Current studio line-up
Richard Lemongrower : All songwriting. Acoustic and electric guitars, keys, mandolin, oil drum, spade and other percussion...
Bass guitar : Jonny Cole
Drums: Pete Fraser
Influences
Life, love, experiences...
Musically everything form Hugh Cornwell, The Stranglers, The Pixies, through many Singer songwriters, to jazz and Tchaikowski...
Sounds Like
Have been likened to Syd Barrett, Blur, Crowded House, Procol Harum, The Beatles, The Doors... and many more
The Permanent Smilers - alias Richard Lemongrower, having retuned to the songwriting fold in 2005, hasn't really stopped writing since then, and following the popular concept album 'Sit Down And Smile (2007), is releasing a brand new eleven track cd 'Jazz Liberties' in the summer of 2008... Both are available now by clicking HERE, and will be available more readily online throughout late 2007, with a single due for national release later in the year. Currently based very close to Rochdale.
Yes, they have rubbed shoulders with some well known personalities, but believing discretion is the better part of valour, are happy to plough their own long hole. As it were.
Influences vary. Brought up on the ska and new wave revolutions around 1980, and turning his back on the false electronica of the 80's, and still believing that the song should come first. Similarities have been drawn with the Beatles, Blur, and numerous well known and established song based bands and singers.
Better known to those holed up in East Anglia as The Lemongrowers (essentially a 3 piece with Richard Lemongrower on guitars, voice, keys. James Young on bass. Craig Hulkes drumming) in the mid 1990s in Norwich, England. Two albums released to critical acclaim - 'Segments' and 'The Ultimate Mutation' on Norwich based Noisebox Records. Of course most famous of all for emptying the Waterfront in Norwich, mid gig when they were rehearsing in a small room downstairs, with smoke machine and smoke detector. tut tut indeed. The firemen, though a little peeved, gratefully accepted a free cd, and are now back to being rescued by cats from trees...
Traditional record companies are DEAD or dying. We see this as a positive development in the history of the music industry - power is now with the artist. Kerascene Music offers the independent artist/band/label a wide range of services:
Richard:
The Rubes were honored to be a part of your North American Tour! We're sorry the crowd was a little sparse, but you made fans of us all. Good luck with the next album, and be sure to drop by for a jam the next time you're in our neck of the woods.
