| Send More Paramedics | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Leeds, Yorkshire, UK |
| Genres | Crossover thrash |
| Years active | 2001–2007 |
| Labels | In At The Deep End, 30 Days of Night |
| Associated acts | And None of Them Knew They Were Robots The Nothing The Wireless Stores The Minor Fall |
| Website | http://sendmoreparamedics.com |
| Past members | |
| B'Hellmouth Medico X Undead El Diablo |
|
Send More Paramedics were a horror film-influenced crossover thrash band from Leeds in the north of England.
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The name is a reference to the 1985 horror/comedy Return of the Living Dead. The band originally formed as a side project of Leeds band And None of Them Knew They Were Robots, but have gained a higher profile than And None of Them Knew They Were Robots, who have since split up.
The band played in the 1980s crossover style, what they described as "Zombiecore...a fusion of 80s thrash and modern hardcore punk",[1] with lyrics about zombies and cannibalism, and are heavily influenced by zombie movies. On-stage, they dress as zombies and the drummer dons a Mexican wrestling mask (a homage to the character in Brian Clement's Meat Market films with whom he also shares the name El Diablo). As part of this on-stage persona, band members claim to be members of the living dead.
The band performed at the 2005 Download Festival, the 2006 Reading and Leeds Festivals,[2] were one of the first acts confirmed for 2006's Damnation Festival and were the opening act for Avenged Sevenfold at the Camden Underworld. They also toured as support to The Offspring. Their live show was described by Drowned in Sound as "brilliantly ghoulish" and "mouth-agape entertainment of the highest quality".[3][4]
Disc 2 of the 2006 album, The Awakening, is a concept disc, a zombie movie soundtrack, similar to the soundtrack in George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead.
They won the 'fresh meat' competition on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show, leading to a "Guerilla Gig Live" performance on BBC Three.[1] The band's third album, The Awakening, featured guest appearances from Jeff Walker and Ken Owen from Carcass.[2]
The band announced their impending split in a Myspace blog in June 2007, which read:
| “ | Dear Mortals,
Send More Paramedics will be playing their last show on 27 October 2007 at Joseph's Well in Leeds. We will be honouring all the commitments we have made up to that date. It's been 6 years but our zombie corpses are finally rotting to the point at which we can continue no more. A million thanks to you all. Yours faithfully, SMP x |
” |
Send More Paramedics have made three music videos so far, "Zombie Crew," "Nothing Tastes Like This," and "Blood Fever," which is the third and most recent. The promo for "Blood Fever" was released February 16, 2007 on the director's site: [1]. The video is inspired loosely by the '80s horror film Night of the Demons and was directed by Adam Powell.
Many Send More Paramedics songs reference zombie movies. Below is a table outlining these references. (incomplete)
| Song | Reference |
|---|---|
| The Hordes | The chorus, "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth," is the Dawn of the Dead tagline. |
| The Pain of Being Dead | The name of this song references a line in the movie Return of the Living Dead, in which the character "Ernie Kaltenbrunner" asks a rotting zombie woman who has been torn in 2 and tied down to an embalming table about why they eat people, the zombie states "not people, brains", they eat brains. Ernie asks why they eat brains and the half zombie says "the pain". Ernie asks "what about the pain" and she answers "the pain of being dead". |
| The Night Has a Thousand Eyes | This is a cover of the theme music to The Return of the Living Dead. |
| Zombie vs Shark | This is a reference to the movie Zombie Flesh Eaters by Lucio Fulci, in which a female scuba diver witnesses an altercation between a shark and a member of the undead. |
| Burning the Body | This is a reference to Zombie Flesh Eaters 2, in which the corpses of the deceased return to the world of the living as a result of burning one of the infected cadavers. The lyric "zombies stumble through the traffic" refers to the final scene of Zombie Flesh Eaters in New York, where the undead plague a bridge, and due to budget restrictions, the film makers couldn't afford to have the traffic stopped. Also, a sample from the movie can be heard at the start of the track. |
| Follow Your Programming | This is a reference to the movie Zombie Flesh Eaters 2, in which the military blocks off the zombie infestation using force. |
| Resurrection Cemetery | This song is a reference to Return of the Living Dead, about a specific scene in the film where a gang of 'punks' go to congregate in the local cemetery (bearing the name "Resurrection Cemetery" on its gates). Later on, zombies begin to crawl out from their graves and hunt down the gang. |
| Brains | Opens with a sample of dialog from Return of the Living Dead Part II ("They want brains? We'll give 'em brains.") |