London based band Cloudbase are a band that champion the guitars of The Smiths and Echo and the Bunnymen and the atmosphere of The Cocteau Twins and The Sundays.
The band has it's roots in Liverpool, where guitarist Andrew Deevey was immersed in the local music scene. Having established himself playing guitar with Liverpool bands The Decemberists and the Hellfire Sermons, Andy went on to join Andy Strickland's The Caretaker Race. Signed by Smith's producer Stephen Street to his Foundation label, the Caretaker Race went on to release their acclaimed indie top 30 album "Hangover Square," and toured with the Darling Buds and the House of Love.
Andrew went on to form Richmond based band The River People, originally featuring Serena Lambre on vocals, guitars and keyboards and Mark Chafty on bass. With a solid work schedule that saw the River People play headlining gigs at the Camden Monarch, The Powerhaus, and the Garage in London, they released a four track single "The Sun Will Shine" in 1998. Recorded at the Cocteau Twins studio, September Sound, in Richmond, followed by a brief national tour, the single was described as "beautiful" by Claire Kember of XFM who declared the River people her unsigned band of the week.
The owners of Project no 9 website obtained a copy of the single and included the track "Sensitive Boy" on their Phase Shift compilation album. "The Sun Will Shine" was playlisted for September 2000 on the British Underground Rock Bands (BURBS) website and went on to be the new Sound Room winner for October 2000 and was featured on the compilation CD Dark Stars released in December 2000.
In October 2000, Jane Galloway joined The River People as vocalist. Jane, based in Stratford, previously sang with Kabbalah and acoustic duo Dandelion Clock (with ex Trash guitarist Jonathan Meier), and she and Andrew quickly started rehearsing and working on new material.
2001 saw the release of the debut single "Angel" on the bands own Waterline label. Six months later the sngle was released as a limited edition 7" single by Always Face The Sea Records.
In 2003 Cloudbase were joined by Ross Butler on the the bass and Toby Bennett on drums. With the line becoming more stable more gigs were undertaken around the London area.
Fed up with programming various computers and drum machines Kevin Gill joined Cloudbase in 2004 as a keyboard player to maintain the big atmosphric sound we had created along with new bass player, Fergal Andrews, who at one time, used to be a member of Cactus World News.
Alan Hall joined Cloudbase in March 2005 on Drums along with Dafydd Jones drumming as well. We've known Dafydd for a few years and helps us out as a stand in every now and then.
