Guillemots

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Guillemots
From left to right: MC Lord Magrão, Greig Stewart, Fyfe Dangerfield and Aristazabal Hawkes
From left to right: MC Lord Magrão, Greig Stewart, Fyfe Dangerfield and Aristazabal Hawkes
Background information
Origin England
Genre(s) Indie rock
Years active 2004–present
Label(s) Fantastic Plastic
Polydor
Website http://www.guillemots.com/
Members
Fyfe Dangerfield
MC Lord Magrão
Aristazabal Hawkes
Greig Stewart
This article is about the indie band. For the type of bird, see guillemot.

Guillemots (sometimes written gUiLLeMoTs) are a BRIT Award nominated indie rock band formed in November 2004 by Fyfe Dangerfield.

Contents

[edit] History

Fyfe Dangerfield began writing songs in his native Birmingham and then in Bromsgrove. His early band, Senseless Prayer, recorded a session for John Peel's Radio 1 show in 1999. Dangerfield then began song writing under the name "Fyfe Dangerfield and the Accident", and in 2004 he featured alongside Misty's Big Adventure, Mike in Mono, Dreams of Tall Buildings, and X Is Greater Than Y on a promotional CD that was offered free with The Birmingham Post, called Broader Than Broad Street. He then joined old school friend, Paul "Booby" Tooby, on his "Ragamuffin Blues but Holes in my Shoes" tour.

Dangerfield had moved to Bromsgrove in 1988; he moved to London in 2002, where he recruited the current line up. He also became a maverick music teacher for Cranbrook College.

The name of the band is the plural of the name of a group of seabirds (but most often meaning the Common Guillemot Uria aalge) and should be pronounced 'gillimott' (and not in a French style). The 4-piece have often been joined by two saxophone and woodwind players, Alex Ward and Chris Cundy, who are known as the "Bridled Guillemots" (a real-life variation of the band's namesake). In March 2008, Alex Ward left the band to pursue his own musical interests, and he was subsequently replaced by Ruthie Phoenix- vocalist, alto sax and keyboard player.

Dangerfield, Ward and Cundy are also founding members of the jazz ensemble Gannets.[1]

Birds are the source of inspiration for the band not just in name. For example, their 2006 EP "From the Cliffs" continues the Guillemot theme, the bird's natural habitat being steep sea cliffs. In their MySpace entry their influences are given as 'BIRDSONG first and foremost', although the only artist that all the band members have publicly stated as being an influence is Björk[2]. Their first album features recordings of Red-throated Diver Gavia stellata and European Robin Erithacus rubecula, as well as the line 'flitting like a flycatcher', a reference to the mercurial movements of these birds, and the song "Redwings", after the thrush species of the same name. In June 2007, the band appeared on the BBC Four documentary, "Why Birds Sing", contributing their musical talents to a Birdsong-inspired collaboration called "The Twitch".

The band are signed to Fantastic Plastic, who released their debut album in 2006, but after offers from several majors they will eventually move to Polydor.

The band ended a very successful 2005 opening for Rufus Wainwright's sold-out UK tour and began 2006 by being awarded fifth place in the BBC Sound of 2006[3] survey. Guillemots' debut album, Through The Windowpane was nominated for the 2006 Mercury Music Prize, and was second favourite to win from the outset, but lost out to Arctic Monkeys debut Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. It received a good deal of critical acclaim, scoring an average of 81% on metacritic.com's overview of the critical response [4].

"Trains To Brazil" was promoted in September, 2006, as their fourth (second chart-eligible) single; a new version of "Annie, Let's Not Wait" was released as their next single, on January 15, 2007.

The latest album, Red was released on March 24, 2008.[5], preceded by the single "Get Over It" on March 17th.

[edit] Live performances

Guillemots have made numerous live performances since they first appeared in the music world in 2004. On the 29 June 2006 Guillemots performed a set on the Gideon Coe's BBC 6 Music show and in the 6 Music Hub. They started their second full scale UK tour on October 16, 2006 in Birmingham and it ends on the 4th November in Oxford (the first took place in April/May of the same year). They are known for their live performances, which are varied every night. They often perform songs differently live to how they are performed on their recordings. The recent tour saw the live "premiere" of many of their songs, including "By the Water" (which features double-bassist Aristazabal Hawkes on vocals), and the rarely performed "Cats' Eyes" from their debut EP.

