Towers of London are a
punk band from
London,
England who formed in 2004. Their music mixes elements of
Rock and
heavy metal music with '77-style British
punk. The band have divided the opinions of the British music press
since their emergence in early 2004, gaining favourable reviews
from some music
news media and extremely
negative from others, to which they have occasionally been quick to
respond.
History
In 1994 a band was formed named
The Tourettes,
featuring Dirk and
Donny Tourette
(real names Francis and Patrick Brannan) the brothers had been
playing together in
garage
band since secondary school. The Tourettes played in a
glam punk style, which has been described as
"
a post Manic Street
Preachers rock 'n' roll
rush".
The band later acquired bassist Tommy Brunette and a drummer named
Snell. But in 2003 the Tourettes were disbanded.
They formed a new band
in 2004 named the Towers of London, adding a guitarist from
Morecambe
nicknamed The Rev.
Blood, Sweat and Towers
The band
signed to New York independent
record label TVT Records in early
2005 as a result of relentless touring in the United Kingdom
. On the label they have released a string of
singles, prior to their debut album being released, "
On A
Noose", "
Fuck It Up", "
How Rude She Was",
"
Air Guitar" & most recently, "
I'm A
Rat".
The music
video for the song "How Rude She
Was" was filmed in New York City
and featured women from Gotham Girls Roller Derby, an
all-girl roller derby league. Modelling themselves on Pop
group Busted, they have achieved moderate success, despite being
labelled as manufactured and false. Their small but loyal fanbase
regard them as forerunners in the punk/light pop scene.
In mid-2005, Towers of London performed at two
festivals in the United Kingdom:
Reading and Leeds Festivals and
Download Festival. The band's
performance was received well, but due to fighting backstage after
another group allegedly stole their property, they are now banned
from returning to the Download Festival. Lead singer
Donny Tourette was brought before Cambridge
Magistrates Court in June 2005 for criminal damage during a show at
Cambridge Anglia Ruskin University in February 2005. Donny was said
to have been swinging from an overhead cable which happened to pull
down a canopy and broke scaffolding. He was ordered to pay £775 of
compensation, court costs and fines.
During June 2006, Towers of London released their debut album
Blood, Sweat and
Towers. It was produced by
Stacy Jones and Bill Lefler. The
album features thirteen tracks, including the five singles they
have released to date.
TV series and Major support dates
Towers of London opened for
Guns N'
Roses on two of their 2006 summer UK tour dates, Dirk
commented; "
Guns N' Roses? What more can you say?
We're going to have it this weekend!". During the summer
of 2006 the band played on the main stage at the
Reading and Leeds Festivals.
Bravo TV are currently
airing a ten part TV series about the band, after camera crews
followed them for around for a year. The show, named simply
The
Towers of London, features footage of various performances
including the 2005
Download
Festival which saw them banned from the event. Various clips
have already been released on the Internet, one which shows members
of the band assaulting a member of the public after being provoked.
The show launched on Thursday, 19 October at 10.30 on
Bravo.
Dirk Tourette had an altercation with American band
My Chemical Romance in which he
allegedly threw a lit
cigarette at the
band's drummer
Bob Bryar at their instore
performance. Members of the band, who attended because of "
free
booze", got into a scuffle with My Chemical Romance's tour
managers.
In October 2006, Towers of London supported another of their
musical heroes, this time in the form of the
New York Dolls, on three of their UK tour
dates in London, Liverpool and Glasgow. The band have just released
their 5th Single,
I'm A Rat. It
was originally planned to be released late November 2006 but was
finally released on 12 February 2007.
Frontman
Donny Tourette joined Celebrity Big Brother 5
on 3 January 2007, at the start of the
series. He made his entrance by swearing at the crowd and
making rude gestures until he was ushered along the red carpet by
security guards. He then left the show after just 48 hours in
equally dramatic fashion, by scaling a wall to escape. Tourette
refused to serve fellow housemate
Jade
Goody (who in interviews he refers to as "The Pig") and family
after the house was divided into two sections. As he climbed over
the garden wall, Tourette said to another contestant"I'm not
waiting hand on foot, on some fucking
moron and her family".
Following this, the frontman also appeared on comedy panel game
show
Never Mind the
Buzzcocks. During the episode, Tourette turned in a hilariously
embarrassing performance during which he was the butt of repeated
jibes from host Simon Amstell. At one point he grabbed his crotch
and said to Amstell, "This is what I think of you" to which Amstell
replied "You think me a small penis?". Later, in a dreary attempt
to be controversial, Tourette began smoking. "Oh my God!", Amstell
declared, "Donny is smoking! A cigarette you can legally buy in a
shop!". After being made to look a complete fool, Tourette was
branded "as punk as Enya" after losing his temper when the results
were read out (Tourette's team had lost). It was aired a couple of
days before the Towers of London's 5th single from their debut
"
I'm a Rat" was released. A
couple of days later Tourette tried to boost his flagging profile
by making up a rumour about shagging
Leo
Sayer's wife.
