Bletchley Band ACTION BEAT Sign to Truth Cult Imprint Label |
 FACT 1 - In Superman IV scenes of Metropolis were filmed in Milton Keynes, which is in turn a city that was built on top of two towns in the seventies, Bletchley being one of them.FACT 2 - The Government Code and Cypher School where the German Enigma Code was cracked is based in Bletchley Park FACT 3 - Bletchley is the home to the UK's hottest noise band, ACTION BEAT Members Don Mclean and James Carney wanted to start something and rather than flock to the Big Smoke like most, the pair began a label (Fortissimo Records) in Bletchley and started putting on shows at Bletchley Youth Club to support their friends and bands they love. Clearly proud of their roots and the community they built, Don and James along with Pete Taylor, Lewis Webb and Jake Burton also formed Action Beat. Action Beat's warped guitars wrench, twist, bend and distort like a contortionist, add to that abrasive off beat drums that frequently change tempo. Instrumental guitar driven music has not sounded this explosive in years! It is unsurprising that they cite their main influences as Sonic Youth, Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham and other avant guitar ensembles. Action Beat and Southern share a mutual admiration, Action Beat have long been fans of the label and what Southern stand for and we at Southern admire their passion, motivation and unbounded determination. Their music captivated us when we first heard the demo and their live show left us astounded. The band are also no strangers to the recording studios at Southern having funded previous sessions there themselves. It seemed to make perfect sense to cement this instantaneous bond by signing them. BIO TEXTAction Beat is an improvised noise/no-wave punk band from Bletchley (Milton Keynes), heavily inspired by early Sonic Youth, The EX, Glenn Branca and other avant guitar ensembles. When it comes to Action Beat, improvisation is the operative word, as although the band comprises a core of around five musicians, their cast can expand to as many as fourteen for the live shows. A normal gig will have at least three guitarists, a bassist and between one to four drummers. Musically they emulate the intensity of Fugazi and possess a touring ethos of Black Flag, hence, playing constantly. The whirlwind shows are the band's secret weapon and so far they have gained much recognition in the UK and Europe, by doing things in the only way they know how, by doing it themselves.Action Beat was conceived by Don Mclean and James Carney in 2004, as a tribute to the various drum and bass spazz outfits emerging around this time. Although they were extremely incompetent musicians, the band played a hell of a lot of gigs, adorned in comedy outfits. Their sporadic, nonsensical noise shows would on average last about ten minutes and usually end with the skinny, half naked frame of James Carney jumping into the beat-up, mangled mess of Don Mclean’s drum kit. After continuing for some twenty shows as a drum and bass act, James and Don switched to guitars, incorporated a drum machine to punctuate that freak out guitar frenzies, cranked up the amps to preposterous volume, abused delay pedals, ditched the comedy costumes and laid the foundations for wall of sound which is now recognizable at Action Beat shows. The band played many shows from 2004-2006, including a rather memorable Christmas Day show in which they hosted a number of short ad hoc gigs around Bletchley and Milton Keynes in front of a handful of dedicated supporters. During a touring period with Parts and Labor in 2006 Action Beat recruited the help of James Walsh on drums and Pete Taylor on bass, it was at this time that they decided to draft in a live drummer for all their shows, like pied pipers they recruited a collection of wonderful drummers, special mentions are given to the following: Jake Burton, James Walsh, Danny Hawkins and Beanie. In 2007, more adjustments were made to the line-up with the addition of Lewis Webb on bass guitar and Pete Taylor moving to Baritone. Action Beat first recorded at Southern Studios in January 2007 as a five piece, they turned up to the studio with nothing rehearsed and improvised two songs; ‘More Hookie’ and ‘Maximum Bletchley’. The same year they recorded three more improvised songs at Southern; ‘Tay’, ‘Justice Yeldham’ and ‘Daddy Thirsty’, this time integrating Saxophone, Trumpet and Violin into the sound. Their first record, ‘1977-2007 – Thirty Years of Hurt, Then Us Cunts Exploded’ was made up of five songs recorded at Southern in two days, and a re-mix of ‘Maximum Bletchley’ by their friend Destructo Swarmbots. Having toured constantly throughout the UK and across Europe, Action Beat have played somewhere in the region of 200 gigs, and with many notable bands including: Do Make Say Think, Dalek, Oxes, ZU, Usaisamonster, Bilge Pump, Destructo Swarmbots, OVO and many more. Needless to say Action Beat is completely DIY, and dedicated to being a true punk band. In their words, their main goal is “to play as many shows as we possibly can” and before now their main goals were to play as many shows as they possibly could and sign to one of their favourite record labels, our very own Southern Records. In October, the band will release their second album on ‘Truth Cult’, which is a new imprint through Southern. Dreams do come true! |
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www.southern.net
www.myspace.com/actionbeat
Tour dates! Release dates! Everything!
Better download those myspace demos before they vanish.