Drill (UK Band)
Encyclopedia
Drill are a band from North East England. They were formed in early 1989 and released albums on the Abstract Sounds, Retribution Records and Muza Muza labels. After splitting in 1994 they reformed in 2005 releasing a new album in 2008. The Drill project was shelved late 2009.
Drill are notable for not using a drummer and for writing industrial rock
music with time signature
and tempo
changes within each song and for writing songs that do not follow the typical verse, chorus, bridge etc song structures.
the band recorded and released the album
Skin Down in 1991 on Abstract Sounds. The album was well received by the music press, with Melody Maker
describing it as "a musical white knuckle ride". The line up at the this time was:
Kev Wilkinson - vocals
, Guitar
, Programming
Tony O'Brien - Guitar
Simon Moore - Bass Guitar
Davy Craig - Guitar
, E-bow
To promote the album the band was booked to tour the UK with the band Pitchshifter
, however on the eve of the tour the tour bus was involved in a serious road crash during which the tour bus overturned injuring several members of the band.
Davy Craig left the band due to lack of touring, and was replaced by Andy Cooper before the band recorded and released the album White Finger in 1992 again on Abstract Sounds. For one track on the album The sound of rock, they were joined by guest drummer Gary Binns and Chris McCormack from the band Forgodsake
. Chris McCormack later went on to form 3 Colours Red
.
The White Finger album saw the band use sampling
and move towards a more electronic sound. Again favorably received, it was described by The Guardian
as sounding like "Freddy Krueger
stalking around Tyneside
in a thick fog".
The band released the album Paroxysm on Retribution Records in 1993 and the live album
Snuffed on Muza Muza in 1994. The line up of the band for these albums was:
Kev Wilkinson - vocals
, Guitar
, Programming
Tony O'Brien - Guitar
Simon Moore - Bass Guitar
Rob Meek - Samples
Steve Chahley - Samples/FX
In 1994 the band ceased.
Kev Wilkinson - vocals
, Guitar
, Programming
Tony O'Brien - Guitar
Si Malarkey - Bass Guitar
Simon Moore - Bass Guitar
Antony Bircham - Guitar
They were joined briefly on drums
by Mark Lough from Hug Lorenzo, however due to conflicting commitments he left and the band went back to using sequenced drum patterns.
In 2007 Tony O'Brien left the band to be replaced briefly by Dave Francis.
In 2008 the band released the single Pitmanic and album The Last Taboo of America on Saturate with the line up:
Kev Wilkinson - vocals
, Guitar
, Programming
Simon Malarkey - Bass Guitar
Antony Bircham - Guitar
Simon Moore - Bass Guitar
Davy Craig returned briefly and played guitar on Pitmanic but left due to ill health.
Andy Cooper rejoined the band shortly before the Drill project was shelved in 2009.
Drill are notable for not using a drummer and for writing industrial rock
Industrial rock
Industrial rock is a musical genre that fuses industrial music and specific rock subgenres. Industrial rock spawned industrial metal, with which it is often confused...
music with time signature
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
and tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
changes within each song and for writing songs that do not follow the typical verse, chorus, bridge etc song structures.
1989 - 1994
Kev Wilkinson and Tony O'Brien started Drill in 1989. Following the success of early demos and support slots with Bomb Disneyland (later to be known as Bomb Everything) and RideRide (band)
Ride were a British alternative rock band that formed in 1988 in Oxford, England, consisting of Andy Bell, Mark Gardener, Laurence "Loz" Colbert, and Steve Queralt. The band were initially part of the "shoegazing" scene. Following the break-up of the band in 1996, members moved on to various other...
the band recorded and released the album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
Skin Down in 1991 on Abstract Sounds. The album was well received by the music press, with Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
describing it as "a musical white knuckle ride". The line up at the this time was:
Kev Wilkinson - vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, Guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, Programming
Programming (music)
Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices, often sequencers or computer programs, to generate music. Programming is used in nearly all forms of electronic music and in most hip hop music since the 1990s. It is also frequently used in modern pop and rock...
