Garfields Birthday’s musical home, Weymouth, is a seaside town on the Dorset Coast of England. Perhaps better known for it’s golden beach, candyfloss and donkey rides; it also has a remarkable music scene, having been home to many great bands including Orange, Electrasy and The Lucky Bishops. Back in the mid-1990s founding members James Laming and Simon Felton were listening to bands like Teenage Fanclub and realised that British guitar music was undergoing a bit of a renaissance, and thought it would be fun to join in.
They started churning out songs at an incredible rate, even playing a couple of gigs in local bars to find out how the tunes would stand up in front of an audience. In 1997 they played a gig at the infamous venue TJ's in Wales, supporting ex-Inspiral Carpets front man Tom Hingley and his band The Lovers which would eventually lead to them recording some tracks for their label TJ's Records. Now joined by Jon Park on guitar, they ventured into the studio to record what was intended to be a double A-sided 7", featuring ‘Kenneth Davis’ and ‘Thick Ear’. The following year (1998) saw them return to Small World Studio in Yeovil with P.J. Harvey’s engineer at the helm, to record some new tracks which became the Ambulance EP.
Surely it was just a matter of time before they’d be collecting the best new-comer award at The Brits. Well they’re still waiting for that particular honour and to be honest, it’s becoming less likely with each passing year! Fast-forward to 2004, and they got the chance to play at the legendary Cavern Club in Liverpool. This seemed to prompt them into action, as they have since started playing gigs a bit more frequently and in March 2005 went into Toy Box Studios in Bristol to record a new single called ‘Mr Newton’. It was the first thing they had recorded with the new trio line-up of Simon Felton, Shane Felton and Ady Payne, after the departure of kingpin James Laming, to form a new band in London called Mondo Jet Set with Mark Robins.
The Mr Newton EP was released by German label Dandyland Records in March 2006 and had it’s official launch gig back at The Cavern Club; this was their third appearance in as many years on the famous Liverpool stage! A further surge of activity resulted in 2008’s acclaimed album, Let Them Eat Cake, which won them many new admirers both sides of the Atlantic and also kept the loyal fans smiling. Incredibly they are now into their 14th year and Brit-pop seems an awfully long time ago, but the timing does seem right to take a trip down memory lane and listen to some of the band’s earlier achievements… Tea & Sympathy, a concise overview of the bands early home and studio recordings, is due in October 2009 and proves they have never been short of a good tune. With the recent addition of new guitarist Leighton McGrath, making them a four-piece combo once again, a brand new album is also being finished with band member and producer Shane Felton at the controls. So put the kettle on, enjoy some melodic indie-pop and keep an eye out for upcoming live dates as we venture onto a stage near you!
Molly's Eyes (Promo) Mr Newton (Promo)
Hey, spare yourself a minute and download the new FREE festive download
from Hot Beds, "Christmas Started In October" from
http://www.tourdates.co.uk/hotbeds - and help us climb the UK Unsigned
chart!
Hey you guys, thanks a lot, it was a pleasure to take care of your sound and I really had lots of fun too, hope you're coming over again someday soon...all the best to you 3 ;) Simon
The voting has begun for Total Guitar magazine's Guitar Wars competition, the winner will play at DOWNLOAD 2010. Vote for Ed Stevens and get Soul Sanctuary to DOWNLOAD! Vote Now using the banner below:
Just to let you know our new album is ready for pre-order from our main website or myspace. Only £5 + p&p, all payments are done through paypal, all credit and debit cards accepted etc.
A full 40+ minutes, 11 track album professionally produced with glass master, placed in a jewel case, 8 page color booklet with artwork and lyrics + double sided tray inlay, or should we just say it fuckin' rocks?! =]
If you are interested, the link to purchase the album is:
Thanks for being our friend on MYSPAZ so to say thank you in a way words seem to fail, Soul Sanctuary have 8 EXCLUSIVE MP3's to download completely FREE only to our fans at reverbnation http://www.reverbnation.com/soulsanctuary all you have to do is join our mailing list so we can keep you updated when our new stuff comes out. simple x Hope you Enjoy!
Just stopping by to say hello and give you some news. The new album 'Coolgilly and the Freakshow' from Centascope is now available worldwide from CD Baby and directly from the merchandise page of the official website. You can also get the album from Apple iTunes, MSN Music, Rhapsody, Napster, Amazon and many more.
Hi there! We've got a new EP that we're especially proud of called Summer which is the second in our series of seasonal EPs this year. We'd love for you to listen to the EP online, and to do so, just click on the graphic below. If you like what you hear, we'd be very grateful if you'd support our efforts by buying the EP for €2.50 (around $3.20).
Hope all is going great for you. Thanks for being our friend!
Taken from our debut album, "I Smell Burning", we need you to help us take this slab of cynically bitter alternative disco to number 1 on the Tourdates download chart! Much Hot Beds love, Hannah B & Andy quirk
We've a new single out NOW through Thee Sheffield Phonographic Corporation. It's a split 7" single featuring our song "Dancing". The single also features fellow SPC band Slow Down Tallahassee.
We've have some great reviews for it & radio play on XFM and 6Music.
You can order the 7" single (or buy the digital download now) from Thee SPC website at www.theespc.com or from our profile.
If you buy the 7" vinyl, you get a special code to access the digital download for free.
Hello! Our second single ‘Bill Hicks’ is now available for pre-order on download, 7" and CD, and it's currently #1 on the play. com download pre-order chart.
We are self-managed, self-published, and self-released on our own record label and our debut single "Trauma Town" entered at #9 in the Official UK Indie charts. We're hoping to make this one go even bigger -
The new album 'Coolgilly and the Freakshow' from Centascope is now available worldwide from CD Baby and directly from the merchandise page of the official website.
You can also get the album from Apple iTunes, MSN Music, Rhapsody, Napster, Amazon and many more.
Thanks For Your Friendship! I bought 'Let Them Eat Cake' from London HMV & i became a fan instantly. My favourite track (at the moment) is 'Mystery Boy' TAKE CARE :-)
The Bon Bon Club are Sushi Quatro (bass, vox), Thirsty Moore (drums,vox) and Chapatti Smith (perc, vox), although Sushi and Thirsty are better known under different names for their day job as the rhythm section of Sheffield glam-popsters The Long Blondes.
