The Silencers (band)

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The Silencers

Origin	Scotland
Years active	1987–present
Genres	Alternative guitar pop
Labels	RCA
Members	Jimme O'Neill (Vocals/Guitar) Cha Burns (guitar) Joseph Donnelly (Bass) Martin Hanlin (Drums)

The Silencers are a Scottish rock band formed in London in 1986. Their music is characterized by a melodic blend of pop, folk and traditional Celtic influences. Often compared to Scottish bands with a similar sound like Big Country, Del Amitri and The Proclaimers, The Silencers have distinguished themselves with their eclectic sounds, prolific output and continued career. Their first single, "Painted Moon," was a minor international hit and invited critical comparisons to Simple Minds and U2. In 1987 they released their first album A Letter From St. Paul, which included "Painted Moon" and another minor hit, "I See Red." Buoyed by the huge European hit "Bulletproof Heart," the band's third album Dance to the Holy Man is the band's commercial peak to date. In the 1990s The Silencers saw popular taste shift away from their songwriter-based style of music toward grunge and electronic music. They released a regular stream of albums, but have struggled to capture more than a cult-size fanbase.

1 History
2 Discography
3 Sources and outside links

[edit] History

Before forming The Silencers, vocalist Jimme O'Neill and guitarist Cha Burns were active in London's new wave music scene. O'Neill wrote songs for Paul Young and Lene Lovich, while Burns played guitar in Adam & The Ants.

[edit] 1980s

In 1979 they met and formed a post-punk/new wave project called Fingerprintz [1], and released three albums under that moniker: The Very Dab, Distinguishing Marks, and Beat Noir. They earned some critical recognition and notable appearances on John Peel's radio show and the BBC's In Concert radio series. The group split in 1985. Then O'Neill formed a duo with electropop singer Jacqui Brookes and they released two singles in 1983: "Haunted Cocktails" and "Lost Without Your Love." When Brookes subsequently released solo album Sob Stories, O'Neill wrote or co-wrote a majority of the tracks and played guitar and other instruments on the album.

Soon O'Neill and Burns were playing music together again, this time joined by drummer Martin Hanlin and bass player Joseph Donnelly, a cousin of Simple Minds singer Jim Kerr. After considering band names like "My Granny's Green Chair" and "The Hot Dog From Hell," they settled on "The Silencers." In September 1986 they began to tour Europe and the United Kingdom. They demoed three new songs at Scarf Studios in London: "Painted Moon," "I See Red," and "I Can't Cry." The demos earned them a contract with RCA, and their song "Painted Moon," about O'Neill's personal reaction to the Falklands War, was included on the soundtrack to the film The Home Front, and then released as their first single in April 1987. Their first album A Letter from St. Paul included re-recorded versions of all three demos. The Pretenders invited the band to support them on their European tour, and then the success of Painted Moon across the pond induced a tour of America on their own, and later with Squeeze.

In 1988 The Silencers toured Europe with The Alarm and Painted Moon became a radio hit in Britain. The band moved back to Scotland and recorded second album A Blues for Buddha at CaVa Studios in Glasgow, with Flood producing. The standout tracks were "Scottish Rain," about love and fallout from Chernobyl, and "The Real McCoy," which became a fan favorite. The band then toured Europe with Simple Minds for four months, culminating with a stadium show at Wembley in front of 80,000.

[edit] 1990s

After the tour, the band began work on third album Dance to the Holy Man, but personal conflict derailed the process. Joseph Donnelly and Martin Hanlin left the band, and were replaced by Tony Soave on drums and Lewis Rankine on bass. The album, a departure from the band's "guitar-based atmosphere pop," [2] was recorded during the summer of 1990. It included funk, blues, and Celtic strains. Single "Bulletproof Heart" became a big hit in Spain and France, where the band had a huge success at that time, but album sales lagged back in the United Kingdom. Jinky "JJ" Gilmour joined the band as a second vocalist before another tour of Europe, and Stevie Kane joined the band, replacing Rankine during the tour due to presonality conflict.

Deeply in debt to RCA and not having the expected success in England, The Silencers were in danger of being dropped by their label despite their success throughout Europe. However, after label representatives saw an impressive live show they allowed the band to begin work on fourth album Seconds of Pleasure. [3] Single "I Can Feel It" is, true to form, a hit in Europe and ignored in England. Without tour support from RCA, the band financed its own tour to Switzerland, France and Scotland.

In 1994 The Silencers signed to new labels: Permanent for Britain and BMG for France. That summer they recorded the song "Wild Mountain Thyme," featuring O'Neill's daughter Aura on vocals. It became a hit in Scotland after featuring in a tourism board advertising campaign. Soon after, they completed fifth album So Be It.

After a mid-1995 tour of Europe, Gilmour and Soaves left the band. Jim McDermott of the Kevin McDermott Orchestra joined on drums and Aura McNeill became a permanent member of the band. The year 1996 brought the release of singles comilation Blood & Rain, and The Silencers took several years off from recording.

In 1999 the band worked on seventh album Receiving, which was financed by money from festival appearances in Europe. Speaking of the new record, O'Neill said, "Some of the new tracks were recorded as if this was a different band. I wanted to forget about everything we'd done before and some of what came out reminded me of Fingerprintz - new wave for the nineties!" [4] The experimental nature of the songs, he said, was inspired by the influence of Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and Charles Bukowski.

[edit] 2000s

In 2001 the band released their first live album, A Night of Electric Silence, recorded in Glasgow in 2000, with McDermott on drums, Kane on bass, Phil Kane on keyboards, O'Neill on guitar and vocals, Milla on violin and Aura O'Neill on vocals.

In November 2004 Come was released, featuring standout tracks "Siddharta," "Let It Happen" and "Head."

Today, most of the band's albums are out of print and available only at inflated prices.

The band are set to reform with all members from the bands history for shows in Glasgow at the ABC to raise money for Cha Burns who has been diagnosed with Cancer.

The mythical Cha Burns passed away on March 26. It is a great loss for the music world. Planet before Profit, as he used to say...

[edit] Discography

[edit] Full-length Albums

A Letter From St. Paul, (1987) RCA PD 71336	A Blues for Buddha, (1988) RCA PD 71859	Dance to the Holy Man, (1991) PD 74924	Seconds of Pleasure, (1993) RCA 74321 14113 2
So Be It, (1995) BMG France 74321 25231 2	Receiving, (1999) Uncanny Records CANNYCD1	A Night of Electric Silence, (2001) Last Call, Wagram Music 3068202	Come, (2004) Keltia Musique KMCD 157