Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, also known very briefly as the Lorries, 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 formed in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

in early 1981 by guitarist and songwriter Chris Reed, vocalist Mark Sweeney, bassist Steve Smith and drummer Mick Brown. After breaking up in 1991, the band reformed in 2003 and have released 5 studio albums over the course of their career.

History

The band was formed by

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

/songwriter Chris Reed and

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Mark Sweeney, along with

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

Steve Smith and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

Mick Brown (who would later join The Mission). Sweeney left the band in late 1981 and Reed permanently took over as vocalist, with Martin Fagan joining as a second guitarist. The group's sound, featuring a numbing guitar drone, powerfully throbbing bass, pounding drum machine, and Reed's cavernous vocal tones, caused the Lorries (as their fans came to call them) to be quickly lumped into the then-developing

gothic rock Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie a ...

scene by pop journalists, although the band themselves denied they were ever associated with goth and preferred to cite

Wire Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm A wire is a flexible strand of metal. Wire is c ...

as an influence,Gittins, Ian. ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

'', "The Angry Brigade" article on the band, 25 October 1986, pg. 32. and said they "were primarily inspired by

MC5 MC5, also commonly called The MC5, is an American rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan, in 1963. The original line-up consisted of Rob Tyner (vocals) Wayne Kramer (guitar), Fred "Sonic" Smith (guitar), Michael Davis (bass), and Dennis ...

."Wolfenden, David. Interview of Wolfenden conducted by Mick Mercer in 2014 and included in the

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 ...

for ''See the Fire'', 3-CD Compilation, 2014, Cherry Red Records CDTRED643 In 1982, the Lorries' manager Dave Hall provided

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

Red Rhino Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

with a

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...

of the group's

demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...

.Ogg, Alex. ''Talk About the Weather''

Compact Disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

, Anagram Records, 2005,

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 ...

. Impressed by the quality of the songs, Red Rhino label head "Tony K" (Tony Kostrzewa) signed the band and immediately released "Beating My Head" unchanged from the demo as the band's debut single.K, Tony. ''Red Lorry Yellow Lorry: The Singles 1982 - 87''

, Cherry Red Records, 1993,

. The song made a strong appearance on the influential ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' independent

record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often ...

. Fagan and Smith soon departed the band, to be replaced by Dave Wolfenden and Paul Southern respectively. Afterwards, bassist Southern was replaced by Leon Phillips. While numerous additional personnel changes would occur in the history of the band, Wolfenden became a mainstay and a frequent songwriting partner of Reed's during the band's most productive period. In 1983 and 1984, the band released several more singles (including "He's Read" and "Monkeys On Juice", which reached No. 9 on the NME indie chart"Independent 45s" Chart, ''New Musical Express'', 4 August 1984, pg. 4).

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

was an early supporter, and the band recorded two radio sessions for him in March and November 1983 (released on CD in 2014 as ''BBC Sessions 1983 - 1984'', part of the band's 3-CD compilation ''See the Fire''). In 1985, the band's debut album, '' Talk About the Weather'', was released and peaked at No. 3 on the

independent albums chart."Independent LPs" Chart, ''New Musical Express'', 23 February 1985, pg. 4 The album, which most fans consider to be the band's best, received generally positive reviews and sold extremely well for a small label offering. "Hollow Eyes", a single taken from the album, attained good sales as well,"Independent 45s" Chart, ''New Musical Express'', 5 January 1985, pg. 4. The single reached No. 7 on the chart. as did follow-up non-LP singles "Chance" and "Spinning Round","Independent 45s" Chart, ''New Musical Express'', 19 October 1985, pg. 4. "Spinning Round" peaked at no. 11 on the chart. the latter of which is generally felt to be the Lorries's strongest song. The band released one more album on Red Rhino ('' Paint Your Wagon'', which reached No. 3 on the ''NME'' indie chart"Independent LPs" Chart, ''New Musical Express'', 29 March 1986, pg. 44) in 1986, a single ("Cut Down") and a four track EP ("Crawling Mantra", utilizing the one-time band name change to "The Lorries"), before signing to

Situation Two Situation Two (a.k.a. Situation 2) was a British independent record label founded in 1981 by Peter Kent as an offshoot of the Beggars Banquet label. At the time, Beggars Banquet releases were often distributed by WEA; to appeal to the indie ...

, an offshoot of

Beggars Banquet Records Beggars Banquet Records is a British independent record label. Beggars Banquet started as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin and is part of the Beggars Group of labels. History In 1977, spurred by the prevailing DI ...

. Two albums followed, 1988's '' Nothing Wrong'' and 1989's ''

Blow Blow commonly refers to: *Cocaine *Exhalation * Strike (attack) Blow, Blew, Blowing, or Blown may also refer to: People * Blew (surname) * Blow (surname) Arts and entertainment Music *The Blow, an American electro-pop band Albums * ''Blow ...

''. Neither of the Beggars Banquet albums appeared on any mainstream pop charts. Singles, including "Only Dreaming (Wide Awake)" and "Open Up" (which upon its release was chosen as ''

''’s 'Single of the Week'Solanos, Jane. "Singles", ''New Musical Express'', 21 November 1987, pg. 16.), also failed to chart, and the band was subsequently dropped by the label. In 1991, the band released a further single, "Talking Back", and then the '' Blasting Off'' album on the tiny Sparkhead label, after which Reed broke up what was left of the band. In 2003, Reed revived the name Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and released four new songs in 2004, available via internet download only on the band’s website. The band toured frequently in the UK during 2004 and 2005, but although journalist

Mick Mercer Mick Mercer (born Bichael Bercer, 2 June 1957) is a journalist and author best known for his books, photos and reviews of the goth, punk and indie music scenes. Life and work Mercer is primarily a writer focused on the gothic scene and its m ...

wrote in 2014 that "new material is on its way",Mercer, Mick.

, ''See the Fire'', 3-CD Compilation, 2014, Cherry Red Records CDTRED643 no additional Red Lorry Yellow Lorry music has subsequently been released. In 2005, the band released ''Thunder in the Black Cave'', a live

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

recorded in Belgium during their 2004 European tour. In 2006, Reed released an acoustic-based album, ''Minimal Animal'', under the name 'Chris Reed Unit'.

Discography

* '' Talk About the Weather'' (1985) * '' Paint Your Wagon'' (1986) * '' Nothing Wrong'' (1988) * ''

'' (1989) * '' Blasting Off'' (1992)

References

External links

*
Trouser Press: Red Lorry Yellow Lorry entry
{{Authority control English gothic rock groups Post-punk groups from Leeds Musical groups established in 1981 Beggars Banquet Records artists Situation Two artists