Claytown Troupe

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Claytown Troupe
Origin	Bristol England
Genre(s)	alternative rock
Years active	1984 - present
Label(s)	Island Records EMI
Website	http://www.claytowntroupe.co.uk
Members
Christian Riou (Vocals) Richard Williams(Keyboards) Ben Christo (Guitar) Johnny Thornton (Bass Guitar) Dan Roth (Drums)
Former members
Adrian 'Ben' Bennett (Guitar '87 - '92) Andy Holte (Drums '85 - '92) Paul Waterson (Bass Guitar '87 - '92) Chris Sharp(Bass Guitar '92 - '05) Clive Murray (Guitar '04 - '5) Keith Simpsone (Guitar '84 - '87)

Claytown Troupe are an alternative rock band from Weston-Super-Mare England.
Back in the late 80's this lot were the only real alternative to The Cult. More anthemic and more authentic than Astbury & Co's rawk; Moving a few hundred thousand units internationally over their short period in the limelight, they even broke the UK top 40 before disappearing.

Formed in Bristol and Weston-Super-Mare by lead singer Christian Riou in 1984 (who claimed in an NME interview that a famous local clairvoyant advised him to form a band called the Clayton Troop!)

The Claytown Troupe became an Alt-Rock act touted as a cross between The Cult's fake rock and the authentic crusty rock of Pop Will Eat Itself and Crazyhead.

In truth there was more to them than that and they suffered much in coming from England at a time of 'Crusty'; a time when high expectations in Rock, and Rock itself, were generally frowned upon.

By 1986 they had an accomplished yet chaotic live show which earned them an exciting reputation on the underground scene.

They signed to Island Records in 1988 without management, Christian then assigned Steven Abbott, (known as Abbo, who had been the singer in seminal punk act UK Decay).

Ron Fair and Ralph Jezzard produced the debut 'Through The Veil' which was universally well received & achieved solid international sales (yet only made it to a criminally underrated number 74 in the UK album charts in the days prior to computer controlled sales stats).

'Through The Veil' shares The Cult's sensibilities for anthemic rock bluster coupled with a tinge of indigenous Americana and everyman lyrics: "If I could drink the world dry, then I could maybe cry."

It has a genuine atmosphere to it and sounds unlike anyone else, either then or now; there is a swagger and confidence on this album that promised great things and a stadium rock future.

What followed was a string of high profile tours and excellent releases. The Claytown's gigs grew from sell out shows at the Marquee, the Astoria and the Town & Country Club, notably supporting The Cult on the 'Sonic Temple' tour at venues such as the Wembley Arena & the Birmingham NEC, a feat that didn't appear to daunt them. Later tours included Pearl Jam, The Wonder Stuff, The Damned, Julian Cope, Jesus Jones, The Godfathers, The Mission & the Los Angeles Foundations Forum with Ozzy Osbourne & Soundgarden on the bill.

Switching labels to EMI Records in the 90's Claytown Troupe cut their next album, the excellent 'Out There', with David Bianco producing at the Hit Factory, New York.

They toured Britain in 1992 with Terrorvision as support act on request by Christian and subsequently opened for Seattle behemoth's Pearl Jam on their first UK tour (It had been arranged the other way round with PJ to support CT but the Grunge kings were kind of riding the whirlwind in '92.)

The second album didn't relaunch the band further than where they had been previously & disagreements with EMI compounded the frustrations.

After parting company with EMI, drummer Andy Holte, guitarist Ben Bennett and bassist Paul Waterson made their exit. Christian Riou and Rick Williams continued through '92 & '93 with Riou deciding to put the band on hold until he felt ready to play again.

Then in 2004, the band returned to the UK music scene with Christian Riou and Rick Williams being asked to perform to over 1500 people for the WGW Festival in October 2004 to good overall reviews mixing old songs from their two previous albums with newer material.

Christian Riou recently contributed to a new album by the group 'All Living Fear' on the track 'Queen Of Delusion' which features a variety of guest artists including Arthur Brown, Julianne Regan (All About Eve) and Steve Bronski, all of which were insprations of ALF's founder & personal friend of Christian's, Matthew North.

This year (2008) sees Christian & Rick teaming up with Ben Christo (current Sisters Of Mercy guitarist).

The Claytown Troupe supported The Mission on their last ever tour, plus there are plans to release new material and rumours of larger support shows are cropping up in the alt. rock pubs & clubs.