Hope&Social

Hope and Social
Background information
Origin Leeds, England
Genres Alternative rock
Melodramatic pop
Labels Alamo Music
Associated acts Four Day Hombre
Members
Simon Wainwright
Rich Huxley
Ed Waring
Simon Goff
Gary Stewart
James Hamilton
Past members
Mark Ashwell
Jason Miller

Hope and Social are a six-piece (plus) rock band based in Leeds, England. Formed in 2008 They've released 3 albums in under three years and are known to tour extensively. Hope and Social are characterised by their "Pay What You Want" approach to their music and are known for their speciality events.

In July 2008, Hope and Social released their first EP with a full-length album to follow. On October 7, 2008, the band appeared on Channel M, a TV station based in Manchester.

On June 3, 2009, the band released their new album, Architect of this Church. The album was in the making for 2 years and took over 16000 man hours to record. It is currently available to purchase on their website, where fans can buy the album for however much they think it is worth.

In 2009 the band performed twice at Glastonbury as finalists in Glastonbury's Emerging Talent Competition.

In April 2010, Hope and Social released April, their second full length album. This is the first album to feature fully the current line-up of the band. The band blogged about the recording of the album here.

In May 2011, Hope and Social's third studio album Sleep Sound was released and immediately rose to No.1 on bandcamp.com. The band have again blogged the about the recording and writing of the album here.

Contents

Members

Four Day Hombre

March 13, 2006 saw the nationwide release of their debut album, Experiments in Living, as Four Day Hombre and through their own record label, Alamo Music.

The publicity activities accompanying the release of this album, along with the unusual history of Alamo Music, raised the profile of the band considerably during 2006. On February 7, 2006 they played a half-hour session on the Janice Long show on BBC Radio 2, which featured a number of live acoustic performances as well as a discussion with the band. The album release was followed by a tour of Barfly venues around Britain.

In the autumn of 2006 they toured the UK supporting Embrace and released the mini-album Fight Death. A tour of Canada was completed in March 2007, to support the release of Experiments in Living in that country. The tour included support slots for Canadian bands The Marble Index and The Miniatures.

On May 15, 2008, it was announced by the band that they were changing their name to Hope and Social, stating "same line-up, but with a different approach and sound".


Self-recorded demo, 2000. Available on CD only; no catalogue number.

Track listing
  1. "Tenth White Lie"
  2. "Crying Shame"
  3. "Christina's Song"
  4. "Poor Substitute"
  5. "Little Ditty"
  6. "It's Happening to Me"
  7. "Oh Katherine"

Live 2000

Self-recorded demo, 2000. Available on CD only; no catalogue number.

Track listing
  1. "Needed to Know"
  2. "Small Talk"
  3. "Don't Tell Me Now"
  4. "Waiting for the Sun"
  5. "Allow Me"
  6. "Trace My Way"
  7. "Friends Like You"
  8. "Children's Shoes"

Official Hope and Social releases

As Four Day Hombre

Alamo Music

Alamo Music is the first ever fan funded, fan owned record label, created in 2004 as a conduit for Four Day Hombre's music.

A number of fans of the band invested the capital necessary to formalise the label, and to finance the recording and marketing of the FDH debut album "Experiments in Living". They hence became shareholders in Alamo. This 'fan-funded' approach has produced significant publicity for the band in national and regional press. For example, an article concerning the label and its formation was featured on the front page of the BBC website on March 13, 2006, the day of release of Experiments in Living.

The name Alamo was chosen in reference to the Battle of the Alamo. A quote from William Barret Travis, commander of the Texan forces at this battle, is printed on the inside of Experiments in Living: "I shall have to fight the enemy on his own terms."

External links