Bravado Cartel are an English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band from

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

, West Yorkshire, consisting of Will Bloy (vocals), Jonny Green (guitar), Shayne Whitton (drums), Jonathan Armstrong (bass guitar) and William Gould (keyboards), particularly noted for their 2016 UK single "Just Like Fighting Shadows" with Emma Kirke, which charted 33 in the i-Tunes rock downloads in that year. The band have released five studio albums spanning the period 2009 to 2019.

History

Originally named RedStar, the band was formed by Will Bloy after leaving the armed forces in 2004. Early members included Steve Smith (guitars), Shayne Whitton (drums), Tim Whiteley (bass) and Gary Hutchinson (keyboards). In 2005, Joe Leadbeater replaced Hutchinson on keyboards and on 2007 Smith was replaced by Jonny Green on guitars. In the early years, RedStar gigged in pubs and clubs across the north of England but expanded to regular slots in London and a tour of Holland. In the summer of 2012, the band reached fourth place at Live and Unsigned out of a pool of approximately 40,000 band entries, which resulted in a gig at the

O2 Arena O2 Arena may refer to: *The O2 Arena (London) *O2 Arena (Prague) *The 3Arena The 3Arena (originally The O2) is an indoor amphitheatre located at North Wall Quay in the Dublin Docklands in Dublin, Ireland. The venue opened as The O2 on 16 Decemb ...

, London. During this period, RedStar's music was described by a music journalist at The Apollo Festival, as having 'great lyrics, stomping riffs and anthemic choruses ...

ith The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is immediatel ...

West Yorkshire accents seeping through the vocals, giving a feeling of home and heart right within the music ... RedStar are moving their genre forward and are definitely ones to watch'.Imogen Bell,
Apollo Festival 2014 Review
, ''Soundsphere'', 24 June 2014.

Huddersfield A.F.C. and "Smile Awhile"

In 2013, RedStar were asked to write and record the official song for

Huddersfield Town A.F.C. Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

The resulting single "Smile Awhile" was based on the lyrics of the club's 1920 song of the same title, originally adapted from a First World War song, " Till We Meet Again". Released in late 2013, "Smile Awhile" supported the Huddersfield Town Foundation and became the team's match song starting all games for three years, including the year Huddersfield Town entered the Premiership. The song charted in the top 10 on i-Tunes Rock downloads in 2013, and achieved just under 35,000 views on YouTube. A second i-Tunes top 40 single followed with "Just Like Fighting Shadows", written and recorded with Emma Kirke in 2016.

Tours of the United States

In 2014, Green left the band due to ill health and Leadbeater announced he would be leaving to tour with

Joanne Shaw Taylor Joanne Shaw Taylor (born 1985, England) is an English singer and guitarist. She was discovered by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics at the age of 16. Taylor's albums via Ruf Records, ''White Sugar'' (2009) and '' Diamonds in the Dirt'' (2010), p ...

for 12 months. In 2015, Whiteley was replaced by Jonathan Armstrong on bass, Green was replaced by Karl Woolston, Leadbeater was replaced by Jack Manning (keyboards and guitars) and Whitton (temporarily) by Stefan Drapan. In the same year, the band's name was changed to Bravado Cartel. In the years 2016, 2017 and 2018 the band toured the US, performing in Hard Rock Cafés in Boston and New York, conducting radio shows and playing at New York's oldest rock club, The Bitter End (2018). The first tour was set up by Bruce Replogle, ex-publicist of

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

on '' Double Fantasy''. Jonny Green returned to the band as guitarist in 2017. In 2020, Manning left the band and was replaced by William Gould on keyboards. Bravado Cartel continued to write and record material through the Covid pandemic and returned to live performances from the summer of 2021. In November 2022, the band signed with Paint The World Music, and recorded two singles in early 2023 - "I'm Always There for You Digitally" and "Revolution on the Lips". In September 2023, the band released the single "Everything and Anything" which became the official song for the nationwide mental health charity

Andy's Man Club Andy's Man Club is a UK charitable organisation described as "a talking group, a place for men to come together in a safe environment to talk about issues and problems they have faced or are currently facing". It was formed by Luke Ambler and his ...

. The video for the song was filmed during a gig at the

Piece Hall The Piece Hall is a Grade I listed building in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. It was built as a cloth hall for handloom weavers to sell the woollen cloth "pieces" they had produced. History The earliest known reference to the new Piece Hal ...

Halifax, West Yorkshire Halifax () is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It is the commercial, cultural and administrative centre of the borough, and the headquarters of Calderdale Council. In the 15th cen ...

and was sponsored by Battenbrook Clothing. The lead role in the video was played by actor Jamie Dorrington. who has appeared in the British soap opera, '' Emmerdale''.

Musical style

Imogen Bell described Bravado Cartel's sound as "a mix of old-school rock like

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

and new-school mashups of mould-breakers Arctic Monkeys fused with the swagger of

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

". The same review compared the synth and piano inflected rock of the band as comparable to early

Kasabian Kasabian ( ) are an English rock band formed in Leicester in 1997 by lead vocalist Tom Meighan, guitarist and occasional vocalist Sergio Pizzorno, guitarist Chris Karloff, and bassist Chris Edwards. Drummer Ian Matthews joined in 2004. Karlof ...

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Law and Order'' – 2009 * ''Revelator'' – 2012 * ''The Vaults'' – 2013 * ''Violence Has no Place at the Table of Democracy'' – 2016Rachel Brown,
Album Review: Violence Has No Place At The Table of Democracy
, ''Northern Exposure'', 16 June 2017. * ''Anything for an Easy Life'' – 2019

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
English rock music groups Musical groups from West Yorkshire