Cast (band)

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Cast

Origin	Liverpool, England
Years active	1993–2002
Genres	Britpop
Labels	Polydor
Members	John Power (Vocals/Guitar) Peter Wilkinson (Bass) Liam Tyson (Guitar) Keith O'Neill (Drums)

Cast were a band formed in Liverpool, England in 1993 by John Power, the former bassist of The La's and Peter Wilkinson, the former bassist of Shack.

The band released four albums between 1995 and 2001. Liam Gallagher once described them as one of the few current bands he actually liked. Though the group continued to release records after the fall of the Britpop movement at the end of the 90s their commercial success died with the movement and they are generally not regarded as Britpop "survivors".

It has been suggested that the name "Cast" was taken from the final word on The La's eponymous (and only) album. The song "Looking Glass" ends with the repeated line "The change is cast". John Power has stated when interviewed that this is a coincidence [1]. But we all know he is wrong. La.

1 Career
2 After the split
3 Albums
4 Singles
5 External link

[edit] Career

[edit] Formation

John Power had previously been the bass player in The La's, however he left after long being frustrated by Lee Mavers overzealous perfectionist approach to the band's recordings. Drug use and Lee Maver's refusal to play any of John Power's songs have also been identified as reasons for his departure. After leaving the band Power stayed in Bruckley House, the same place and time where 3 beat records started up.

John Power decided to stop playing bass and started playing rhythm guitar while residing at Bruckley House, playing with friends and with an ever changing line up. The first addition to the band was bassist Peter Wilkinson, who Power had seen about town playing with other bands and whom he "knew to say hello to." The next addition was Keith O'Neill, who John Entwistle would later favourably compare with The Who drummer Keith Moon (his nickname in the band was "moonie"), however this may have been due to his ability to drink large amounts of alcohol and general erratic behaviour rather than his drumming style. The final addition to the band was guitarist Liam 'Skin' Tyson who Wilkison had recommended to Power. When Power met Tyson and asked him to join the band he initially turned him down as he had sold all of his musical equipment and was teaching at an outdoor centre in Alston in Cumbria or "living up a hill" as Power would later describe it. However he soon changed his mind and this completed the band lineup which was to stay the same up until the band's eventual disbandment.

After practising for a while the band were to benefit from the support of Oasis, one of the upcoming band's of the time. Despite not having a ticket to an Oasis gig at a Liverpool venue John Power convinced the club owner to let him in to meet the band. John Power found that Noel Gallagher was a huge fan of The La's (he has in fact stated that Oasis' goal as a band was to complete what the La's had started) and after playing a copy of Cast's demo tape the Gallagher brothers asked him to support the band on a forthcoming tour along with Shed Seven. It was during this tour that Polydor showed their interest in signing the band, which the band duly accepted. Their first single "Finetime", released at the height of the Britpop movement in 1995, proved successful debut. This success was followed up by "Alright" showcasing a distinctive sound very similar to The La's.

[edit] Britpop

The band then released their debut album All Change which showcased a more diverse range of music than the two singles: psychedelic rock ("Promised Land", "Two of a Kind"), guitar-tapping in "History", heavier power-chord based songs ("Back of My Mind", "Reflections" and "Sandstorm") and slow-paced ballad songs ("Walkaway" and "Four Walls"). This album would produce two top ten hits for the band in "Sandstorm" and "Walkaway".

For their second album, 1997s Mother Nature Calls, the fast paced guitar songs were replaced with a a more contemplative sound. The band continued to release radio-friendly material such as "Free Me". According to Power the title of the album was supposed to be tongue in cheek because Mother Nature is always calling (because of man's mortality), but also because he was on the toilet at the time he came up with the name. The band decided to once again use John Leckie to help record the album and the production was much more well-developed on this album, with the band using much more than the simple guitar-bass-drums mix as they had done on the previous album. John Power has blamed the initial poor reception on the album on the fact that it is a "grower" requiring much more patience than the more pop-based style of All Change and has claimed that a number of critics later told him that they felt they had changed their perceptions of the album. Despite this the album spawned another two top ten hits with "Live the Dream" and "Guiding Star" and one top twenty hit with "I'm So Lonely".

[edit] Decline

By the time that the band started to record their third album, Magic Hour Britpop movement was faltering and a number of Cast's contemporaries had disbanded (e.g. Kula Shaker, Dodgy, Smaller and The Seahorses.) The band tried to further distance themselves from the Britpop movement by referring to the third album as "21st Century Rock'n'Roll". John Leckie was replaced by Gil Norton who had previously produced The Pixies and the band moved towards a heavier power-chord based sound, with the jangly rhythm sounds of the previous albums being replaced by a more distorted "metallic" sound. The album received average reviews by most music magazines, with the band still criticised for a lack of originality. In response John Power asked if the 'wheel' is retro. He made a very good point that music should not have to be original for the purpose of being different- if something provides the basis for what you are aiming to achieve why should it not be used? So while the four-piece band may not be 'original' the music that is being produced is much more important than a'fresh' sound. I love Cast.

The first release was "Beat Mama", with the band using samples and synthesisers on the record to give it a more modern feel, moving away from the 60's sound created by simply using only guitars, bass and drums. This song was another top ten hit for the band, but was bizarely followed up by the title track Magic Hour, which was a very slow-moving song and with simple and almost childish lyrics. The poor sales of this song resulted in no more single releases from the album.

Seeing the sales of Magic Hour as a clear sign that the band needed to change direction the band produced the album Beetroot. Using latin beat sounds for the only single released from this album and largely abandoning the ethos of producing simple yet catchy three minute pop songs the album was not groundbreaking enough to give the band the critical approval which they were hoping for nor attract the interest of the general public. After the drastic change in direction and the subsequent commercial failure of this final studio album in 2001, Cast split in 2002. Following the split, John Power released a solo album entitled Happening For Love which featured Paul Maguire formerly of fellow Liverpool band The Stairs. In 2005, John Power played a series of gigs with the newly reformed The La's. The gigs yielded no new material and nothing has been heard from the band since the series of gigs which took place in Ireland, England and Japan.

[edit] After the split

Since 2002 Peter Wilkinson has recorded and toured with a number of artists including Ian McCulloch and McCulloch's reformed band, Echo & The Bunnymen. Wilkinson left Echo & the Bunnymen in mid 2005 and has now rejoined the Liverpool band Shack who are currently signed to Sour Mash, Noel Gallagher's record label. Shack released their new album On the Corner of Miles and Gil in March 2006.

Skin is currently in Robert Plant's band, "Strange Sensation".

John Power released a second album called Willow She Weeps. It has been recieved quite well by critics, and John Power has now taken on an elder statesman role as he is one of the few Britpop survivors.

[edit] Albums

All Change, (1995) UK #7	Mother Nature Calls, (1997) UK #3	Magic Hour, (1999) UK #6	Beetroot, (2001) UK #78
The Collection, (2004) UK #42	The BBC Sessions, (February 26, 2007) UK #??