Mclusky (often stylized as mclusky), originally known as Best, are a Welsh three-piece
post-hardcore
Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like post-punk, the term has been ...
group formed in
Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
. The group originally consisted of Englishman
Andrew Falkous
Andrew "Falco" Falkous (born 5 April 1975) is a Welsh musician best known for being the founding member/frontman for the Cardiff-based punk rock outfit Mclusky, current lead singer/guitarist of the band Future of the Left and the sole member o ...
(vocals, guitar) from
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
, Geraint Bevan (bass) and Matthew Harding (drums); the latter two were replaced by Jonathan Chapple and Jack Egglestone in 1997 and late 2003 respectively. The band released three studio albums before splitting in 2004, reconvening in 2014 – without Chapple – under the monikers mclusky and mclusky*, before ultimately dropping the asterisk.
History
According to the band, they originally formed in 1996 when Falkous and Harding met at the Blackwood Miners Institute, a venue in their home town. The pair met Chapple a short time afterwards at the
Reading Festival
The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festiv ...
when they caught him urinating on their tent late in the night.
More realistically it has been suggested that Falkous and Harding met when working together at
Anglian Windows
Anglian Windows Limited, trading as Anglian Home Improvements, is a British home improvements firm specialising in double and triple glazing windows, front and back doors and conservatories. However, over the last fifty years, the Anglian product ...
, a small double-glazing
call centre
A call centre ( Commonwealth spelling) or call center (American spelling; see spelling differences) is a managed capability that can be centralised or remote that is used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of enquiries by telephone. ...
in Cardiff. They discussed their musical ambitions after a conversation about Reading Festival, Falkous gave Harding a tape of songs he had written on his own, and shortly after they formed a band called Best after early
Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...
drummer
Pete Best
Randolph Peter Best (né Scanland; born 24 November 1941) is an English musician known as the drummer of the English rock band the Beatles who was dismissed immediately prior to the band achieving worldwide fame. Fired from the group in 1962 ...
. The original bass player for Best was Geraint Bevan, Harding's old musical comrade from The Derelicts.
Best existed in this form for almost a year before Bevan left to concentrate on his acting career, but not before Best had played a show with a band called 'Myrtle', which featured the bass guitarist Jon Chapple.
Shortly after the departure of Bevan, the remaining two members managed to convince Chapple to join the band; this was based on the strength of the three track demo Best had recently finished at 'Ocean Studios' in Cardiff (this cassette – which was sold by the band themselves – was the unofficial debut, entitled the ''Benedict EP'').
Best signed to London label Seriously Groovy and released their official debut record, the 3-track single "Huwuno".
The band changed its name to Mclusky in 1999, releasing their first full-length album ''
My Pain and Sadness is More Sad and Painful Than Yours'' in 2000 on the Fuzzbox imprint before drawing international attention with their critically praised second album ''
Mclusky Do Dallas
''Mclusky Do Dallas'' is the second studio album by Welsh indie rock band Mclusky, released on 1 April 2002 by Too Pure.
''Mclusky Do Dallas'' spawned four singles: "Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues", "Whoknowyou", "To Hell with Good Intentions", an ...
'' in 2002. In 2004 they released their third album ''
The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire
''The Difference Between Me and You Is that I'm Not on Fire'' is the third and final studio album from Welsh indie rock band Mclusky. It was released to positive reviews by Too Pure in 2004. The two singles to be released from this album were "T ...
'' to positive reviews.
They worked frequently with recording engineer
Steve Albini
Steve Albini (pronounced ; born July 22, 1962) is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal en ...
.
Breakup
The band called it quits on 7 January 2005, with Falkous making the following announcement on the band's website three days later:
:The three piece rock band known as mclusky have disbanded, as of Friday 7 January 2005. The reason for this parting is private, though probably not as entertaining as you'd imagine. Personally, I would like to thank all the people, places and times that occurred on or near us. I'm grateful for the love and to a lesser degree, the hate. There'll be more music soon, from all of us.
