Devilish Presley are an English
gothabilly band from
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, England.
History
A
gothabilly band that formed in
East London in 2002, they released six albums on their own label November Tenth Records and toured constantly for eleven years building a small but loyal following from the
goth
A Goth is a member of the Goths, a group of East Germanic tribes. Two major political entities of the Goths were:
*Visigoths, prominent in Spanish history
*Ostrogoths, prominent in Italian history
Goth or Goths may also refer to:
* Goth (surname) ...
,
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
and
psychobilly scenes in the UK and Europe. In 2004-2005 Devilish Presley were the
house band at the
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
club
Dead and Buried, run by DJ Cavey Nik. The band's ''Pity For Monsters Promotions'' were responsible for bringing many
US and
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
an deathrock bands to the UK for the first time.
''Memphisto'', tours and publishing deal
2005 saw the release of the ''Memphisto'' album . which helped the band widen their appeal a little, playing at many
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
and
psychobilly gigs. Among bands they supported were
The Damned,
The Misfits,
The Meteors
The Meteors are an English psychobilly band formed in 1980. Originally from London, England, they are often credited with giving the psychobilly subgenre — which fuses punk rock with rockabilly — its distinctive sound and style.
About.co ...
,
The Horrorpops
HorrorPops are a Danish punk band that formed in 1996. The band's sound is rooted in psychobilly, rockabilly, and punk rock.
History
1996–1999: Formation
Band founders Patricia Day and Kim Nekroman first met when Day's now-defunct band ...
,
The 5.6.7.8's,
Marky Ramone
Marc Steven Bell (born July 15, 1952) is an American drummer. He began playing in hard rock bands in the New York City area, notably Dust and Estus. He was asked to drum for punk rock band Richard Hell and the Voidoids. He replaced drummer Tom ...
,
Jayne County
Wayne Rogers (born July 13, 1947), better known by her stage name Jayne County is an American singer, songwriter, actress and record producer whose career has spanned six decades. Under the name Wayne County (inspired by Wayne County, Michigan), ...
,
The Vibrators
The Vibrators are a British punk rock band that formed in 1976.
Early career
The Vibrators were founded by Ian ' Knox' Carnochan, bassist Pat Collier, guitarist John Ellis, and drummer John 'Eddie' Edwards. They first came to public notice ...
. In 2006 they signed to the Wipe Out Music publishing company, (who now publish the drummerless duo
Sleaford Mods
Sleaford Mods are an English post-punk music duo, formed in 2007 in Nottingham. The band features vocalist Jason Williamson and, since 2012, musician Andrew Fearn. They are known for their abrasive, minimalist musical style and embittered explo ...
). The band toured Europe and played in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Poland,
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
(where they were featured on the National Television News), Belfast and on 31 October 2005 in Dublin where they performed at
Tower Records
Tower Records is an international retail franchise and online music store that was formerly based in Sacramento, California, United States. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, which closed when Tower Recor ...
and
Whelan's (music venue)
Whelan's is a pub and music venue in Dublin, Ireland.
Profile
Numerous international artists have played at the venue, including Jeff Buckley, Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, Kate Nash, Townes Van Zandt, Damien Rice and Allen Toussaint. The pub was ...
. The single Hammer Horror Glamour (2005 from the Memphisto album) was featured on several cover-mount CDs including Big Cheese magazine (UK) and Zillo (Germany). The Memphisto album became available on
iTunes in September 2006. Halloween Queen the follow-up single to Hammer Horror Glamour was made available on iTunes in March 2007 and the band played a 25 date ''Halloween Queen'' UK tour - the only one using a live drummer - Ragborn Rosy. After parting company with their drummer the band continued as a two-piece with a drum machine. In August 2007 yet another UK tour began taking in 22 dates. Support slots on this tour included
The Meteors
The Meteors are an English psychobilly band formed in 1980. Originally from London, England, they are often credited with giving the psychobilly subgenre — which fuses punk rock with rockabilly — its distinctive sound and style.
