| Fred | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Cork, Ireland |
| Genres | Indie Pop Rock |
| Years active | 2000 – Present |
| Labels | RCM Music, United For Opportunity |
| Website | Official Site |
| Members | |
| Joseph O'Leary Jamie Hanrahan Jamin O'Donovan Carolyn Goodwin Justin O'Mahony |
|
Fred are a five-piece Irish alternative band from Cork. They have released four albums, the latest of which, Leaving My Empire, was released in Ireland in 2011.
Contents |
The Fred EP was released in 2000. A debut album, Can't Stop, I'm Being Timed was released in 2002. The single "October", released in 2004, was taken from their second album. Two follow-up singles taken from the album were released in 2005: "Summer's Coming" and "Four Chords and the Truth".[1]
Fred released their second album, Making Music So You Don't Have To independently to a sold-out Cork Opera House in 2005. It peaked at #70 in the Irish Albums Chart, spending one week there.[2] The single "Good One" (which eventually appeared on their third album) was released in June 2007 and gained huge support from both national and international radio stations.[3]
Fred's third album, Go God Go was released in Ireland on R.C.M Music the bands own label and distributed via Faction Records on 30 May 2008[4] and via United For Opportunity in the U.S. in 2009. The album was recorded in Love Tap Studios in Ireland and mixed by Mark Wallis in London. It spent a total of two weeks on the Ireland Albums Top 75, climbing as far as #30 in the Irish Albums Chart.[5] The singles, "Skyscrapers" (released 16 May 2008)[6] and "Running" (released 8 August 2008)[7] received a significant amount of airplay on national radio during the summer of 2008. A third single from the album, "The Lights" was released in Ireland on 14 November 2008. Fred performed at a number of Irish festivals including Electric Picnic 2008 and Hard Working Class Heroes. They played their debut show in Canada at NXNE in June 2008[8][9] and played at Pop Montreal and the Halifax Pop Explosion to support their Go God Go's album's release in Canada in October.[10] Their cover of the Irene Cara song "Fame", recorded on The Ray D'Arcy Show on Today FM, featured on Even Better Than the Disco Thing released in December 2008.
On 20 January 2009, it was reported that thousands of euro worth of equipment owned by the band had been stolen from their van parked across from Anglesea Garda Station in Cork, just as the band were to begin a North American tour.[11] The missing gear was recovered within 48 hours.[12] The following week, Fred appeared on The Cafe on 30 January 2009, where reference was made to the incident and it was explained that the "amateur" thieves had attempted to pawn the weapons off only to be foiled by leaving their addresses in the shop.[13] The band played their single "Good One" on Tubridy Tonight on 21 March 2009.[14]
Fred's product has been used by the BBC amongst others as theme music to television shows.[15] The single "Skyscrapers" was awarded iTunes Canada's influential "Single of the Week" accolade in October 2008.[16] In January 2009, the band were nominated in the Hope for 2009 category at the Meteor Music Awards. They have performed at festivals such as Oxegen, Electric Picnic and Hard Working Class Heroes. They were also the first band to perform at the renovated Thomond Park, home of Munster Rugby.
Fred were the first band to perform at the renovated Thomond Park in Limerick.[17] They played three singles, "Running", "Skyscrapers" and "Good One" before Munster played Ospreys in the quarter-final of the Heineken Cup on 12 April 2009.[17] Fred's performance at the Cork Midsummer Festival's spiegeltent on 15 June 2009 was named as "Gig of the Week" by The Irish Times.[18] Fred's early Saturday performance on the Green Spheres stage in front of a large crowd at Oxegen 2009 was described as "everything that a festival band should be–fun, energetic and visibly having a superb time".[19]
On March 19, 2010, the band were announced as one of the first acts expected to perform at that year's Indie-pendence.[20]
In November 2010, Fred travelled to Montreal to record their new album with producer Howard Bilerman (and former Arcade Fire member) at his studio Hotel2tango (Which he runs the Hotel2Tango recording studio in Montreal along with Efrim Menuck and Thierry Amar of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and A Silver Mt. Zion, and Radwan Moumneh) . Fred spent 3 weeks recording with Howard and returned to Ireland at the start of December 2010. In January 2011 they travelled to London and mixed the new record with Ben Hiller.
On April 11, 2011 the band streamed their new album Leaving My Empire on Soundcloud.[21] The album is released in Ireland on Friday, April 15, 2011, It went straight into the Irish Album charts at No. 27, and The Indie charts at No. 10.
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| IRL [22] |
UK |
||
| 2002 | Can't Stop, I'm Being Timed
|
— | — |
| 2005 | Making Music So You Don't Have To
|
70 | — |
| 2008 | Go God Go
|
30 | — |
| 2011 | Leaving My Empire
|
TBR | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | |||
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IRL | ||||||
| 2004 | "October" | – | Making Music So You Don't Have To | |||
| 2005 | "Four Chords And The Truth" | – | ||||
| "Summer's Coming" | – | |||||
| 2008 | "Skyscraper" | – | Go God Go | |||
| "Running" | – | |||||
| "The Lights" | – | |||||
| 2009 | "Good One" | – | ||||
| 2010 | "Trial By Fire" | – | Leaving My Empire | |||
| 2011 | "If Not Now When" | TBR | ||||
| "—" denotes a title that did not chart, or was not released in that territory. | ||||||
| Year | Album details |
|---|---|
| 2000 | FRED
|
In January 2009, the band were nominated in the Hope for 2009 category at the Meteor Music Awards.[23] They lost to Wallis Bird at the ceremony on 17 March 2009.[24]
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Fred | Meteor Music Award – Hope for 2009 | Nominated |