is the first album by Welsh rock band mclusky. It was initially released on Fuzzbox in 2000 and re-released by Too Pure in 2003...
(Fuzzbox, 2000; r: Too Pure, 2003) - Mclusky Do DallasMclusky Do DallasOnline music magazine Pitchfork Media placed Mclusky Do Dallas at number 94 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000sOnline music magazine Coke Machine Glow placed Mclusky Do Dallas at number 15 on their top 100 Albums of the 2000's.-Track listing:...
(Too Pure, 2002) - The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on FireThe Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on FireThe Difference Between Me and You Is that I'm Not on Fire is the third and final album from Welsh indie rock band Mclusky. It was released to positive reviews by Too Pure in 2004...
(Too Pure, 2004) - McluskyismMcluskyismMcluskyism is the final release by Welsh rock band Mclusky. A hits and rarities package, it is released in two formats, a one disc hits only package, and a three disc format.-Track listing:Disc One :# "Joy"...
(Too Pure, 2006)
Official single/EP releases
- 1999 - "Huwuno" (as Best)
- 2000 - "Joy"
- 2000 - "Rice Is Nice"
- 2001 - "Whoyouknow"
- 2001 - "Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues"
- 2002 - "To Hell with Good Intentions"
- 2002 - "Alan Is a Cowboy Killer"
- 2003 - "There Ain't No Fool in Ferguson/1956 And All That"
- 2003 - "Undress for Success" (the first song played 3 times in one show by Colin MurrayColin MurrayColin Murray is a Northern Irish sports and music radio and television presenter. He is the current host of the BBC Television show Match of the Day 2 on BBC Two, and the BBC Radio 5 Live shows 5 Live Sport and Fighting Talk, as well as a show on BBC Radio Ulster. He has previously hosted regular...
) - 2004 - "That Man Will Not Hang"
- 2004 - "She Will Only Bring You Happiness"