Tony O'Brien - Guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
Simon Moore - Bass Guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
Davy Craig - Guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, E-bow
E-Bow
The EBow or ebow is a hand-held, battery-powered electronic device for playing the electric guitar, invented by Greg Heet in 1969...
To promote the album the band was booked to tour the UK with the band Pitchshifter
Pitchshifter (band)
Pitchshifter are a British five-piece electronic-metal band from Nottingham, United Kingdom formed in 1989. The band was started by bassist and vocalist Mark Clayden, lead guitarist and programmer Johnny A...
, however on the eve of the tour the tour bus was involved in a serious road crash during which the tour bus overturned injuring several members of the band.
Davy Craig left the band due to lack of touring, and was replaced by Andy Cooper before the band recorded and released the album White Finger in 1992 again on Abstract Sounds. For one track on the album The sound of rock, they were joined by guest drummer Gary Binns and Chris McCormack from the band Forgodsake
Forgodsake
-Biography:Forgodsake formed in 1990 by Kevin Ridley, Steve Wallace, Drew Gallon, Gary Binns and Chris McCormack. They recorded a demo and signed to Bleeding Hearts Records, toured with bands such as Girlschool and The Wildhearts, then released their debut album, Blasthead, in 1993...
. Chris McCormack later went on to form 3 Colours Red
3 Colours Red
3 Colours Red were a rock band from the United Kingdom. They achieved their biggest chart success at the end of the 1990s, along with other Britrock bands such as Ash and Feeder. The band was named by sticking a pin in a London listings magazine, Time Out...
.
The White Finger album saw the band use sampling
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
and move towards a more electronic sound. Again favorably received, it was described by The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
as sounding like "Freddy Krueger
Freddy Krueger
Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
stalking around Tyneside
Tyneside
Tyneside is a conurbation in North East England, defined by the Office of National Statistics, which is home to over 80% of the population of Tyne and Wear. It includes the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside — all settlements on...
in a thick fog".
The band released the album Paroxysm on Retribution Records in 1993 and the live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
Snuffed on Muza Muza in 1994. The line up of the band for these albums was:
Kev Wilkinson - vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, Guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, Programming
Programming (music)
Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices, often sequencers or computer programs, to generate music. Programming is used in nearly all forms of electronic music and in most hip hop music since the 1990s. It is also frequently used in modern pop and rock...
Tony O'Brien - Guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
Simon Moore - Bass Guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
Rob Meek - Samples
Steve Chahley - Samples/FX
In 1994 the band ceased.
2005 - 2009
In 2005 the band reformed with original members:Kev Wilkinson - vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, Guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, Programming
Programming (music)
Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices, often sequencers or computer programs, to generate music. Programming is used in nearly all forms of electronic music and in most hip hop music since the 1990s. It is also frequently used in modern pop and rock...
Tony O'Brien - Guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
Si Malarkey - Bass Guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
Simon Moore - Bass Guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
Antony Bircham - Guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
They were joined briefly on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
by Mark Lough from Hug Lorenzo, however due to conflicting commitments he left and the band went back to using sequenced drum patterns.
In 2007 Tony O'Brien left the band to be replaced briefly by Dave Francis.
In 2008 the band released the single Pitmanic and album The Last Taboo of America on Saturate with the line up:
Kev Wilkinson - vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, Guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, Programming
Programming (music)
Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices, often sequencers or computer programs, to generate music. Programming is used in nearly all forms of electronic music and in most hip hop music since the 1990s. It is also frequently used in modern pop and rock...
Simon Malarkey - Bass Guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
Antony Bircham - Guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
Simon Moore - Bass Guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
Davy Craig returned briefly and played guitar on Pitmanic but left due to ill health.
Andy Cooper rejoined the band shortly before the Drill project was shelved in 2009.
Discography
- Skin Down (1991 on Abstract Sounds)
- White Finger (1992 on Abstract Sounds)
- Paroxysm (1993 on Retribution Records)
- Snuffed (1994 on Muza Muza)
- Pitmanic (2008 on Saturate)
- The Last Taboo of America (2008 on Saturate)