Brigade (UK band)

Infobox musical artist
Name = Brigade


Img_capt =
Background = group_or_band
Origin = flagicon|England London, England
Genre = Rock Post-hardcore
Years_active = 2003–Present
Label = Mighty Atom, Caned & Able
Associated_acts = Dorp
URL = http://www.brigadeofficial.com
Current_members = Will Simpson James Plant Naoto Hori Andrew Kearton
Past_members = Fim

Brigade are a rock band from London, England.

Origins

Brigade came together in 2003. Early gigs saw them win a battle of the bands competition at the Emergenza festival at the West One Four venue in West Kensington in May 2004 (and hence 'beating' the band that was to become GoodBooks who were then known as the Fingerprints). Their 'Safe Hands' demo gained the quartet significant interest in rock circles and in support, the quartet have been constantly touring the UK to build up a strong fanbase.Brigade released their debut EP, "Made to Wreck", on 12 September 2005. To support the release of this EP, they toured with many bands; one of which was Fightstar, whose frontman (Charlie Simpson) is Will's younger brother.

Lights

Brigade released their debut album "Lights" on May 29, 2006 in the UK. "Lights" received impressive reviews from the press receiving 8/10 from NME, 4/5 from Kerrang and 8/10 from Rock SoundFact|date=March 2007.

The band's first single, "Magneto" was released on May 5, 2006 in the UK. It charted at number 134 in the UK top 200 and in the indie chart and reached No.3 in the rock chart. It was released in support of and 2 weeks before "Lights". Their second single, "Meet Me At My Funeral" was released on August 21, 2006, achieving No. 4 in the UK rock chart. Following the release of their second single, Brigade went on a co-headlining tour with Disco Ensemble as well as supporting Hawthorne Heights at their London show.

Brigade embarked on a tour of the UK with InMe in October 2006. The tour diary is available on Brigade's Blog on their myspace site. In support of the tour, Brigade released a video for their third single from "Lights". The video was for the song "Guillotine" and was available to see on the Sky music channel Scuzz from 20 October 2006. As with their previous 2 music videos, the "Guillotine" video is available to stream on their label's (Mighty Atom) website. The debut album was also re-released on 30th October 2006. The re-release includes a second CD including promo videos for the songs "Magneto", "Meet Me At My Funeral" and "Go Slow" as well as having some live videos of the band.

In early 2007, "Lights" was voted into the Top 10 Albums of 2006 in the Rock Sound Readers' Poll.

'Come Morning We Fight'

The Band is currently preparing to record their second album. A new demo of a song called "Yes It Is" has been made available to listen to on their website. Over early 2007, the band have also put up two more demos, "Res Head" (premiered live on one of their previous tours) and "Asinine" (also premiered as Untitled #3). The band also plan to perform new material at the Camden Purple Turtle, in April 2007. On the 21st May 2007 Fim announced he was leaving the band and was soon replaced by Andrew Kearton (ex- Bassknives). The band is currently preparing to record their second album while searching for a new record label.As of 02/12/07 it has been confirmed that Brigade have set up camp and are recording the second album at Monnow Valley Studios in Wales. Chris Sheldon (Oceansize, Biffy Clyro will also be talking on Producing and Mixing duties.The band have so far finished recording two songs in the first full week of recording and hope to get the album out early 2008.You can check out video diary and photo's from the studio on the band's myspace page.

On the 16th January 2008, through their myspace site Brigade announced the title of their second album to be 'Come Morning We Fight'. Although an exact release date has yet to be given, the band did announce the album will be released in the spring. Also they announced that they wil be releasing a download only single on the 25th February 2008 called "Shortcuts".

On the 5th February 2008, the band put up in a myspace blog, pictures from the latest music video they have been shooting. The band have announced the video is for the first single off of "Come Morning, We Fight", called "Pilot".

On the 23rd February "Shortcuts" was made available to download for free from the bands website. It was also put on the bands myspace site, along with clips of new songs "Pilot" and "Slow Dives And Alibis".

The video for "Pilot" recently debuted on MTV2 in the UK Rock Chart during April, with the single release on May 5th, and the album "Come Morning We Fight" following on May 12th.

The band embarked with Fightstar and We Are The Ocean on the Ride The Deathcar tour during May to promote the release of their second album. During this time, the band also announced the release of a double A-Side single of Sink Sink Swim/Stunning.

Videos have been shot during June for the double A-Side.

Members

* Will Simpson - Vocals / Guitar
* James Plant - Guitar / Vocals
* Naoto Hori - Bass
* Andrew Kearton - Drums

Former Members

*Nathaniel Finbow - Drums (2004 - 21/5/2007)

Discography

Demos

*Early Sessions Demo
*Acoustic CD
*Safe Hands Demo

EP's

Trivia

*Will Simpson is the oldest brother of Fightstar frontman Charlie Simpson, and Prego frontman Edd Simpson.
*Brigade were nominated for Best British Newcomer at the 2006 Kerrang Awards, but lost to Bring Me the Horizon.

External links

* [http://www.brigadeofficial.com/stunning/ Official Brigade Website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/brigade Brigade at MySpace]
* [http://www.dailydischord.com/single.php?id=3076 Daily Dischord Interview With Will Simpson]
* [http://fan.drinkingsouls.co.uk/brigade Official Brigade Fanlisting]
* [http://www.the-mag.me.uk/Music/Bands/?Band=Brigade&BandId=26 Brigade Reviews on The Mag]