The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.
Hunter S. Thompson
Influences
Rainer Ptacek-Nirvana-The Doors-Led Zep-I Am Kloot-Bruce Springsteen-Giant Sand
Johhny Cash-Sergei Prokofiev-Dmitri Shostakovich-Neil Young-Edgar Allen Poe-
You-The World-Outer Space-Drifters from place to place-we all make up this human race
whilst the creeping others make up the dis taste.
We like so many this list can go on for eternity: World Visitor Map0" />
We must forgive the Manchester music circuit for believing that The Victorian Dad Band sprang onto their scene fully-formed as though birthed by some great groaning muse. It has been a long time coming and David Rybka, the leader of “Wigan’s Super Group”, is no stranger to hard work. He has perfected his compositional style and live act over the course of thousands of performances (beginning when he was just fifteen years old) and this experience is obvious – a full album (entitled “The Thin Thread”) on Elbow’s label “Skinny Dog Records” shall be released soon.
Together with his band (consisting of core members Jimmy Wilson, Tom Doherty, Matt McNicolas, Tom Yates and Fran Lydiatt) he has carved out a keen UK following and something of a private mythology; the band moved into Withington’s last surviving 18th Century farm house and soon transformed it into a hermitage for musicians of all disciplines to collaborate in (until they were suddenly evicted and the place began to crumble – but they now tour too much to make use of such a base anyway).
David and the VDB have recently enjoyed enthusiastic support from BBC 6 Music, patronage from The Smiths’ Mike Joyce and praise from local artists I Am Kloot and Elbow. They are also part of Manchester’s Debt Set (affiliated with co-operative label Debt Records run by occasional collaborator Louis Barabbas) and are engaged in a host of creative and promotional projects with their contemporaries in the Manchester arts scene.
NOTE TO EDITORS
David Rybka & The Victorian Dad Band . The electric and acoustic records will be available soon, accompanied by the video for No Fashion.
A further album is in pre-production.
David Rybka & The Victorian Dad Band , embrace everything from rustic folk to superbly honed, melodic grunge. Not many bands feature an Accordion and a Mandolin and still come out sounding like Josh Homme proteges mixing it with The Doors. The biggest surprise tonight though is Victorian Dads re-invention as purveyors of bluegrass and european gypsyesque countryside busking, delivered via tantilising snapshots of their new album. The best thing about the Dad, are that they convey an intelligence and muscular intent without overload and still manage to generate trouser flapping sounds along the way.
-( Manchester Music December 2009)
Bass, drums, saxophone, two guitars, a ukulele and a mandolin ensure that the sound is rich in colour and texture. The rhythms are complex, catchy and imaginative; the songs are authentic, lyrical and cleverly arranged. The delivery is gutsy and theatrical.
- BBC Manchester review -
Welcome to the somewhat unhinged musical mind of Dave Rybka... You have to wonder what they're putting in the water in Wigan these days
- 04 June 2008 / Retro Bar / Manchester
By Cath Aubergine -
Victorian Dad, AKA David Rybka And The Victorian Dad Band, are not so much a band as an experience; a strange trip into a parallel universe of psychedelic indie soul stoner blues folk stew and oddly dressed followers. One of whom is dancing on a table by the first song.
-Hard Rock Cafe Oct 22 08 Manchester by Cath Aubergine -
I'm convinced that if Dave Rybka could power his amps on steam, he would.
Crazy mad, but hugely original and entertaining rock and roll.
- 22 October 2008 / Hard Rock Cafe / Manchester
By Manuel Ecostos -
...before you can sew leather patches onto the elbow of your tweed jacket, the set erupts into a powerhouse of guitars and Dave Rybka’s amazing vocals that sit somewhere between Jim Morrison and Josh Homme. The songs are just ready to go...
- JA @ Manchester Music.co.uk 2008 -
Wigan's Super Group
- Wigan Reporter 2007 -
The Doors 'My wild love' on more acid!
- London Promoter 2007 -
With a wailing harmonica, simple drum beats and various guitarists and bass players behind him, Rybka rocks with taut vocals and springing guitars, and whilst a young woman and a bloke in drag strut around ballet style beside him, Over all, a great set and a man we’ll be keen to check out again.
- Haigh Music Festival 2007 -
...dirty rock & roll...given a newfound lifeblood
- Sandman Magazine 2008 -
..More proof that Wigan might well be the centre of musical excellence in the North, Victorian Dad come to entertain us with their superb Screaming Tree’s-esque tunes of both wild sonics and true soul
- Manchester Music.co.uk 2008 -
ENGLAND dr_vdb@hotmail.com
SPAIN jonbonfiglio@yahoo.co.uk
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David Rybka & The Victorian Dad Band's Friend Space (Top 23)
David Rybka & The Victorian Dad Band has 4520 friends.
Tickets SELLING FAST! £7 adv avaliable from (more on the door): wegottickets.com seetickets.com Ticketline Picadilly Records
Grouper (US) has her latest – Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill – of three albums on Type Records. She has also been involved in collaborative releases, contributing a track to Xiu Xiu’s Remixed & Covered and four tracks to a split release with Inca Ore. Her other contemporaries are Belong, Growing, Tim Hecker, Windy & Carl and Atlas Sound.
Jasper TX (Sweden), with a hefty back-catalogue of releases on labels such as Miasmah, and collaborations with buddy Machinefabriek, is an essential domestic appliance in the household of conceptual music. He is comparable to artists Fennesz, Sigur Ros, Múm and Tape.
Intricate and atmospheric songsmith, Danny Saul (UK) performs with different combinations of musicians, making each gig a unique event. His forthcoming release is "Harsh, Final", and he also performs with Greg Haines as Liondialer.
Fieldhead (UK) music delights in tape hiss, bleak landscapes and decaying analogue loops. He is also a member of The Declining Winter and Glissando. His debut album, "They Shook Hands for Hours" is released soon on Home Assembly.
Hi David, there's loads of members on our site that would love your music! Make sure you check us out at www.wohomusic.net as we’ve just launched our November competitions, including Track of The Month and you’ve got to be in it to win it! We’d love to see and hear you on there so please join us soon and let me know if you’re interested in us reviewing your music or interviewing you and publishing it on the site . . . . Kaori (wohomusic)
Big Hands in March sounds great. Defo catch up with you before then though mate, we'll come to one of yer gigs soon or just catch up for drinky and smokey!
Online Now!
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