About.co ...
, The Peacocks,
Demented Are Go
Demented Are Go (DAG aka Demented Are Go!) are a Welsh psychobilly band that was formed around 1982 in Cardiff, Wales. They were one of the earliest in the initial wave of bands to mix punk rock with rockabilly, and as a result, are conside ...
,
King Kurt, and several dates with Canadian band
The Creepshow
The Creepshow is a Canadian rock band from Burlington, Ontario. The band formed in 2005 when the four original members got together with the purpose of starting a psychobilly band. The Creepshow writes the majority of their songs about horror f ...
.
''Flesh Ride''
More European dates in Germany and Poland were followed by another UK tour to promote ''Voodoo Goddess'' the first track taken from ''Flesh Ride'' (their fourth album). A promotional video for track was made in a
Kings Cross pub (The Cross Kings).
In May 2008 Johnny Navarro played guitar for P.Paul Fenech (
The Meteors
The Meteors are an English psychobilly band formed in 1980. Originally from London, England, they are often credited with giving the psychobilly subgenre — which fuses punk rock with rockabilly — its distinctive sound and style.
About.co ...
) when he undertook a European solo tour in Germany, Italy, and London. In August the band announced their new album "Flesh Ride" would be released on 31 October and would contain 15 tracks - as with "Memphisto" the cover photo was taken by Finnish born photographer
Tina Korhonen
Tina Korhonen is a Finnish born music photographer based in the United Kingdom . She is well known for her portraits of musicians, usually in the rock, punk and heavy rock genres including Europe, Ronnie James Dio
Steve Hackett,
The Dresden ...
. In November 2008 the band played in Europe again including a gigs in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
and
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
. In December 2008 the band were the UK tour support for
The Damned on 19 dates around the country including the
O2 Academy Islington
The O2 Academy Islington, formerly known as the Carling Academy Islington, is an indoor music venue situated in the N1 Shopping Centre accessible via Upper Street and Liverpool Road, in the London Borough of Islington. It is run by the Academy ...
.
2009 - 2010: UK tour promoting live DVD
The band toured the UK in March and April 2009 to promote their ''Flesh Ride'' album. At one of these dates in Birmingham on 3 April - a live DVD was filmed. Entitled ''Live Voodoo'' it became the band's debut DVD. To promote the DVD (released on 15 June) a short UK tour took place throughout June. The DVD has since sold out. The band confirmed in early 2010 that Jacqui Vixen had been forced to quit playing the bass due to an RSI
Repetitive strain injury
A repetitive strain injury (RSI) is an injury to part of the musculoskeletal or nervous system caused by repetitive use, vibrations, compression or long periods in a fixed position. Other common names include repetitive stress disorders, cumula ...
she had been suffering from for some time. The problem began after a fall whilst on tour in Germany in 2008 and her style of playing (all down strokes) had aggravated the condition. Prior to the recording of the fifth album ''The Dark Triad'' Jacqui began taking vocal coaching under the tutelage of
Stevie Vann and took over the role of lead vocalist. The band took a break from touring in 2010 and only played a few shows with temporary bass player Pete Vincent including The Rock & Blues Custom Show in Derbyshire and dates in Poland and Switzerland.
2011: UK tour
In January 2011, the band finished mixing their fifth album at
Berry Street Studio with Kevin Poree (Memphisto) producing. A UK Tour also began in January and the album titled ''The Dark Triad'' was released on CD & all major digital outlets on 9 May 2011, it was the third album to feature a cover picture by photographer
Tina Korhonen
Tina Korhonen is a Finnish born music photographer based in the United Kingdom . She is well known for her portraits of musicians, usually in the rock, punk and heavy rock genres including Europe, Ronnie James Dio
Steve Hackett,
The Dresden ...
