Hell Is for Heroes (band)

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Hell is for Heroes
Origin Flag of England Camden, London, England
Genre(s) Post-Hardcore
Years active 2000 - Present
Label(s) Burning Heart
Associated acts Symposium
Website hellisforheroes.net
Members
Justin Schlosberg
William McGonagle
Tom O'Donoghue
James Findlay
Joe Birch

Hell Is for Heroes are an English post-hardcore band, formed in Camden, London, in September 2000. The initial partnership of Will McGonagle and Joe Birch (previously of Symposium) was joined by James Findlay, Tom O'Donoghue and later Justin Schlosberg. The band played their formative shows in West London throughout 2001.

After two independently released singles, Hell Is for Heroes released their debut album in February 2003 on EMI. The Neon Handshake was produced and recorded in Los Angeles at Sound City Studios and mixed in Umea, Sweden at Tonteknik by Pelle Henricsson and Eskil Lövström, the band's A&R was managed by Duncan Illing. The band and their A&R left EMI in 2004.

Hell Is for Heroes released their second album Transmit Disrupt independently before signing a deal with Burning Heart Records, who subsequently re-released it in 2006.

Their debut album was voted 58th best British rock album ever by the readers of Kerrang! magazine in the Feb 19, 2005 issue.

Contents

[edit] Band lineup

[edit] History

[edit] Pre Neon Handshake Era

Will McGonagle and Joe Birch were 2 members of former British band Symposium. The Pop-Punk band were forced to end their career much earlier than most people expected. Their final release was in 1999 and by the end of 2000 due to personal and musical differences and problems with their record company they had split up[1]. It wasn't long before they joined up with their former school friends James Findlay & Tom O'Donoghue to form what would become with Hell is for Heroes but they still lacked a lead singer. Justin Schlosberg was recruited through a shared like of heavy drinking when they met in a bar through mutual friends. Schlosberg said in an interview in 2005 that his interview with the band was more of a drinking session than anything else.

From the beginning Hell is for Heroes decided to take things slowly. The idea behind it all was that they would only release an album when they were be ready to release it. It was more than a year before the band got together their first release on Superior Quality Recordings. It was a double A-side featuring 2 songs that would later appear on their debut album, "Sick/Happy" and "Cut Down"

Earlier that year in January they had performed their first gig together at The Half Moon in Putney, London. Throughout their early career it was their live performances that defined the band and gave them their reputation and in March 2001 they toured as support for the band Biffy Clyro who were at the height of their careers thus far. By the end of that tour they had recruited a fan base that was particularly loyal and caught the attention of major record labels. In July 2001 they signed with EMI records and things seemed to be moving a lot faster but it was after this that their pragmatic and gradual approach to building the bands sound in the run up to an album release would really show, for it wasn't until February 2003 that The Neon Handshake would be released.

The Band next released the Single "You Drove me to it" in 2002 (which borrowed the riff from an unreleased Symposium demo titled "I Will" that was planned to be on their abandoned 3rd album) with B-sides "Things Fall Apart" and "Kill the Silence" in January 2002. That month is also credited by the band as the month they recorded their debut album in Sweden but 2002 only saw releases from Hell is for Heroes in the form of 2 more singles, "I Can Climb Mountains" & "Nightvision". The release of Nightvision was the first by the band to be released in 2 CDs giving fans 4 B-Sides from just 1 single including one song that gained a legendary live show status amongst their fan base, "Folded Paper Figures". The song was so popular with fans that it was later re-recorded and used on their 2nd album.

[edit] The Neon Handshake & Beyond

The album much anticipated release finally came in February of 2003 and there was no shortage of positive reviews for it[2]. Hell is for Heroes' videos were appearing regularly on major music television channels and the band continued to tour to all corners of the UK keeping up their reputation as one of the premier live bands of the day[3]. One performance of the time at The Astoria in London was filmed and shown repeatedly by UK Television Channel MTV2 over the Easter period of 2003.

Also in early 2003 the Single "You Drove me to it" which had been re-mastered for the album version was re-released as a single on 2cd's (similarly to the release of "Nightvision"). Significantly the video was hailed as the first ever interactive music video. When shown on MTV2 viewers could press their red button at a certain point in the video and were greeted with an internet link and password to a secret section of Hell is for Heroes' official website.

