Chiefs of Relief were a British rock group with a unique electro-punk style, punctuated by the guitar work of vocalist
Matthew Ashman
Matthew James Ashman (3 November 1960 – 21 November 1995) – accessed June 2011 was an English guitarist with , and also featuring drummer
Paul Cook
Paul Thomas Cook (born 20 July 1956) is an English drummer and member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. He was also called "Cookie" by his friends on the punk music scene.
Early life and career
Cook was raised in Hammersmith and atte ...
. The Chiefs fused rock with hip hop and electronic elements from the era but it was as a live outfit that they excelled.
Career
The band was formed shortly after the demise of new wave band
Bow Wow Wow
Bow Wow Wow are an English new wave band, created by manager Malcolm McLaren in 1980. McLaren recruited members of Adam and the Ants to form the band behind 13-year-old Annabella Lwin on vocals. They released their debut EP '' Your Cassette ...
in 1983. An early line-up included former Bow Wow Wow members Matthew Ashman (who for a brief time tried to continue Bow Wow Wow as their lead singer after they ousted the original singer
Annabella Lwin
Annabella Lwin (born Myant Myant Aye, , 31 October 1966) is an Anglo-Burmese singer, songwriter and record producer best known as the lead singer of Bow Wow Wow.
Early life, family and education
Lwin was born in Rangoon, Burma to a Burmese fat ...
, formed with remaining band members
David Barbarossa
David Barbarossa (born 1961, also known as Dave Barbe) is a drummer and an author of British and Mauritian descent. As part of both Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow, he was instrumental in creating the highly influential and innovative tribal d ...
and Leigh Gorman, with Paul Cook on drums. It later consisted of Ashman, Cook,
keyboard player
A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instr ...
Duncan Grieg (previously the drummer with Martian Dance), and bassist Lance Burman.
The group's only album was 1988's self-titled release, which was issued in the US by
Sire Records
Sire Records (formerly Sire Records Company) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Records.
History Beginnings
The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer ...
. Ashman died in 1995 and, on the fifteenth anniversary of his death, the band reunited for a tribute concert on 21 November 2010 at the Scala in London, in a show with
Adam Ant
Stuart Leslie Goddard, better known as Adam Ant (born 3 November 1954), is an English singer, musician, and actor. He gained popularity as the lead singer of new wave group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring 10 UK top ten ...
topping the bill. It also featured later Ashman bands, Bow Wow Wow and
Agent Provocateur
An agent provocateur () is a person who commits, or who acts to entice another person to commit, an illegal or rash act or falsely implicate them in partaking in an illegal act, so as to ruin the reputation of, or entice legal action against, the ...
.
Discography
Studio album
* 1988 – ''Chiefs of Relief'' (
Polydor Records
Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...
)
Singles
* 1984 – "Holiday" b/w "I Don't Mind, She Don't Care" and "Holiday (Instrumental)" (
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group.
Pre-history
MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wit ...
WEA
The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as either being closely related to the Miami Tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami.
Today, the descendants of the ...
)
* 1988 – "One Force, One Crew, One Song" (Polydor Records)