One of their most notable live performances to date came in October 2006 at the first BBC Electric Proms when the band performed 7 tracks (including four from their "Of the Night" EP) with a full orchestra, with songs transcribed and arranged for such a performance by Dangerfield himself. This included a rare (and somewhat unusual) performance of the song "Bad Boyfriend" where the entire band donned animal masks.

Guillemots at Lovebox Weekender festival. London, July 2006.
Guillemots at Lovebox Weekender festival. London, July 2006.

Support on Guillemots' tours is often varied, usually with two support acts for each show - one main support who stay with them for the majority of the tours' dates (Misty's Big Adventure in early 2006 and The Last Town Chorus for their Autumn tour), as well as a first support act, specific to the location (examples include Beerjacket, The Courtesy Group, The Bellagios, Richard Burke and Grace and Delete). Another common support/friend of the band is Joan As Policewoman, who the band met while performing as support for Rufus Wainwright.

Guillemots have also performed live with political songwriter Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly and supported Snow Patrol at Wembley Arena in December 2006, in a performance culminating in a lightsaber duel between the band's tour manager, and MC's guitar tech, on stage as Dangerfield played percussion on a tray [1].

The band appeared at the V Festival on the Channel 4 stage in 2007.

They played Marlay Park on 25 August 2007 as one of the support acts to Damien Rice.

The band will be playing the Uncut Arena at the 2008 Latitude Festival; in addition to this, they will also be playing a live set to a screening of David Lynch's film Eraserhead at the Music & Film Arena. Guillemots will also take to the stage at the Eden Project's Eden Sessions in July, in support of KT Tunstall[6].

[edit] Members

[edit] The "Bridled" Guillemots

[edit] Previous members

  • Alex Ward - Former Bridled Guillemot; quit to pursue a solo career in early 2008 and was replaced by Ruthie Phoenix [7]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] EPs

[edit] Singles

[edit] TV

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • The single "We're Here" was named "Single of the Week" on the Jungalist website on March 27, 2006.
  • Their song, "Trains to Brazil" was given out as "Single of the Week" on iTunes.
  • On June 19, 2006 they played their first Top Of The Pops performance; it was for single Made-Up Lovesong #43. A memorable show where guitarist MC Lord Magrao had his back to the audience and played his guitar into a set of mirrors, reflecting his performance back to the crowd.
  • Guillemots often use quirky musical instruments, such as the sound of a typewriter in the song "Who Left The Lights Off, Baby?"
  • During the weekend of 1st July 2006 they appeared on Transmission with T-Mobile on Channel 4, E4 and More 4.
  • 'Through The Windowpane' was nominated for the 2006 Mercury Music Prize.
  • The band share a tour manager with Scottish rock band Biffy Clyro. Apparently there are various crew members shared by the band.
  • Made-up Lovesong #43 is used as background music on Sky Sports Champions League games
  • During Paul McCartney's "Radio 1 Legends" show, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the station, he played some of his favorite songs. One of those was the song "Little Bear", "a very brave way to open an album" he said. He stated his admiration for the track's "beautiful orchestration".

[edit] External links

Official sites
News and media

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ MySpace.com - Gannets - London, UK - Big Beat / Power pop / Expérimentale - www.myspace.com/gannets
  2. ^ Glastonbury Festivals
  3. ^ BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Sound of 2006: The Top 10
  4. ^ Guillemots: Through The Windowpane (2006): Reviews
  5. ^ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0011648ZU
  6. ^ Guillemots support KT Tunstall at Eden Sessions
  7. ^ Alex Ward replaced by Ruthie Phoenix - See entry "NEW TOUR, NEW BLOG, NEW GUILLEMOT NEW NEW NEW!" from 8th March 2008
v • d • e
Guillemots
Fyfe Dangerfield · MC Lord Magrão · Aristazabal Hawkes · Greig Stewart
Studio albums
EPs
Singles
www.guillemots.com