Shortly after the release of the album, the band went on tour with Feeder for five dates of their nationwide UK sellout tour, which was a big move up the ladder since Feeder were one of the most talked about British live acts of that year[4].

Their Live Performances of the year were punctuated by a seminal appearance at the Carling Weekend Reading and Leeds Festival on the Radio 1 Stage. The Future looked very good for Hell is for Heroes.

However in 2004 EMI's business was not doing so well. They blamed the surge of illegal music downloads through p2p networks and as a consequence scaled down their business model. The subsidiary of EMI known as Chrysalis records which owned the rights to Hell is for Heroes was closed down and Hell is for Heroes were moved to another subsidiary. Things then took a turn for the worse when their new benefactors did not agree with the direction of the 2nd album. Despite the infancy of the 2nd album at this stage the band and the record label could not come to terms and split up. At the time the nature of the split was not clear and many fans were left to believe that Hell is for Heroes had simply been dropped from EMI leaving more casual fans to partially forget about the band.

[edit] Captains of Industry & Transmit Disrupt

In May 2004 Hell is for Heroes went ahead and recorded their 2nd album regardless of EMI and signed up with Independent record label Captains of Industry. The first sign of how things were changing for the band was in August 2004 when they released their first single to be taken from the 2nd album. Entitled "One of us" the single didn't get the publicity of the singles that preceded The Neon Handshake, there was no video to parade on TV and it was released as a free download on their own and Captains of Industry's website as a simple MP3 file with no copyright protection on it. They also hand made a very small number of CDs in cardboard sleeves with a B-side "Discos and Casinos" which would later appear on the 2nd album. Just like their earliest work reflected their feelings of frustration born out of the collapse of Symposium leading to a hard sound and an energetic live performance the title "One of Us" seemed to reflect feelings of being left out in the cold by EMI and going it alone on an independent label although the band members have never spoken publicly about this.

A second single followed in "Models for the Programme" and this time there was a video but it got very little air time and the release was just as low key as a free download or hand made CD. There were 2 B-sides as well though that would not appear on the album, "Clock Out" & "Switzerland". The fact that these B-sides did not make the album was significant because by the time the 3rd single, "Kamichi" had been put out fans without knowing it at the time had already heard half the 2nd albums content. 3 songs had been released as singles, 1 was a B-side to one of those singles and old fan favourite Folded Paper Figures was only given a minor reworking before being added to the album.

By March 2005 the Album, Transmit Disrupt was complete and finally released on Captains of Industry. While the 1st album had reached a fairly good high of #16 in the UK album charts Transmit Disrupt only managed #87. However this was considered a success given that the album was not in high street shops or major online retailers and could only be bought online at Captains of Industry’s website. In fact not enough copies of the album actually existed at the time to break the coveted top 20 in the album chart.

The tours continued either side of the release of transmit disrupt and the bands spirit was still there in the live performances but the venues were visibly emptier. Nonetheless those that still followed Hell is for Heroes did so with a passion that few bands in the world could lay claim to.

[edit] Burning Heart Records & Transmit Disrupt Re-release

In September 2005 Hell is for Heroes signed with a bigger record label Burning Heart Records, home to other successful rock bands such as Refused. The whole image of Hell is for Heroes instantly became sleeker, as it was during the days with EMI. The website was overhauled, Transmit Disrupt got a re-release with new artwork and was finally sold in major shops and online retailers and was even released in the USA where they had once been tipped to succeed while still with EMI.

The single "Models For The Programme" was given a new video and fans were told that it would be released for them as a download but strangely enough the video has only shown up thus far quite anonymously on the website YouTube and neither Hell is for Heroes or Burning Heart Records have mentioned it since, despite a video entitled "Models for the Programme Video Shoot" appearing on the Hell is for Heroes website showing the filming of that very video.

In February 2006 the band announced on their website that they had "come out of hibernation" and they would be "cranking out new songs" and "be releasing an exclusive download" sometime soon. Not long after this announcement a track entitled "New Song" appeared on the bands MySpace website, followed by a live tour in the months following. Although content from the as-yet-untitled third album has been much less forthcoming than it was with Transmit Disrupt, new songs have featured in live sets such as "Into The Blood", but the band have said that they do not want to "ruin the anticipation by flooding fans with new material before the album comes out".

