Guided Missile

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Guided Missile is a London based independent record label set up by Paul Kearney in 1994. No longer releasing records, Guided Missile hosts anything up to 20 gig/club nights per year, with the home base being a once monthly residency at the Buffalo Bar in London, N1 on the 2nd Saturday of each month - marking the label's ten year anniversary with a secret gig from Franz Ferdinand and recently putting on a rare London show for The Glitter Band - the nights are events in themselves.

Guided Missile has always focused on 'the underground', preferring to put out a steady flow of considered and quality releases and [developing] the numerous and now essential GM events around London and beyond. It's worth mentioning that GM has been hailed as London's best club night by both NME and Time Out New York recently.

It's often been suggested that there is a definitive music policy at the label, but those in the know appreciate that attitude and style are the driving force, rather than a 'genre' decision. In the early years, the club was a regular venue for Glasgow's now legendary proto-scratchy art punks The Yummy Fur (sadly defunct, but marching on as 50% of Franz Ferdinand and two thirds of The 1990s). The unique atmosphere was created by a whole host of like minded bands, with a bespectacled leaning towards the Pop Group, Josef K, Devo, Fire Engines or the Fall circa 1980.

Nowadays, although the club has moved on significantly, the attitude remains unchanged. Bands on the Guided Missile stage in the past months include Art Brut, Klaxons, 1990s, The Pipettes, Kitty Daisy & Lewis, The Nightingales, Cash Machine, Data Panik, Frank Sidebottom, Kaito, Country Teasers, The Ricky Spontane, The God-Like Genius Of The Beale, Les Incompetents, Hot Club De Paris, The Darkness, Untitled Musical Project, LEGO, Rourke/Joyce of The Smiths, The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, The Priscillas and The Glitter Band!

At their Easter show (headlined by Klang - Donna from Elastica's new wave project) a posse of dwarves dressed in crudely self assembled rabbit costumes were seen giving out 'Easter egg-flavoured vodkas' to the punters. Other nights have seen cheerleaders formation dancing to Pink Floyd's The Wall and a bloke who spins plates and the now infamous Xmas show Paul Guided Missile, dressed as Father Christmas, rode a Sinclair C5 (spray-painted gold) down the Buffalo Bar stairs and dislocated his shoulder.

There is one overriding criterion for Guided Missile - and it's something you see in all of their publicity shots - 'Top Entertainment', the hallmark of the organization!