Enter Shikari

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Enter Shikari
Enter Shikari live
Background information
Origin	St Albans, Hertfordshire, England
Genre(s)	Post-Hardcore New Rave
Years active	2003–Present
Label(s)	Ambush Reality
Website	www.entershikari.com
Members
Rou Reynolds - Vocals, Electronics Liam "Rory" Clewlow - Guitar Chris Batten - Bass, Vocals Rob Rolfe- Drums

Enter Shikari are an English post-hardcore band with heavy use of electronic sounds, formed in St. Albans, Hertfordshire in 2003.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Discography 2.1 Albums 2.2 Demo EPs 2.3 Singles 2.4 Other Tracks 3 Videography 4 Ambush Reality 5 Achievements 6 Trivia 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Biography

Enter Shikari formed as an evolution from an earlier band, Hybryd ^[1] who combine elements of Eurodance and post-hardcore in many of their songs. All four members are from St Albans, England. The band has managed to gain success within the music industry despite turning down offers from many of the large record companys, and instead deciding to 'go it alone' signed to their own independent record label Ambush Reality, with assistance from their distributor Vital.

The band gained a large fan base due to their frequent gigging and publicity using their MySpace page, where they are still the UK's top unsigned band. This helped the band secure a spot on the Gibson/MySpace stage at 2006's Download Festival. On the November 4, 2006, they became only the second unsigned band to ever sell out London Astoria (the first being The Darkness).

During 2003 to 2004, the band released three demo EPs, that were available from their gigs and their website. In August 2006 they released the download only single "Mothership" which became the single of the week on the iTunes store. Their first physical single was a double A-side featuring re-recorded versions of "Sorry You're Not a Winner" and "OK Time for Plan B", which had previously been featured on one of the demo EPs. It was released on October 30, 2006 and was limited to 1000 copies of each format and sold out within the first week of release. In mid January 2007, Enter Shikari's first single, "Mothership" entered the UK singles chart for one week at number 151, on Downloads only. This was followed a week later by "Sorry You're Not a Winner/OK Time for Plan B", which charted at number 182 on the singles chart (despite its physical formats being chart ineligible at the band's request) and number 146 in the Download Chart.

In January 2007, Enter Shikari came 5th in BBC online's "Sound of 2007" poll, which compiles the views of numerous music critics on who they predict will achieve success in 2007^[2]. They also made the NME's "New Noise 2007", a list of the bands it considers most likely to achieve success in the coming year (previous years lists have included the likes of Arcade Fire, Hot Chip and Bloc Party).

The next single released was "Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour", on March 5, 2007 this was the bands first single to be released from their forthcoming debut album, it contained a rerecorded version of the song "Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour". It reached 27 in the Official UK chart. The band's debut album, Take to the Skies, was released on March 19 2007 and on March 25 it reached number 4 in the UK Official Album Charts. It contained re-recordings of many of the songs that had featured on the demo EPs and singles that were released prior to the release of the album.

During the month of March, 2007 it was announced they would be playing at Download festival, Reading and Leeds Festivals and Glastonbury Festival. On March 30, 2007, Enter Shikari announced that their next single would be "Jonny Sniper". ^[3]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

Cover	Date of Release	Title
	March 19 2007	"Take to the Skies"

[edit] Demo EPs

Sold at shows and via website prior to the release of "Take to the Skies"

Cover	Date of Release	Title
	June 2003	"Nodding Acquaintance EP"
	September 2003	"Sorry You're Not a Winner EP"
	August 2004	"Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour EP"

[edit] Singles

Cover	Date of Release	Title	Chart Positions			Album
			UK Singles Chart	UK Download Chart	UK Rock Chart
	August 2006	"Mothership"	151	-	-	N/A
	October 30 2006	"Sorry You're Not a Winner/OK Time for Plan B"	166	146	-	N/A
	March 5 2007	"Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour"	27	-	1	Take to the Skies
	TBA 2007	"Jonny Sniper"	-	-	-	Take to the Skies

[edit] Other Tracks

There are several demo versions of many of the songs featured on the Take to the Skies album that were released in the years up to the release of the album. Below is a list of songs that aren't featured on any of the singles, EPs or the album:

• "Warm Smiles Do Not Make You Welcome Here" (2004)
• "We Can Breathe in Space, They Just Don't Want Us to Escape" (2005)

[edit] Videography

• "Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour"
• "Mothership"
• "Sorry You're Not a Winner" (2006 version)
• "OK! Time for Plan B"
• "Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour" (2007 version)

[edit] Ambush Reality

Ambush Reality is an independent record label started in July 2006. For the time being, Ambush Reality will only be releasing music by Enter Shikari, their hope is to add other bands to the "gang" as time goes by. Ambush Reality is co-owned and run by the members of Enter Shikari and their friends. ^[4]

[edit] Achievements

• Kerrang! Awards: Best British Newcomer nomination (2006)
• Kerrang! Readers Poll: Best British Newcomer (2006)
• Live performance given 4/5 stars by Guardian writer Helen Pidd ^[5]
• Achieved the number 1 spot on MTV2's Rock Top Ten in November 2006 and March 2007 with "Sorry, You're Not A Winner" and "Anything Can Happen In The Next Half Hour" respectively.
• NME Awards: John Peel Award for Musical Innovation (2007) - The award was given to the band when they supported lostprophets at an NME Awards Show on 15th February 2007.
• HMV described Enter Shikari as 'one of the fastest-rising unsigned bands' in their Artists to watch in 2007 list ^[6]
• Took over MTV2, on "Enter Shikari Takeover" on March 8th 2007.
• Take To The Skies debuted at #4 on the official UK album chart on its first week of release.
• During mid-week Take To The Skies Release it had reached #2 on the official Uk album chart, only being beaten by Take That.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Trivia

• Previous names for the band include Bleach, Elemental and Hybryd.
• The word "Shikari" means "The Hunter" in Hindi.
• Rob was once kicked out of his own show, mid song, for climbing a balcony.
• The band is known for the use of finger lights at their shows, and fans can often be seen at gigs wearing them.
• The song "Return to Energiser" is about the Quasar action game in Hemel Hempstead (a laser game where players run round shooting one another with lasers and then have to 'return to energiser' when their ammo runs out) although they also said in a recent interview that it was written based on their experiences of going to gigs and then clubs, specifically after they went to a Dillinger Escape Plan gig (which the first, chaotic part is based on) and then to a dance club.
• Rou's Father sells merchandise for the band at gigs.
• At Download Festival 2006, they were mislabeled as Enter Shikira.^{[citation needed]}
• Following their John Peel award, Enter Shikari were mentioned in The Times newspaper on 2 March 2007. Unfortunately the article was illustrated with a photo of the Colombian singer Shakira.
• Jimmy Carr has often confessed in television and radio interviews to be an avid fan of Enter Shikari^{[citation needed]}.
• Actress June Brown, who plays Dot Branning in Eastenders, has been to several Enter Shikari gigs. ^[7]

[edit] See also

• Post-Hardcore
• List of bands from England

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Enter Shikari's MySpace
• February 2004 Interview for the BBC by Kayleigh Watson

Enter Shikari This box: view • talk • edit

Roughton "Rou" Reynolds | Liam "Rory" Clewlow | Chris Batten | Rob Rolfe

Discography

Albums: Take to the Skies EPs: "Nodding Acquaintance EP" (2003) | "Sorry You're Not a Winner EP" (2004) | "Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour EP" (2004, remastered 2005) Singles: "Mothership" | "Sorry You're Not a Winner/OK Time for Plan B" | "Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour" | "Jonny Sniper"