In July 2006 a new song was released via the bands MySpace page entitled "Eject Eject Eject". It was originally only supposed to have been available to fans who had attended the March tour of the UK, but the band members recognised that everyone was sharing it and made it available for free download on MySpace. Not long after on the bands official forums, the song was revealed as a song recorded with the rest of Transmit Disrupt that was decided to be left off, and not any sort of clue as to the direction of album number three.

[edit] Golf Records & Hell Is For Heroes

In February 2007 Hell is for Heroes began their UK and Ireland tour, before heading out to tour the rest of Europe. A new song entitled "You've got Hopes" was placed on the bands Myspace page late January. The opening track to their recent gigs, it appears thus far, to be the lead single off the new album.

On the 23rd of April the band released the tracklisting of the new album on their official site[5]. At the same time, a release date for the new album was also confirmed as being the 11th of June, with the band's website updated to feature the cover-art and new graphics.

The band's third, eponymous album was released on Golf Records and garnered mixed reactions from fans with some appreciating the darker tone and others preferring to take their time with it. It received little media attention and was mainly listened to by those who already appreciated the band's music.

However reviews and interviews in Kerrang! brought the album to a wider audience and the band embarked upon a K! "Most Wanted"-sponsored tour throughout June playing the Barfly venues up and down the UK. The tour was well-received by fans and featured a mixture of the new material and songs off Transmit Disrupt. On several occasions the band's encore consisted of the entire Neon Handshake album, played in sequential order.

[edit] October 2007 Announcement

On the 25th of October 2007 as Hell Is For Heroes kicked off their Autumn tour, the band circulated an announcement which, in part, stated:

Our forthcoming hop around the UK will be our last full length stint on the road before the reunion tour in 2037. We're up for spending more time at home working on other projects and potentially a fourth album if we can beat our last effort. Plus we reckon 7 years in the van is a fair stretch by any standards.[6]

The band were forced to cancel three dates at the end of the 2007 tour (Cardiff, London, Tilburg) due to illness[7].

[edit] May 2008 Announcement

On the 1st May 2008, band member William McGonagle wrote on the bands website:

yo folks. we haven't split up, we are all just busy with other things at the moment. we are constantly talking about playing a london show and working on a new record. there are new songs floating around and they are amazing Cool thanks for still giving a shit about us[8]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles

Year Title Chart Positions Album
UK Singles Chart UK Download Chart
2001 "Sick Happy/Cut Down" - - The Neon Handshake
2002 "You Drove Me To It" 63 - The Neon Handshake
2002 "I Can Climb Mountains" 41 - The Neon Handshake
2002 "Night Vision" (2CD) 38 - The Neon Handshake
2003 "You Drove Me To It" (reissue) (2CD) 28 - The Neon Handshake
2003 "Retreat" (2CD) 39 - The Neon Handshake
2003 "The Neon Handshake" (promo) - - -
2004 "Models For The Programme" 54 - Transmit Disrupt
2004 "One Of Us" 71 - Transmit Disrupt
2004 "Kamichi" 72 - Transmit Disrupt
2007 "You've Got Hopes" - - Hell Is For Heroes

[edit] DVDs

  • Live At The Sheffield Leadmill (2004)

[edit] Reviews

[edit] Trivia

  • The single Nightvision which appeared on The Neon Handshake is often performed live with alternative lyrics near the end of the song. Lead singer Justin said on the band's website's forum once that the recording on the album was actually a mistake.
  • Lead singer Justin runs his own label called "August Spies Collective".
  • The case for every single copy of the "One Of Us" single was hand printed by the band.
  • They have toured with the likes of Biffy Clyro, Reuben, Aereogramme, A, The Lucky Nine, Hundred Reasons, Sparta, thisGIRL, Feeder and Papa Roach.
  • They were supposed to have played some UK gigs with Glassjaw, although they pulled out due to vocalist Daryl Palumbo being rushed to hospital following a serious relapse of Crohn's Disease.
  • In an interview on the bands message boards, the drummer Joe Birch says that the band had no idea that the intro to "Out of Sight" (track 2) was still at the end of "Five Kids Go" (track 1).
  • The American band …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead are featured in the video for "Nightvision", getting out of a car towards the end.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links