Maillist
FOCUS ON: Vile Imbeciles
- Official Website >>
- Label: Tea Vee Eye >>
- Genre: Rock
Andy Huxley, Bertie Lean, James Hair and Caz Rospigliosi
This year sees the rebirth of Brighton’s notoriously morbid-faced rock innovators Vile Imbeciles, with the release of their single “Bad Ideas” on June 30th and their album “Queenie Was A Blonde” on July 14th.
Unfortunately for the three avant–metal ghouls lurching around the stage that night, the handful of determinedly inquisitive punters gathered did not represent the kind of Sex Pistols meteoric initiation of a subculture worthy of them.
In fact, the next 8 This year sees the rebirth of Brighton’s notoriously morbid-faced rock innovators Vile Imbeciles, with the release of their single “Bad Ideas” on June 30th and their album “Queenie Was A Blonde” on July 14th.
months was one constant strained and compelling introduction after another, with audiences held in the clutches of their hypnotic live persistence, but then inevitably losing their grip on the memory of the Vile Imbeciles’ inspired discord.
Their first album “…Ma” along with the single and video “Slack Hands” in June 2007 was the culmination of this continuing and unflagging resilience, released on White Heat records. The raw self-production along with a progression of songs that continually endeavour to loosen their own hooks invited a polarized response from the press. The record itself sold in the shops, becoming White Heat's biggest release to date, although the band themselves received no notification of this from the continually baffled audiences. Confused more at the good reviews than the bad, the band cancelled their shows for the rest of the year and threw away the album.
In fact, the confusion within Vile Imbeciles stemmed from the same source as that first fateful night in Kilburn. People need time to want to understand.
Although there were various other releases planned and recorded, in their own characteristically idealistic fashion they built a new record and refined their sound. Recruiting old friend and original guitarist Caz Rospigliosi, the new work is as colourfully eccentric as times past but effortlessly combines old surreal ways with catchy - if a touch disturbing - melodies and grooves.
Upon debuting the new album in London and subsequent gigging, the band have found their feet as an enthralling live act. Ironically, fans of the band who now have had time to digest “…Ma” clutching albums to sign are informed that they are too late. We can only suppose that this will become a continuing pattern with the band - that of staying constantly one step ahead of the audience. There is a strange new feeling around Vile Imbeciles these days, a band whose future looks more and more promising.
Andy Huxley was born in Manchester and lives in Brighton. At the age of fifteen he left full time education. He cut his first single at the age of 17 as the guitarist in The Eighties Matchbox B- line Disaster, penning the majority of the debut album and gradually built a reputation as the band’s key musician and songwriter. He spent the next five years promoting hairspray around the world, and is responsible for many of today’s grim scenesters. After having a lucrative career, he left and did this.
Bertie Lean spent his formative years in Hertfordshire and surrounding areas. At the age of twelve he heard the tumultuous call of Providence and phoned up the wrong drum teacher. He spent ten years of stick wielding and skin bashing, while gazing solemnly across the Bengeo playing field, along with a stint in The Mono Effect, a four-way peace quartet. He was fixing lights in an office when he met Andy in the summer of 2005, upon which he promptly moved to Brighton and formed the band.
East Anglia’s favourite son James Hair, having tasted the mediocrity of the East London slums, vacated the entity known as Neils Children in search of fellow discordant minds, choosing to settle on England’s leafy south coast in late 2005. Since his time making waves in London’s terribly fashionable post punk scene, he has steadily gained a reputation as one of England’s loudest and most innovative bass players, constantly defying convention by refusing to play root notes and fifths.
Born Caspian Guglielmo Paul Fancesco Maria Rospigliosi Pallavicini, Caz Rospigliosi began life in the town of Salisbury sometime in 1988. After a relatively unexciting rural upbringing keeping chickens, he was exiled to Brighton in the 90s. Here he pursued classical music before making the inevitable digital switchover and proceeded to play in various awful local bands. Fortunes took a turn for the better in the mid nothings when he was literally picked off the street to join local power rock ensemble Mama Hoochie Bang, where he earned his wings, before making the transfer to Vile Imbeciles.
