McLusky

Mclusky were a three-piece group from Cardiff, Wales, who combined the energy and ethos of punk with varied dynamics and intelligent, black-humoured lyrics. The group consisted of Andy Falkous, aka Falco (vocals, guitar); Jonathan Chapple (bass, vocals) and Matthew Harding (drums). According to the band, they formed in 1996 when Andy and Matthew met at the Blackwood Miners' Institute, a venue in their home town from which they were both ejected for dressing as miners. They subsequently met Jon at Reading Festival when they caught him urinating on their tent late at night. Originally called Best, after early Beatles drummer Pete Best, the band signed to London label Seriously Groovy and released their debut record, the 3-track single Huwuno. The changed their name to mclusky in 1999 (adopting a strictly lower-case approach to the band name, album and song titles), and the following year released their first album my pain and sadness is more sad and painful than yours on the Fuzzbox label. They then signed to Too Pure records and in 2002 released their second album, mclusky do dallas, which drew critical acclaim and international attention. In 2003, drummer Matthew Harding left and was replaced by Jack Egglestone, and in 2004 they released their third album the difference between me and you is that i'm not on fire to generally positive reviews. Their second and third albums were recorded by Steve Albini, whose influence through his legendary work with bands such as Pixies, Nirvana and The Jesus Lizard, as well his own groups Big Black and Shellac, can be easily recognised in mclusky's dense, raw sound. On January 7th, 2005, mclusky disbanded. The reason for this parting has been kept private although they insist the decision was mutual. There is speculation that tensions within the group developed following the theft of their instruments and equipment during their US tour in 2004; in any case it seems likely that Chapple wanted to develop his songwriting in a different direction and would not have the opportunity to do so while part of mclusky. Following the split they released the compilation mcluskyism as a single CD ('A-sides'), and a limited triple CD version containing their a-sides, b-sides, a selection of demos and rarities, and a live recording from their last headline gig at ULU, London. Jon Chapple went on to form Shooting At Unarmed Men, while Falkous and Egglestone teamed up with former members of Jarcrew to form Future of the Left.