THE AFTERMATH - BIOGRAPHY
On a wet May night some time ago in the 100 Club, Oxford Street, London town, the brothers Cronin were performing to yet another lacklustre crowd of UK A&R types. Thi...
THE AFTERMATH - BIOGRAPHY
On a wet May night some time ago in the 100 Club, Oxford Street, London town, the brothers Cronin were performing to yet another lacklustre crowd of UK A&R types. Things were looking rather glum for guitar based groups in their adopted hometown of Leeds - friends Parva (who later went on to become Kaiser Chiefs) had just been dropped from their label and legendary venues such as the Duchess of York and The Town & Country Club had just been shut down.
Johnny and Mick Cronin decided something had to change. Having moved as children to Leeds from their birthplace of Co. Longford in the early 90's, they decided to take a trip over to the homeland, play a few gigs and see what the scene in Ireland was like. On arrival they quickly landed support gigs with The Frames and Damien Rice. Inspired by the independent path these acts were foraging the brothers decided to follow their lead, move home permanently and start anew. And so The Aftermath were born...
Named after their favourite Rolling Stones record, the band soon met with guitarist Justin McNabb and former Anathema bass player Duncan Patterson. With the band line-up complete, they began touring, quickly building a fan base around the country. The gigging soon paid off when their debut single "One Is Fun" (named after a Delia Smith cook book for singletons) debuted at No 11 in the Irish charts in July 2006.
2006 also saw the The Aftermath support seminal UK band The Mission on live dates around Greece, playing to over twenty thousand people in the course of five performances. Since then they have continued to visit Greece once a year for short tours.
Sold out shows of Crawdaddy, Dublin, The Roisin Dubh, Galway and The Stables, Mullingar followed and the summer was rounded off nicely when the band were invited to open MCD's HI-FI festival sharing the stage with Razorlight, The Streets and Ian Brown amongst others.
Some line-up changes occurred around this time with Martin 'Sleepy' Gray replacing Duncan Patterson as bass player and Helen Turner - a member of The Style Council who had played with Paul Weller - joining in for some early recording sessions and live gigs. Gallon Drunk man Terry Edwards,
famous for his arrangements for PJ Harvey, The Tindersticks, Nick Cave and David Holmes, recorded some string and brass arrangements for early album demos.
Momentum continued to build with the release of The Aftermath's second single 'Hollywood Remake' in October 2006. Again charting in the top twenty, the success inspired the band to keep touring and after a chance meeting with the Waterboy's Steve Wickham, who agreed to lay down some violin parts for their debut long-player, they began planning their album in earnest.
Aside: Bizarrely, 2006 ended with The Aftermath being name checked in the BBC drama series Spooks. A plotline involving a terror threat called 'The Aftermath' saw the show's characters google the threat, only to discover the Irish indie rock group The Aftermath. Strange but true....
January 2007 arrived and the brothers Cronin set off to the Black Box studios in the Loire region of France with David and Karl Odlum to start initial recording sessions for the album.
Happy with their progress, the band returned to Ireland and released the feel-good single "All I Want Is For You To Be Happy". Independently released, the single debuted at No. 10 and received extensive play on national and regional radio. A sold out nationwide tour climaxed with a show at the legendary Marquee in Drumlish Festival in front of almost 3000 people.
In November 2007 the band headed to the UK for a number of dates to promote the "All I Want Is For You To Be Happy' release on the Littlest Mojo record label. The single picked up plays on XFM London and Manchester and on BBC 6.
The Aftermath rounded off the year with their biggest Dublin audience to date, supporting The Blizzards in the Ambassador. They still play with The Blizzards, who share the same hometown of Mullingar.
Early 2008, The Aftermath hit the studio to finish off the album. The sessions with Karl Odlum were coming on well and the band employed the services of Ger McDonnell to mix the majority of the album. Ger who had previously worked with U2, The Manics, Travis and Martha Wainwright worked on eight of the finished tracks with Marc Carolan (Muse and The Thrills) mixing a couple and David Odlum taking care of the rest.
The Aftermath also employed the services of legendary masterer Greg Calbi who has been responsible for so many classic albums working with the likes of John Lennon, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, The Strokes, The Frames, Interpol to name but a few.
Released on their own Live Transmission Records label in April the album debuted in the Irish Top 20.
What the papers said about "Friendlier Up Here" -
"Say hello to Britrock's latest heroes - Who just happen to be Irish"
4/5-METRO NEWSPAPER.
"A record of uncompromising, inspired rock anthems. A stellar debut."
HOT PRESS.
"The hardest working band in Irish showbiz."
TOTALLY DUBLIN.
"The perfect pop machine"
THE SUNDAY TRIBUNE.
"The Aftermath have raised the bar for Irish guitar based indie pop."
THE GALWAY ADVERTISER
"The record hurtles along in a dizzying myriad of styles but is gratifyingly stuffed full of good tunes... like the Bad Seeds on top form."
8/10 - AU MAGAZINE
"Like the Tindersticks on angel dust. I love their work"
Steve Wall from The Stunning/The Walls
"loved the tracks I mastered for them…….from the era of Echo and the Bunnymen and REM and thought the songs sounded great."
John Davis Masterer Metropolis , London
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