The band proceeded with a full tour of the United Kingdom in
support of its release. Towers of London had a lucky escape on
February 14 2007 after a group of teenagers targeted the band with
breeze blocks. The five-piece were
chatting to a group of fans after a gig outside York Fibbers when
the incident happened. According to guitarist The Rev, Towers
drummer Snell was a whisker away from ending up in hospital. One of
the teenagers was caught and handed over to the police.
Rev and Snell leave - New album
On 13 July, it was revealed by
NME that The Rev
and Snell had left the band because they believed 'their future is
not with the band'. However, Towers of London would continue their
tour throughout July, drafting in friends Kristian Marr and Aaron
Attwood to fill the positions.
The band then retreated to prepare their second album, putting up
four songs called "The Bible", "The Towers Waltz", "Naked On The
Dancefloor" and "Start the Rupt" on their
MySpace in the meantime. Towers of London auditioned
for a drummer and lead guitar player, meeting such musicians as Ben
Taylor, (who went on to drum for the Towers at their comeback gig
in Harlow), and guitarist Tom Earl (formerly of the hard rock
groups Rope & Widow and Swallow This).
Former members Rev and Snell played with the Prodigy as part of the
live band throughout 2007. More recently they formed a new punk
outfit,
DAY 21, with frontman
Jimmy Pursey and bassist Mat Sargent from Sham
69.
Fizzy Pop
On 6 June 2008, the band played a comeback gig at the obscure Club
Quattroz (Harlow, Essex). They used school friend
James Phillips (guitar) and auditionee
Ben Taylor (drums) for the gig. The set
consisted of 4 songs from their debut album and a variety of brand
new songs. A few months later the band updated their myspace with a
selection of dates for mid-October 2008 where a mini-tour would
occur to coincide with their new album, Fizzy Pop (released
September 29). For this the band dropped Ben Taylor on drums and
took on another school friend.
The band announced in November 2008 that the second single would be
"Go Sister, Go" and will be released in early 2009.
2009 events and 'Back to Basics' Tour
By January 10th 2009 the band were ready to hit Europe again,
starting with a warm-up at the Queens Hotel in Weymouth. This
proved to be very successful as all three members of their fan-base
were re-awoken and ready for more. However, after a brief stint in
Europe the band did one more gig on May 10th. But then the band
fell silent, with updates on their myspace.
In September 2009 The Towers of London posted dates for a 'Back to
Basics' tour, suggesting that their turn towards pop had flipped
back to the old warmed over, lifeless approximation of far better
British Punk Rock from the late 1970's. An Acoustic set with Donny
and Dirk was arranged for their first gig in early October with a
second arranged for 24th October at RockFest. However, Rockfest was
canceled due to problems beyond the bands' control.
Members
Former members
- The Rev "Paul James"(Lead guitar)
(2004-2007)
- Snell "Neil Eldridge" (drums)
(2004-2007)
Stand-in Members
Discography
Albums
Singles
(*) position in the Rock Charts for week ending 7 January 2007 and
12 February 2007. May have been higher when released
originally
(**) #10 on the UK Physical Chart and #4 on the
HMV Chart
Trivia
- The name "Towers of London", was created by Dirk Tourette,
because the band do not consider themselves a part of the current
London music scene, but the band "want to tower above everyone
else from the city". It is also the name of a well-known 1950s
radio and TV production
company run by Harry Alan
Towers.
- The Rev acquired his nickname in a highschool band he had prior
to Towers of London. He got it because when he was with younger he
basically "got on stage and did his best Nikki Sixx impression". His original
nickname was "Reverend Sixx" from a friend of his, but it soon got
shortened to simply The Rev when he joined the Towers.
- Stephen King chose The Towers of
London track "I'm a Rat" as his 7th best song of 2006.
- The Rev and Snell quit the band a few days before they were
meant to be playing a gig in Newcastle, leaving the remaining
members with a limited amount of time to replace them with
"drinking buddies" Kristian Marr and Aaron Attwood.
References
- Towers of London Vs. DiS.com
- Punk rocker denies damage charges
- Oh Brother Donny Tourettes In The House (from Bucks
Free Press)
- PlayLouder
- Banned from Download
- NME.com
- YouTube.com - Thanks for the Beer, mate
- Dirk Tourette owns MCR drummer
- The Sun: Latest news from the Celebrity Big Brother
House
- BBC.co.uk
- Mirror.co.uk
- Towers Of London Almost Lose Drummer
- RepeatFanzine.co.uk
- Towers Obituary
- The Rev - Interview
- King
External links
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