The Uncle Devil Show
Encyclopedia
The Uncle Devil Show are a pop
-rock
guitar band formed as a side-project for three Scottish
musicians, who use pseudonyms as their aliases. The band members are:
Though the band members have consistently stayed "in character", their real identities are not supposed to be a secret: their promotional pictures and the distinctive vocals of Currie and Kevin McDermott are confirmation enough. Justin Currie maintained the façade in this statement on the official Del Amitri website in February 2004:
Kevin McDermott's website carried a similar denial:
As far as the tongue-in-cheek press release by their record label P3 Music can be taken seriously, the band is named after a 1985 episode of The New Twilight Zone
in which a child is taught bizarre magic tricks
through his television
set.
In 2004 The Uncle Devil Show performed a handful of live shows in Scotland and released the album
A Terrible Beauty
, co-written by "Herring" and "Barr". It featured guitar
-driven pop
songs with surreal
lyrics often containing incongruous obscenities. Subject-matter varied from stolen bicycles, a man's love for Gilbert O'Sullivan
, transvestism
, drug
-addled TV presenters in limousines and a woman who teaches her canary
to sing Motörhead's "Ace of Spades
", to a man filled with murderous hatred for pigeons.
Since 2004 the band have released no other material nor played any concerts: indeed, it has never been suggested that A Terrible Beauty was anything other than a one-off project.
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
-rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
guitar band formed as a side-project for three Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
musicians, who use pseudonyms as their aliases. The band members are:
- "Langton Herring" – singer-songwriterSinger-songwriterSinger-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Kevin McDermottKevin McDermottKevin McDermott is a Scottish singer–songwriter who, with his group 'The Kevin McDermott Orchestra' , has released eight albums over the past twenty years. His first album Mother Natures Kitchen was released in 1989.... - "Jason Barr" – Justin CurrieJustin CurrieJustin Robert Currie is a Scottish singer and songwriter, best known as the founding member of the band Del Amitri and, along with Iain Harvie, is one of only two members of the group to be present throughout its entire existence.-Del Amitri:Justin Currie established the band Del Amitri while...
, lead singer and main songwriter of the band Del AmitriDel AmitriDel Amitri were a Scottish pop-rock guitar band, formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1983. The band grew out of Justin Currie's Jordanhill College School band and came together after teenager Currie placed an advertisement in the window of a music store asking for people who could play to contact him... - "Terrence" – former Kevin McDermott Orchestra drummer Jim McDermott, brother of Kevin.
Though the band members have consistently stayed "in character", their real identities are not supposed to be a secret: their promotional pictures and the distinctive vocals of Currie and Kevin McDermott are confirmation enough. Justin Currie maintained the façade in this statement on the official Del Amitri website in February 2004:
It has recently come to my attention that some bunch of tossers calling themselves The Uncle Devil Show are being claimed by some to be something to do with Del Amitri. Let me state once and for all that nobody in Del Amitri has any involvement whatsoever with these pricks and having heard some of their woeful attempts at indie-pop ... has no desire to be. Anyone claiming that members of Del Amitri are associated with the above group may well find themselves talking to our lawyers. Where this absurd rumour came from I don't know but I'll hazard a guess that these desperate self-promoting talentless limpnecked whimsy-peddaling bedwetters are something to do with it, though I'm sure they'd deny it. I hope this clears up any confusion.
Kevin McDermott's website carried a similar denial:
I know nothing about Uncle Dennis or his Shoes. If you don't believe me, feel free to look at www.theuncledevilshow.com. I thank you.
As far as the tongue-in-cheek press release by their record label P3 Music can be taken seriously, the band is named after a 1985 episode of The New Twilight Zone
The New Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is the first of two revivals of Rod Serling's acclaimed 1950/60s television series of the same name. It ran for two seasons on CBS before producing a final season for syndication.-Series history:...
in which a child is taught bizarre magic tricks
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
through his television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
set.
In 2004 The Uncle Devil Show performed a handful of live shows in Scotland and released the 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...
A Terrible Beauty
A Terrible Beauty (album)
A Terrible Beauty is the first, and so far only, release from UK band The Uncle Devil Show. It was released on P3 Music in 2004.-Track listing:# "Leonardo's Bicycle"# "Gilbert O'Sullivan"# "Tambourine"# "Bimbo in the Limo"# "Plus Ca Change"...
, co-written by "Herring" and "Barr". It featured 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...
-driven pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
songs with surreal
Surreal humour
Surreal humour is a form of humour based on violations of causal reasoning with events and behaviours that are logically incongruent. Constructions of surreal humour involve bizarre juxtapositions, non-sequiturs, irrational situations, and/or expressions of nonsense.The humour arises from a...
lyrics often containing incongruous obscenities. Subject-matter varied from stolen bicycles, a man's love for Gilbert O'Sullivan
Gilbert O'Sullivan
Gilbert O'Sullivan is an Irish-English singer-songwriter, best known for his early 1970s hits "Alone Again ", "Clair" and "Get Down". The music magazine, Record Mirror, voted him the No...
, transvestism
Cross-dressing
Cross-dressing is the wearing of clothing and other accoutrement commonly associated with a gender within a particular society that is seen as different than the one usually presented by the dresser...
, drug
Drug abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...
-addled TV presenters in limousines and a woman who teaches her canary
Domestic Canary
The Domestic Canary, often simply known as the canary, is a domesticated form of the wild Canary, a small songbird in the finch family originating from the Macaronesian Islands ....
to sing Motörhead's "Ace of Spades
Ace of Spades (song)
"Ace of Spades" is a song by the English band Motörhead, released in 1980 as a single and the title track to the album Ace of Spades. The song spent 12 weeks in the United Kingdom Singles Chart, peaking at #15.-Overview:...
", to a man filled with murderous hatred for pigeons.
Since 2004 the band have released no other material nor played any concerts: indeed, it has never been suggested that A Terrible Beauty was anything other than a one-off project.
External links
- Official band website, now offline
- http://www.myspace.com/theuncledevilshowThe Uncle Devil Show's MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page] - Official Del Amitri homepage
- Official Kevin McDermott homepage
- Official Jim McDermott homepage
- http://www.myspace.com/justincurrieJustin Currie's MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page] - http://www.myspace.com/kevinmcdermottmusicKevin McDermott's MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
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