(Redirected from Billy Lunn)
'The Subways' are an
English indie rock band. Their debut album, ''
Young For Eternity'', was released on
4 July,
2005 in the UK and
February 14,
2006 in the US.
Members
★ Billy Lunn - guitar/vocals
★ Charlotte Cooper - bass/vocals
★ Josh Morgan - drums
The band have a slightly unusual line-up, consisting of fiancés (Billy Lunn and Charlotte Cooper), and also, despite the different surnames, brothers (Billy Lunn and Josh Morgan). Singer/guitarist Billy Lunn and bassist Charlotte Cooper publicly revealed their engagement to the crowd at a gig at the
Camden Barfly on
July 18 2005, but have, in fact, been engaged for several years prior to this.
[1]
History
Beginnings
The Subways began playing at an early age, at present, Billy is 23, Charlotte and Josh are both 21. The Subways began by playing
Nirvana and
punk songs in Billy and Josh's lounge, under the name of Mustardseed. They later changed their name to
Platypus, and began to tour small, local venues, such as
The Square in
Harlow, Essex. An early CD of the band playing live was recorded at The Square which they sold at gigs.
As their reputation grew, Billy in particular became annoyed with all the different names the band were coming up with. He came up with The Subways, apparently from his days hanging out. "One of the few places where I felt I could refuge and find peace in my old town of Welwyn Garden City was in a subway under the roads and pavements. I would haunt there in between breaks at work and college." Feeling the most free at that time underneath the rat-race of economic town life, he thought it only appropriate to divulge this "free essence" he felt in that subway to the band, where he felt he could truly escape from the drudgery of everyday life. It was during this time that Billy formed a closer relationship with Charlotte Cooper.
Home recordings
The band released endless demos and EPs in their early days when playing the London circuit in the UK. With every batch of new songs that The Subways would compose,
Billy Lunn would insist that the band record them. However, at such a young age the group had no money with which to go into a studio to record consistently with, so they came upon the idea of buying their own cheap recording system at home. Eventually, the band had their own website, http://www.thesubways.net, which Billy Lunn himself constructed and maintained, where they would put all their new songs up on the internet. Also, through the use of their own home recording system they now had roughly 8 demos worth of songs both on the internet and being sent out to local and London promoters at various venues. The Subways then began touring in the local and London area.
Having the home recording system also proved useful for production. The band felt that it would not only benefit themselves, but other local bands who could not afford the studio prices, even in the
Welwyn Garden City area. It was here, that Billy and Charlotte both stumbled upon the opportunity that would eventually prove significant for the band. "I was producing a local Welwyn Garden City band in my front lounge one day and I noticed that it was quite good so I asked if they were going to send it to any London venues, because I knew a few that would like it. They said that they were going to send it off to
Michael Eavis who runs
Glastonbury, and I asked why..." Michael Eavis that year was running an unsigned bands competition to play on the Other Stage, and The Subways decided that would be a great idea. "It was really just another address to send one of our CDs off to. All we wanted was to play shows and this was another great opportunity. The CD we sent off to Michael Eavis was literally one among a bunch of 30 that were being sent out to London promoters for a load of gigs we wanted to book. "We never expected the phone call saying that we'd won and were to play Glastonbury," said Cooper on radio.
Progression
After Glastonbury, The Subways went on to play
The Carling Weekend 2004 in both
Reading and
Leeds, and then proceeded to play their very first (self funded) tour of the UK consisting of 35 dates.
The late
John Peel was the first DJ to play single "1am" on National Radio.
The band signed to City Pavement & Infectious Records in late 2004. Their first album, ''
Young For Eternity'', which was released on the
4 July 2005, was produced by
Lightning Seeds frontman
Ian Broudie, with their debut single "Oh Yeah" reaching number 25 in the UK Music Chart in its release week
21 March 2005.
The Subways appeared during the
seventh episode of the of ''
The O.C.'',
The Anger Management, performing two songs, "
Rock & Roll Queen" and "Oh Yeah." Also, the episode came to a close with "I Want to Hear What You Have Got to Say" playing.