Little was said of the reasons behind Mclusky's split, but it later emerged that tensions had arisen between Falkous and Chapple. The root of these tensions can be traced back to an incident in 2004 when all of the band's equipment was stolen on the
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
leg of their American tour (this equipment – worth over £5000 – was never recovered).
New bands and reunion
A compilation of the band's singles, ''
Mcluskyism
''Mcluskyism'' is the final release by Welsh rock band Mclusky. A singles and rarities package, it is released in two formats, a one disc singles only package, and a three disc format. On April 18, 2015 it was released as a one disc vinyl edit ...
'', came out in February 2006; a limited-edition version came with two additional CDs of
B-sides
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...
(labelled as B-sides and C-sides), rarities and live recordings from their final headline performance at the
University of London Union
Student Central was a students' facility of the University of London. It was previously the students' union of the federal University of London, known as the University of London Union (commonly referred to as ULU, pron. 'yoo-loo'), which was clo ...
(The band would make one further live appearance on 01/12/04 supporting
Shellac
Shellac () is a resin secreted by the female lac bug on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes and dissolved in alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and ...
at the Scala in London). This compilation is, without doubt, the final chapter in Mclusky's nine-year saga, as Falkous informs in the ''Mcluskyism''
liner notes
Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes.
Origin
Liner notes are desce ...
, "that's it, then. No farewell tour... no premature deaths (at time of writing), no live DVDs..."
The first Mclusky member to release material after the band's demise was Chapple, with his outfit
Shooting At Unarmed Men – Chapple had dabbled with the band as a side project to Mclusky in the years prior, and wasted little time in making it his first priority after Mclusky disbanded. The band released two albums before Chapple emigrated to Australia in 2006. He has since revived the band in Australia with a new lineup, and released another album with the Australian lineup. Shooting at Unarmed Men disbanded shortly after the release of ''With The Youthful Energy of a Zealot''. Chapple played drums with
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
band Poor People until 2012, and plays bass and provides vocals for the six-piece outfit Harmony, which also feature Tom Lyngcoln of
The Nation Blue
The Nation Blue is a rock band formed in Tasmania and based in Melbourne, Victoria, noted for their intense live performances and bleak subject matter. They have toured nationally in Australia and internationally in Brazil, America and Japan and ...
.
After Falkous had conducted a handful of interviews discussing the then-fresh Mclusky breakup, he and Egglestone were not heard from publicly for a number of months. Almost immediately, rumours began to swell that the pair were collaborating with some members of also-defunct Cardiff noise-core act
Jarcrew
Jarcrew was a five-piece dance-punk band from Ammanford, Wales. They were a relatively well known underground band (Jarcrew never enjoyed mainstream success) for approximately five years between 2000 and their early 2005 split. They played a bi ...
(the project, which received no official title for eighteen months, was jokingly referred to as "Jarclusky") – however, the full extent of the collaboration was not known until Falkous created an unassuming MySpace page for the group under the name
Future of the Left
Future of the Left are a Welsh alternative rock band based in Cardiff. The group consists of former Mclusky members Andrew Falkous (vocals, guitar) and Jack Egglestone (drums) and former Million Dead bassist Julia Ruzicka.
History
Beginnings
F ...
, complete with unpolished recordings of the band's first songs. The outfit have since incorporated members of now-defunct British punk rock act Million Dead, and have (after several years of resistance from Falkous) started including Mclusky tracks in their live sets.
In 2014, Falkous announced a benefit gig to help save venue Le Pub in Newport, with a lineup consisting of Jarcrew and a set of mclusky songs played by Falkous and Jack Egglestone, joined by future of the left bassist Julia Ruzicka and Damien Sayell, vocalist of Bristol band The St. Pierre Snake Invasion. This lineup has been referred to by Falco as 'mclusky' (with inverted commas) and announced a second concert at Clwb Ifor Bach upon the quick sale of all tickets for the Newport event. Since, they have played another 'closing venue' benefit gig, in London at the soon-to-close
Buffalo Bar
The Buffalo Bar was a music and arts venue located at 259 Upper Street, Highbury Corner, Islington, from 2000 until 2014.
History
The venue was situated beneath The Famous Cock Tavern, adjacent to Highbury and Islington tube station, Highbury ...
