Dawn Of The Replicants
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| Dawn of the Replicants | |
|---|---|
| Country | Galashiels, Scotland |
| Years active | 1996– present |
| Genres | Indie rock |
| Labels | eastwest, Hungry Dog (Flying Sparks imprint), SL Records |
| Members | Dave Coyle David Little Roger Simian Mike Small Paul Vickers |
| Website(s) | [1] The Band’s Official Website |
Dawn of the Replicants are an Indie rock quintet from Galashiels described by the All Music Guide as “one of the most inventive and uncategorizable bands on the U.K. indie scene”. Four of the 1997 line-up (Pringle, Vickers, Simian and Small) had previously worked together on the short-lived Scottish music magazine, ‘Sun Zoom Spark’.
[edit] Band members
- Donald Kyle: Bass & guitar (1997 to 2000).
- Grant Prindle: Drums, keyboards & vocals (1997 to 2000).
- Roger Simian: Guitar, keyboards & vocals (1996 to present).
- Mike Small: Guitar, keyboards & vocals (1997 to present).
- Paul Vickers: lead Vocals & synth (1996 to present).
- Dave Coyle:bass and guitar (2002 to present).
- David Little:drums and vocals (2002 to present).
[edit] Biography
Initially a duo (Vickers and Simian), the band released a mail-order EP in December 1996. John Peel and Mark Radcliffe, BBC radio DJs and champions of alternative music, gave the EP substantial airplay. The band was expanded to a quintet and a second self-released single followed in the summer. The band then received offers of a deal from a number of independent record labels. They opted to sign for the major eastwest, a subsidiary of Warners. Before the close of the year, a few more EPs followed, winning accolades from the NME, and The Times newspaper declared them the ‘best new band of 1997’.
The 1998 single ‘Candlefire’, taken from the debut album, found itself onto daytime BBC Radio 1 and reached number 52 in the UK Charts. The follow up, ‘Hogwash Farm’, faltered at number 65. That summer the band played both the Glastonbury and Reading Festivals.
Before his untimely death, John Peel aired five sessions from the Dawn of Replicants. The band’s single ‘Science Fiction Freak’, taken from the second album, made John Peel’s ‘Festive 50’ in 1999. Unfortunately, the album sold less well than its predecessor and Warners dropped the band.
After a break the band returned with a third album and a live tour in 2002. Since then Dawn of the Replicants have ploughed a lonely furrow, their CDs filed under the label 'cultish obscurity'. Nevertheless, as John Aizlewood wrote in Q (magazine), “being dumped by their major label in 1999 should have finished Dawn of the Replicants. Instead they took their always cheery, slightly off-kilter pop to indieworld and carried on as if nothing (save a drastic budget reduction) had happened”.
In 2005 the band took a trip to the US to play at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. In recent years they have also recorded sessions for Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 1, Marc Riley on BBC 6 Music and enjoyed video plays on MTV2, Mojo (magazine), NME, UNCUT (magazine), and Q all carryed encouraging reviews of their fifth studio album "fangs". They're a band for underdogs everywhere and one day they may just win.
[edit] Albums
- One Head, Two Arms, Two Legs (eastwest, 1998)
- Wrong Town, Wrong Planet, Three Hours Late (eastwest, 1999)
- Touching The Propeller (Hungry Dog, 2002)
- The Extra Room (Hungry Dog, 2004)
- Fangs (SL Records, 2006)
- Bust The Trunk: The Singles (Compilation on SL Records, 2006)
