The Duke Spirit
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| The Duke Spirit | ||
|---|---|---|
| Background information | ||
| Genre(s) | Garage rock | |
| Years active | 2003-present | |
| Label(s) | You Are Here | |
| Website | Official site | |
| Members | ||
| Liela Moss Luke Ford Toby Butler Dan Higgins Olly Betts |
||
The Duke Spirit are an English rock band. Their genre within rock is probably best described as garage rock, although their sound also incorporates the early noise rock and grunge bands of the late 80s and early 90s such as My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth and The Pixies (a band the Duke Spirit has covered live) and a primal take on Rock & Roll, Soul and Blues allying them to groups such as The Gun Club, Spiritualized, The Cramps & Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.
Contents |
[edit] Line-up
- Liela Moss - vocals, tambourine, harmonica
- Luke Ford - guitar, backing vocals
- Dan Higgins - guitar
- Toby Butler - bass
- Olly 'The Kid' Betts - drums
[edit] History
The band formed from the meeting of Liela Moss and Luke Ford at an art college in Cheltenham where they were doing painting and photography, respectively. They moved to London together and began writing songs. After a short time they convinced mutual friend Toby Butler to join the band and they began to perform under the moniker 'Solomon'. During this period they shared a flat with various other people trying to make it in their various facets of media, one of their flatmates, artist (he has designed all their sleeve work to date) Dan Higgins turned out to be a guitar player looking for similarly minded musicians to make music with. The basis of the Duke Spirit was formed and after a chance meeting with Olly Betts, the band had developed as a complete unit with a new name, 'The Duke Spirit' by early 2003. The band released their first single Darling You're Mean in May and played their first gig at the Brixton Windmill later that year. Numerous shows and singles followed, and an album was due in September 2004 until their record label, City Rockers, ran out of financial steam in the pre-summer months of 2004. After, as singer Liela Moss describes it, "Feeling at sea and making a record that [they] didn't know for certain would be released" they moved over to Loog Records/Polydor and released the album in the UK on the 16th of May 2005. The U.S. release of the album followed almost a year later and the band found themselves touring through the U.S. for much of 2006, including a highly praised performance at the Coachella 2006 festival, California. The only release of 2006 was a downloable E.P. and limited 7" single titled 'Covered In Love' (released through Velo Recordings). This was made up of a collection of recordings made to 8-track by The Duke Spirit of songs written by recently deceased heroes and heroines (Arthur Lee, Desmond Dekkar and Jesse Mae Hemphill). In early 2007 the band signed to 'You Are Here' a new independant anglo/Canadian label.
[edit] Success
The Duke Spirit have received much acclaim and increasing success despite relatively little advertising based promotion on TV and the radio. Initially a "word of mouth" band, their heavy touring schedules have helped them to spread their music across the country and eventually into America and Europe. Despite having played larger renowned venues like the London Astoria they still keep themselves grounded and have played small venues in towns not naturally associated with a thriving music scene, particularly on their fairly recent "Pub NME" tour which toured small bars and clubs around the south of England. They have made only a handful of TV appearances notably Craig Charles' "Weapons of Mass Distraction" and their televised Leeds set that was put on TV through 4music as well as appearing briefly on Reading, Leeds and Isle of Wight Festival highlights. They promoted their debut album's release with many radio sessions on stations such as BBC Radio 1, Virgin Radio and XFM Their live shows have received many plaudits most notably from the NME, who are not noted for their generosity, but gave the Duke Spirit 10/10 in their first live review of them and have continued to praise the band's gigs.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Singles
On the Black Cat, White Cat label:
- Solomon (single) (double a side A)Piano 1 AA) Being The Devil) (2003)
On the City Rockers label:
- Darling You're Mean (May 2003)On the City Rockers label:
On the Loog label:
- Dark Is Light Enough (May 2004) #60 UK
- Cuts Across The Land (4th October 2004) #48 UK
- Lion Rip (7th February 2005) #25 UK
- Love Is An Unfamiliar Name (6th May 2005) #33 UK
[edit] EPs
On the City Rockers label:
- Darling You're Mean (May 2003)
- Roll, Spirit, Roll (October 2003)
On the Polydor Label(Australia Only release)
- Relieve the Distressed (16th May 2005)
On the Velo recordings label
- Covered In Love (December 2006)
A collection of The Duke Spirit's interpretations of songs written by some of the bands hero's who'd recently come to pass.
[edit] Albums
On the Loog label:
- Cuts Across The Land (16th May 2005)
On the Startime Records Label:
- Cuts Across The Land (American Release) (7th March 2006)
For a more complete discography visit here