. The following year, mclusky were announced alongside future of the left in the lineup of British music festival
2000 Trees
2000trees festival is an independent music festival held from Wednesday to Sunday on the second week of July at Upcote Farm, Withington, near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. It offers a diverse selection of more than 120 acts across five stages, ...
.
Then known as Mclusky* (asterisk in reference to missing members), the band reformed to play The Garage in London on 3 December 2015 to raise money for cancer research with Rat the Magnificent (featuring Ian Catskilkin of
Art Brut
Art Brut are a Berlin-based English and German indie rock band. Their debut album, '' Bang Bang Rock & Roll'', was released on 30 May 2005, with its follow up, ''It's a Bit Complicated'', released on 25 June 2007. Named after French painter Je ...
). The band have continued to play since, with Sayell ultimately being brought in as bassist as well as a vocalist. In July 2020, Falkous announced plans to record a new Mclusky album. The asterisk was ultimately dropped, confirming the return to the official moniker.
In April 2022, the band announced a commemorative 20-year anniversary tour of ''Mclusky Do Dallas''.
Members
;Current line-up
*Andy "Falco" Falkous – vocals, guitar
(1996–2005, 2014–present)
*Jack Egglestone – drums
(2003–2005, 2014–present)
*Damien Sayell – vocals
(2014–present), bass
(2018–present)
;Former members
*Geraint Bevan – bass
(1996–1997)
*Matthew Harding – drums
(1996–2003)
*John Chapple – bass, vocals
(1997–2005)
*Julia Ruzicka – bass
(2014–2018)
;Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
*''
My Pain and Sadness is More Sad and Painful Than Yours'' (Fuzzbox, 2000; r:
Too Pure
Too Pure was a London-based independent record label formed in 1990 by Richard Roberts and Paul Cox. The label gained prominence after the release of PJ Harvey's debut album '' Dry'' in 1992, and subsequently found further success in the late ...
, 2003)
*''
Mclusky Do Dallas
''Mclusky Do Dallas'' is the second studio album by Welsh indie rock band Mclusky, released on 1 April 2002 by Too Pure.
''Mclusky Do Dallas'' spawned four singles: "Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues", "Whoknowyou", "To Hell with Good Intentions", an ...
'' (Too Pure, 2002)
*''
The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire
''The Difference Between Me and You Is that I'm Not on Fire'' is the third and final studio album from Welsh indie rock band Mclusky. It was released to positive reviews by Too Pure in 2004. The two singles to be released from this album were "T ...
'' (Too Pure, 2004)
Compilations
*''
Mcluskyism
''Mcluskyism'' is the final release by Welsh rock band Mclusky. A singles and rarities package, it is released in two formats, a one disc singles only package, and a three disc format. On April 18, 2015 it was released as a one disc vinyl edit ...
'' (Too Pure, 2006)
Live releases
*''Gateway Band'' (2020)
Official single/EP releases
* 1999 – "Huwuno" (as Best)
* 2000 – "Joy"
* 2000 – "Rice Is Nice"
* 2001 – "Whoyouknow"
* 2001 – "Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues"
* 2002 – "To Hell with Good Intentions"
* 2002 – "Alan Is a Cowboy Killer"
* 2003 – "There Ain't No Fool in Ferguson/1956 And All That"
* 2003 – "Undress for Success" (the first song played 3 times in one show by
Colin Murray
Colin Murray (born Luke Wright on 10 March 1977) is a Northern Irish radio and television presenter. In 2010, he became host of BBC Television's ''Match of the Day 2'' on BBC Two, while still anchoring shows on BBC Radio 5 Live, including '' 5 ...
)
* 2004 – "That Man Will Not Hang"
* 2004 – "She Will Only Bring You Happiness"
References
External links
Too Pure RecordsBBC review of ''The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire''Mclusky remembered at Real Cool Time
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mclusky
Welsh rock music groups
Welsh noise rock groups
British post-hardcore musical groups
British musical trios
Musical groups established in 1996
Musical groups disestablished in 2005
Musical groups from Cardiff
Underground punk scene in the United Kingdom
Cool Cymru