Mclusky

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mclusky
Origin	Cardiff, Wales
Years active	1996 – 2005
Genres	Noise Rock
Labels	Too Pure
Members	Andy "Falco" Falkous Jonathan Chapple Jack Egglestone (2003 - 2005) Mat Harding (1996 - 2003)

Mclusky was a three-piece rock group from Cardiff, Wales. The group consisted of Andy "Falco" Falkous (vocals, guitar), Jonathan Chapple (bass, vocals) and Jack Egglestone (drums), who replaced previous drummer Matthew Harding in late 2003.

[edit] History

According to the band, they originally formed in 1996 when Falkous and Harding met at the Blackwood Miners Institute, a venue in their home town from which they were both ejected for dressing as miners. The pair met Jon a short time afterwards at the Reading Festival when they caught Chapple urinating on their tent late in the night.

More realistically it has been suggested that Andy and Matthew met when working together at Anglian Windows, a small double-glazing call centre in Cardiff. They discussed their musical ambitions after a conversation about Reading Festival, Falkous gave Harding a tape of songs he had written on his own, and shortly after they formed a band called Best after early Beatles drummer Pete Best. The original bass player for Best was Geraint Bevan, Harding's old musical comrade from The Derelicts.

Best existed in this form for almost a year before Geraint left to concentrate on his acting career, but not before Best had played a show with a band called 'Myrtle' who happened to feature one animated character on bass guitar, Jon Chapple.

Shortly after the departure of Geraint the remaining two members managed to convince Jon to join the band; this was based on the strength of the three track demo Best had recently finished at 'Ocean Studios' in Cardiff (this cassette - which was sold by the band themselves - was the unofficial debut, entitled the Benedict EP).

Best, , signed to London label Seriously Groovy and released their official debut record, the 3-track single Huwuno.

The band changed its name to mclusky in 1999, releasing their first full-length album My Pain and Sadness is More Sad and Painful Than Yours in 2000 on the Fuzzbox imprint before drawing international attention with their critically praised second album Mclusky Do Dallas in 2002. In 2004 they released their third album The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire to generally positive reviews.

They worked frequently with recording engineer Steve Albini, whose influence through his now-legendary work with bands like the Pixies and The Jesus Lizard, along with his own bands Big Black and Shellac, can be easily recognised in mclusky's dense, raw sound.

[edit] Breakup

The band called it quits on January 7th 2005, with Falco making the following announcement on the band's website on January 10th:

The three piece rock band known as mclusky have disbanded, as of Friday January 7th, 2005. The reason for this parting is private, though probably not as entertaining as you'd imagine. Personally, I would like to thank all the people, places and times that occurred on or near us. I'm grateful for the love and to a lesser degree, the hate. There'll be more music soon, from all of us.

Little was said of the reasons behind mclusky's split, but it later emerged that tensions had arisen between Falco and Chapple. The root of these tensions can be traced back to an incident in 2004 when all of the band's equipment was stolen on the Arizona leg of their American tour (this equipment - worth over £5000 - has still not been recovered).

[edit] After Mclusky

Since the band's demise, bass player Jonathan Chapple put a lot of time and effort into his other band, Shooting At Unarmed Men, before emigrating to Australia in April 2006 for two years (it is unknown if Chapple will return, but he has insisted that Shooting At Unarmed Men could see another incarnation in Australia to make up for the time he is missing in the UK). Indeed, as of late 2006 Chapple has reformed Shooting At Unarmed Men, with a new rhythm section, and has been playing venues across Melbourne. Falkous and Egglestone are writing material together with the surviving members of also-defunct Cardiff noise-core act Jarcrew with plans for something later in 2006 (the new band - equal parts Jarcrew and mclusky - has been given the official name of Future of the Left and is eagerly anticipated by fans of both mclusky and Jarcrew. A secret gig in early July 2006 saw the band's live debut (under the pseudonym The Mooks Of Passim), but due to Andrew Falkous' extremely secretive approach very few people attended and virtually nobody knew about it until after the event. Harding joined Cardiff band Transposer (now known as The Kabuki Mono) soon after his departure from mclusky, he now resides in Cornwall and has recently joined the Cornish based punk rock band Bugga who are set to release their debut album this year. The album has been recorded by Dare Mason who is famous for his recording of the indie rock band Placebo.

A compilation of the band's singles, Mcluskyism, came out in February 2006; a limited-edition version came with two additional CDs of B-sides (labelled as B-sides and C-sides), rarities and live recordings from their final headline performance at the University of London Union (The band would make one further live appearance on 01/12/04 supporting Shellac at the Scala in London). This compilation is, without doubt, the final chapter in mclusky's nine-year saga, as Falco informs in the Mcluskyism liner notes, "that's it, then. No farewell tour... no premature deaths (at time of writing), no live DVDs...". Seeing as Chapple and Falco are no longer on speaking terms (and are no longer on the same side of the equator), it is safe to assume that there is no possibility of a reunion.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Official full-length releases

My Pain and Sadness Is More Sad and Painful Than Yours (Fuzzbox, 2000; r: Too Pure, 2003)
Mclusky Do Dallas (Too Pure, 2002)
The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire (Too Pure, 2004)
Mcluskyism (Too Pure, 2006)

[edit] Official single/EP releases

1999 - "Huwuno" (as Best)
2000 - "Joy"
2000 - "Rice Is Nice"
2001 - "Whoyouknow"
2001 - "Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues"
2002 - "To Hell with Good Intentions"
2002 - "Alan Is a Cowboy Killer"
2003 - "There Ain't No Fool in Ferguson"
2003 - "Undress for Success" (the first song played 3 times in one show by Colin Murray)
2004 - "That Man Will Not Hang"
2004 - "She Will Only Bring You Happiness"