. On Monday 7 February the band released a direct to download single "The Beast Must Die" c/w "Cocaine Joe" both taken from their forthcoming album. A promotional ''Video Single'' for the song was released the same day on YouTube and received 1045 hits in under a week - the video was made by Luke Billing for
Berry Street Studio video productions and was filmed at Murder Mile Studio in London. On Monday 31 October 2011 the band released ''I Created A Monster''
On Monday 26 March the band released "The Devil Rock & Roll" and they did a short
UK tour to promote it and played their final gig in Corby on Sat Apr 21 2012 supporting
Vice Squad
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tr ...
. On Monday 11 June 2012 the band released a fourth ''Video Single'' entitled ''Blood From The Mummy's Tomb'' the final video made by Luke Billing for
Berry Street Studio video productions. In July 2012 Vixen and Navarro left London and took a 2 year break, during which time
Johnny Navarro wrote a novel ''Kill Devil Delta'' a fictionalised account of his time in the band
2014: ''The Electric Ballroom''
In a phenomenal show of support Devilish Presley's friends and fans raised over £3500 in under 48 hours to enable the recording of a sixth studio album 'The Electric Ballroom'. The album was recorded at Goldmaster Allstars with producer Kevin Poree and co-producer Zac Dorne. It was released in May 2015.
2015: Farewell UK tour
After a lay off of over three years the band returned to the live stage for a farewell tour and to promote ''The Electric Ballroom'' and Johnny's novel ''Kill Devil Delta''. The London show on 10 October at London's Pipeline Club was a sell out. The final release on their November Tenth Records label was a Limited Edition 4GB Memory Stick containing all six of their albums, plus photos, lyrics and memorabilia.
2020: Reformation
The band announced they had reformed and were working on a new album set to be released in 2022. In the interim period they released a compilation album, ''Gothabilly'', in September 2020.
Discography
Studio albums
* ''Rust Garden'' (2003)
* ''Disgraceland'' (2004)
* ''Memphisto'' (2006)
* ''Flesh Ride'' (2008)
* ''The Dark Triad'' (2011)
* ''The Electric Ballroom'' (2015)
* ''Gothabilly'' (2020) (Compilation)
* ''Untitled'' (2022) (scheduled)
Singles
* "Black Leather Jesus" c/w "Levis Dog" (2003)
* "Memento Mori" c/w "Saturday Night Satellite" (2004)
* "She's Not America" (2005)
* "Hammer Horror Glamour" (2006)
* "Halloween Queen" (2007)
* "Voodoo Goddess" c/w "Losing Ground" (2008)
* "The Beast Must Die" c/w "Cocaine Joe" (2011)
* "I Created A Monster" (2011)
* "The Devil Rock & Roll" c/w "Spiritbabe" c/w "Mary Shelley Motorcade" (2012)
* "Blood From The Mummy's Tomb" c/w "Dreamers & Destroyers" c/w "Mr Splitfoot" (2012)
* "The Zombie I Love" c/w "Creature In The Shadows" c/w "The Serpent Henry" (2012)
Compilations
* ''Pagan Love Songs'' (Germany) (2004)
* ''Dark Awakenings Vol 3'' (Germany) (2006)
* ''Screaming Tarts Vol 3'' (UK) (2006)
Cover-mount CDs
* ''Kaleidoscope Magazine'' (UK) (2005)
* ''Zillo Magazine'' (Germany) (2005)
* ''Sonic Seducer Magazine'' (Germany) (2006)
* ''Big Cheese Magazine'' (UK) (2006)
* ''Devolution Magazine'' (UK) (2010)
* ''Big Cheese Magazine'' (UK) (2010)
* ''Devolution Magazine'' (UK) (2011)
DVDs
* ''Live Voodoo'' (2009)
* ''The Beast Must Die - Ltd Edition'' (2011)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Devilish Presley
English punk rock groups
Musical groups from London
English gothic rock groups
Underground punk scene in the United Kingdom
Death rock groups
Gothabilly groups