Some of their tracks, such as "She Sun" and "Rock & Roll Queen", are now being used on television adverts for
Rimmel cosmetics featuring British supermodel
Kate Moss.
The Sun newspaper adverts are currently playing the song Oh Yeah in the background.
The band postponed touring in April 2006 because Billy had
nodules on his
vocal chords. They played a "secret" gig in The Green Room in their home town of Welwyn Garden City on Friday
June 16, under the alias of The Audrey Hepburns and also as support for the
Foo Fighters in
Manchester at the
Lancashire County Cricket Ground on Sunday
June 18, and have recently returned to touring, with Billy expected to make a full recovery.
In the summer of 2006 the band were opening for the co-headlining tour across North America for
Taking Back Sunday &
Angels and Airwaves.
On
June 18, they supported the
Foo Fighters at the Lancashire County Cricket Ground, in
Manchester,
England (along with
Eagles of Death Metal,
Angels & Airwaves and
The Strokes.)
On
June 22, the band performed on the late night talk show, ''
Late Night with Conan O'Brien''.
On
August 4, they performed at
Lollapalooza.
The next day, August 5, they performed at
Street Scene in San Diego.
On
August 7, they appeared on the ''
Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson''.
On
August 25, they returned to
Reading and Leeds Festivals, this time on the main stage.
On
March 19 2007,
Mean Fiddler confirmed that the band will be playing at the
Reading and Leeds Festivals, this time on the
Radio 1 stage.
On
May 15, the band announced the date on which they would start recording their second album,
June 4. On this date the band began recording in
Los Angeles, California with legendary producer
Butch Vig. The band had written around twenty-five tracks which were recorded over a period of several months.
In
August 2007 the band came back to the
UK and played a series of small warm up shows showcasing their new material, before playing at the
Reading and Leeds Festivals.
On
September 3 2007 the band will return to Los Angeles to complete work on their second album.
Discography
===
Studio albums===
===
EPs
★ "The Platypus EP"
★ "I Lost You To The City EP"
★ "Summertime EP"
★ "Rock & Roll Queen EP"
★ "No Heart No Soul EP"
★ "Young For Eternity EP"
★ "At 1am EP"
★ "Milk EP"
★ "Mary EP"
★ "Live at Birmingham Academy EP"
Singles===
''All singles released in
CD and
7" format on the Infectious/City Pavement record labels unless otherwise stated''.
★ '"No Heart, No Soul EP"' - Bus Stop Records - First official release; was available from the Bus Stop Records website before The Subways were signed. Release of 75 copies
[1]
★ '"
1am"' - Transgressive Records - Limited 7" release of 500 copies
★ '"
Oh Yeah"' - released
21 March 2005 - 'UK #25'
★ '"
Rock & Roll Queen"' - released
20 June 2005 - 'UK #22'
★ '"
With You"' - released
12 September 2005 - 'UK #29'
★ '"
No Goodbyes"' - released
12 December 2005 - 'UK #27'
Compilation appearances
★ ''Glastonbury Unsigned 2004 (
2004 · Concrete Recordings)
★ '' (
2005 · Warner Bros./Wea)
★ ''Transgressive Singles Collection Vol.1'' (
2006 · Wea)
★ ''Rescue Me (Soundtrack)'' (
2006 · Nettwerk Records)
★ ''
Charlie Bartlett (soundtrack)'' (
2007 Lakeshore records)
External links
The Subways' Websites/Pages
★
The Subways Official Site
★
The Subways NME Artist Page
★
The Subways Twitter Page
The Subways' Forums
★
The Subways Official Forum
★
The Official Josh Morgan Forum
Interviews/Other External Links
★
November 2006 Interview with Charlotte Cooper in BassGirls Monthly
★
PopGurls 20 Questions with The Subways
★
Interview with The Subways
References
1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/essex/content/articles/2006/11/22/music_the_subways_feature.shtml
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