| The Blackout | |
|---|---|
The Blackout performing at Leeds Festival 2011 |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Merthyr Tydfil, Wales |
| Genres | Post-hardcore, alternative rock |
| Years active | 2003 – present |
| Labels | Fierce Panda (2006–2008) Epitaph (2009–2010) Cooking Vinyl (2011 - present) |
| Website | The Blackout |
| Members | |
| Sean Smith Gavin Butler Matthew Davies James "Bob" Davies Rhys Lewis Gareth "Snoz" Lawrence |
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The Blackout is a post-hardcore band from Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, formed in 2003. After some time backing Lostprophets on their Liberation Transmission Tour, along with Dopamine, Covergirl, Kids In Glass Houses, The Guns and Men, Women and Children, they released their first mini-album The Blackout! The Blackout! The Blackout!. In October 2007 the band released their debut album, We Are the Dynamite!. Their second record, The Best In Town was released on 25 May 2009 in Europe and 23 June 2009 in the US, both via Epitaph Records. The band recently finished recording their third album - titled "Hope", which was released on 4 April 2011.
Contents |
The band formed in 2003 "out of boredom",[1] originally called Ten Minute Preview, however after deciding to ditch their name at the time material they re-branded themselves The Blackout, the name was taken from a t-shirt saying "I survived the blackout" referring to the New York City blackout of 1977. Having performed with the likes of fellow Welsh bands, including Funeral For A Friend, Kids in Glass Houses, The Automatic and Lostprophets, as well as Reuben, Fightstar, amongst other big name bands the band released their debut mini-album The Blackout! The Blackout! The Blackout! on 23 October 2006 through Fierce Panda Records, this led to Kerrang! nominating the band for Best Newcomers. Across late November and December 2006 The Blackout accompanied Lostprophets on their UK headling tour alongside Bring Me the Horizon. The Blackout were noted for there comical use of christmas attire.[2]
Under a year later The Blackout released their debut album, We Are the Dynamite!, on 1 October 2007 through Fierce Panda records. The first single taken from it is entitled "The Beijing Cocktail" and was released on 24 September 2007. We Are the Dynamite! is the fastest selling album ever released on Fierce Panda. To coincide with the band's debut album release they announced a 14-date headline UK tour with Flood of Red and Pierce the Veil followed by joining the Taste of Chaos tour across Europe in November 2007, replacing Escape The Fate and playing alongside The Used, Rise Against, Aiden and Gallows.
The second single released from the album We Are the Dynamite! was "It's High Tide Baby!" (which features Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins) and was released via Fierce Panda on 11 February 2008. However, due to a pressing error, the A side of this single ended up being "The Beijing Cocktail" instead of "It's High Tide Baby!". After further touring across the United Kingdom and Europe, April 2008 saw The Blackout's first jaunt to USA with a short tour of the midwest supporting blessthefall ending in Bamboozle Festival in New Jersey. In May, the band played at the Give It A Name festival for the second time, this time playing on the main stage alongside acts such as Silverstein, Billy Talent and Glassjaw. They also brought along entertainment team The Fuel Girls, to support their stage presence. The Blackout also supported Story of the Year on their UK The Black Swan tour, both bands finished off the tour by playing Slam Dunk Festival in Leeds, UK. 8 September brought The Blackout's first visit to Japan playing a short 4 date stop with Alesana. On returning from Japan, The Blackout got straight on a bus to mainland Europe to tour with fellow Welshmen Attack! Attack! then returning to the UK where they were supported by The Medic Droid, We Are the Ocean and From First To Last. This tour saw The Blackout became only the third unsigned band ever to sell out the London Astoria. The previous bands being The Darkness and Enter Shikari respectively .
