| The Vespas | |
|---|---|
The Vespas (L2R Danny, Mikey, Johnny & Aaron) |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Coatbridge |
| Genres | Post-punk revival, indie rock, alternative rock, rock n' roll |
| Years active | Feb 2009–present |
| Labels | Unsigned |
| Website | The Vespas Myspace |
| Members | |
| Aaron McIntosh Danny Costello Johnny Lynn Mikey Dornan |
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The Vespas are a rock 'n' roll four-piece from Coatbridge, Scotland. The bands sound has a mixture of blues and punk to define their sound. The Vespas include Danny Costello - Vocals, Johnny Lynn - guitar, Mikey Dornan - drums and vocals and Aaron McIntosh - bass.
The band have known each other all throughout their high school years. The band started when Danny and Johnny started writing songs, before asking Aaron to join in November 2008 and playing as a 3-piece before inviting Mikey to join in February 2009 to complete the line-up. The Band promoted and played their first gig to a sell-out crowd on 6 March 09 in the The Barrowlands 2, Glasgow.
Since then the band have gone on to play venues up and down the country including a few more sell-out gigs at venues like The O2ABC, The Classic Grand and Glasgow's famous King Tut's Wah Wah Hut. They have also played the Coatbridge St Patricks Day festival after winning battle of the bands two years in row, continuing to show their prominent status in the community.
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The band members met in High school although had known each other well before starting the band. They created a lot of hype while still in school with their first promotional campaign marketing their upcoming Barrowlands. They created pin badges emblazoned with their band logo, which struck up a lot of local interest and media attention.
In February 2009 after the Barrowlands debut gig was secured, their home town was plastered with posters promoting gig. Eventually after all the interest, the band played their first gig to a sold-out venue on the 6th March. The gig went down a storm and since then the band have went on to write and record "Satisfied" & "Back To The Start".
Shortly after that they started gigging non-stop playing venues all over the UK, including Manchester's Jabez Clegg in the UK2USA , Battle of The Bands competition, which they also excelled in and got to the final. The final was broadcasted live on Sky TV's propeller, channel 195. The band returned to their hometown Coatbridge Where they took part in the St. Patrick's Day Battle of The Bands in Essence which they won. The prize was £500 and a slot on the main stage in the Coatbridge St. Patrick's Day Festival which was voted in the world's top 10 St. Patrick's Day Festivals. The band also won another local competition to have their tracks were played on Lanarkshire's L107 Radio Station, the DJ asked listeners to vote for the favourite band he played over the course of a week. The votes were through text and inevitably, the band won and played to a massive crowd of 2000 people at their local Strathclyde Country Park for the Stereofunk festival. They also were in the City Sounds competition which got them coverage in the Evening Times Newspaper.[1] After coverage in this paper the local papers wanted a piece of The Vespas, and the Coatbridge & Airdrie Advertiser printed stories as well as the courier in Dundee.[2]
The Coatbridge music scene used to be really healthy, with lots of bands playing regularly but this all stopped and it was that way for years. Back in 1968 Robert Plant and John Bonham played in the Marion Hall in Coatbridge with their band 'Band of Joy' before forming Led Zeppelin. Other artists have came out of Coatbridge include Hue and Cry, Marmalade and The Silencers, but in recent years there hadn't been little going on until The Vespas came along. They have brought the buzz back to the music scene and have got the ball rolling again, through setting up local gigs for the first time in years. The music scene needs a good, strong band that strives for the best, they are a very important part of the scene and especially in Coatbridge as they are the band who have brought the life back into their hometown. The Vespas inspiration has saw the number of bands in the area increase. There is a real place for the band in the music industry and even in the charts. They proved this when the Debut E.P 'Higher' shot straight to the top of Play.com's Download Chart.[3]
The Vespas are known for their exciting and Energetic live performances, and have built up a solid fan base due to their constant, heavy gigging schedule. Since that first sell out gig in the Barrrowlands the band have played over 150 gigs in the space of 2 years. Sometimes the band would play 4 gigs a weekend as they proved on the 3/07/09 when they played Cosmopol Glasgow, then on the 4th they travelled to Manchester to play The Boom Boom Rooms only to come back home to Glasgow to play the ferry that night then on Sunday the 5th they headed up to Sauciehall Street in the heart of Glasgow to play the famous Nice 'n' Sleazy. Just a few weeks after that, the band were asked to play ABC Glasgow for Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy,[4] they snapped up the opportunity as all money from the gig was going to a good cause. The next milestone for the band was when DF Concerts got in touch with them to ask if they wanted their first major support slot, it was to play alongside Twisted Wheel, who only 5 months before that had supported Oasis, The Enemy and Kasabian on their World Tour; They also have supported one of the boys main influences, the modfather himself Paul Weller. The gig was at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut and great success for the band.
More Recently the band sold out their allocation of tickets for King Tut's again, playing with fellow Coatbridge band The Regiment and solo man, Pete MacLeod. After proving a hit in and out Coatbridge live The Vespas gained for publicity and more respect in the headlines and on the net; receiving reviews from the likes of YRock online! [5] Continuing the band's charity work, they played in The CourtYard bistro in Kenmore, Aberfeldy for Macmillan Cancer Support, the concert raised over £1000 and the band gave it all to the charity.[6][7] Then In February 2010 the band were asked to play again with fellow Coatbridge man Pete MacLeod for his single launch at Pivo Pivo in Glasgow, in the crowd were Rab Allan Guitarist of Glasgow band Glasvegas who expressed his enjoyment of the vespas set, along with music hotshot Alan McGee who was also at the gig told the band privately after the gig "I loved the set, really enjoyed it. If this was 15 years ago, you would definatley be signed".[8] After mingling with people in the business the band again realised their capability.
In May 2009 the band took their instruments to Glasgow's Lofi Studios where bands such as: The Strokes, Simple Minds, The Ting Tings, Twin Atlantic & The Dykeenies have also recorded. The band played a sort of live session to put down some guide tracks for drummer Mikey to put down the drum parts of the bands first two recorded songs 'Satisfied' & 'I'll Make You Mine', after that Johnny and Aaron then lay down the guitar parts for Danny to then finish the recording process with his vocals. The songs were mixed and mastered that night for the boys to go back to Coatbridge with their first CD cut. These tracks were uploaded to the bands myspace and bebo websites and they are the songs that managed to get the band their next run of gigs.
The bands next recording was for a compilation CD of coatbridge and airdrie bands which the proceeds were to go to charity. The Recording took place at the '@Home Centre in Airdrie'
The next time the band recorded was in November 2010, they were approached by 'Soundwave Studios' in their hometown Coatbridge. The studio had just started up their own independent record label and wanted The Vespas to be their first project as there was a big buzz about the band around coatbridge at the time. The Vespas accepted the offer and went straight into the studio to get started on their debut E.P, in the same sessions the lads also recorded an extra track and the studio then wanted to release the track as a single.[9]
After the EP The Vespas played some sold out gigs for the local charity. The bands guitarist and bassist Johnny Lynn and Aaron McIntosh took some time out to focus on there side project. Another four piece band called KiLL SuRRRF(sic); A lo-fi style, with Johnny on vocals and Aaron on guitar with Steven Selkirk on bass & local drummer Michael Sheridan, they have had a few gigs including one supporting Times New Viking. The Vespas released their latest single "Along the line" in late 2011. The song was first played when headlining the O2 Academy Glasgow.[10]
| Date | Title | Label | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th Dec 2010 | Higher | Soundwave Records | CD, Digital Download |
| Date | Title | Label | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th Dec 2010 | "Lucifer" | Soundwave Records | CD, Digital Download |