In 2008 the band split with record label Fierce Panda, scrapping plans to release another two singles from We Are the Dynamite! and "I Love Myself and I Wanna Live", this ultimately led to the band being signed to Epitaph Records in February 2009. After finishing up touring in 2008 the band began recording their second album, The Best in Town with A vocalist, Jason Perry at Sonic Ranch, El Paso, Texas. The rest of the vocal tracking was completed in Southend on Sea in early January. In March 2009 the band set out to LA to film a music video for their first single from The Best in Town, "Children of the Night" and for their second single, "Saves Our Selves", as well as meeting with record Label Epitaph, who are based in the US. The first single from The Best in Town, "Children Of The Night", was released on the 18 May. To promote this album, the band toured with The Urgency, Hollywood Undead and Silverstein, before playing at the Download Festival, where they ended up playing twice due to The Ghost Of A Thousand pulling out at the last minute. They played at the Hevy Music Festival on 1 August 2009 and headlined Butserfest on 12 September playing alongside Go Audio, We Are The Ocean and Attack! Attack!. They have also been confirmed to play the Kerrang! Relentless Energy Drink Tour 2010 alongside My Passion, Young Guns and All Time Low. Through Monday 16 November to Saturday 21 November The Blackout were doing band signing in major cities and towns. Having performed backing vocals on You Me At Six's 2010 album Hold Me Down, Sean Smith appeared on stage with You Me At Six, at Newport Centre on 10 March 2010, and at Brixton Academy on 20 March 2010, with Gavin Butler, during the performance of "The Consequence", both times receiving an enthusiastic reception. In June 2010, the band were confirmed to support Paramore on their one off show in Belfast in Northern Ireland. Front Woman of the band Hayley Williams said that it was an honour to have the band that they supported in 2006 on the Give It A Name Festival supporting them on their headline show. The band also toured Europe with Limp Bizkit in August 2010
On 28 September 2010, frontman Sean Smith announced that the band is was heading to the studio in preparation to record their third upcoming studio album. They finished writing the songs on 11 November 2010. On 26 November 2010, the band posted a tweet on their Twitter account, stating that the album is "all wrapped up & done recording" and that the record would be mixed next week. It has also been claimed that Smith, the band's co-vocalist, had stated that the upcoming record to be titled "Dog Porn", but later stressed out the fact that "it was all but a joke".
On 12 January 2011, Kerrang! announced the title of the upcoming third studio album was "Hope". Smith had also stated, "there's the wide-eyed hope and the negative, almost desperate meaning of the word (hope), too. The word has appeared a lot in the lyrics. The songs are also a little darker than the ones on our previous record, The Best In Town." "Hope" was released on 1 April 2011. On 13 January 2011, the band announced on the their Twitter account that they would be making an exclusive track called "Ambition is Critical" available for free download on the band's official site, on 24 January.
The Blackout supported My Chemical Romance on their World Contamination Tour (along with LostAlone), from 12 to 22 February.[3] On 1 March 2011, The Blackout released the video for Higher and Higher.[4] On 21 March 2011, it was announced that The Blackout would play the main stage at the 2011 Reading and Leeds Festivals.[5] On 30 March 2011, The Blackout started touring the Hope album with support from Texan Rock Rapper Hyro Da Hero (who appears on their track "Higher and Higher") as well as Michigan Pop-Punk band The Swellers. This was followed by a European tour supporting Funeral For A Friend and a headline appearance at Liverpool's Hub Festival. The band are scheduled to close the Merthyr Rock festival on 4 September, before embarking on a UK and European headline tour throughout October and November, with support from We Are The Ocean and Canterbury. [6] During December The Blackout made a few last stops on there tour including Oxford on sean smiths birthday.
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Album Chart[7] | ||||
| 2006 | "The Blackout! The Blackout! The Blackout!" | - | ||
| 2007 | "We Are the Dynamite!" | - | ||
| 2009 | "The Best in Town" | 38 | ||
| 2011 | "Hope" | 27 | ||
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart | UK Rock Chart | UK Indie Chart | |||
| 2007 | "Hard Slammin'" | - | 8 | - | The Blackout! The Blackout! The Blackout! |
| "The Beijing Cocktail" | 90 | - | 4 | We Are the Dynamite! | |
| 2008 | "It's High Tide Baby!" | - | - | - | |
| 2009 | "Children of the Night" | 128 | 1 | 1 | The Best in Town |
| "Save Our Selves (The Warning)" | - | 1 | 1 | ||
| "I Don't Care (This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things)" | 107 | 7 | - | ||
| 2011 | "Higher & Higher" | 171 | 2 | - | Hope |
| 2011 | "Never By Your Side" | - | - | - | |
| 2011 | "The Storm" | - | - | - | |
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