Skint & Demoralised
Encyclopedia
Skint & Demoralised are a UK
lyric
-based alternative indie/pop
act, fronted by 22-year-old Matt Abbott from Wakefield
, West Yorkshire
and produced by MiNI dOG from Sheffield
, South Yorkshire
.
teenager Matt Abbott started doing stand-up performance poetry
in late 2006. With comical themes such as tales from Seaside towns and tragic nights-out, he was often a hit with a pleasantly surprised audience. This was mainly in the West Yorkshire
area, and included support slots for Reverend and the Makers
, Last Gang and The Research
. He also performed for Love Music Hate Racism
and his unusual style soon earned him a name locally.
Abbott temporarily ceased to perform poetry when he was contacted on MySpace
by MiNI dOG, with whom he began to write. MiNI dOG began to turn Abbott's poetry into songs by chopping them apart and laying them over backing tracks before the two had even met. However, after meeting the pair developed a strong songwriting partnership, with Abbott writing lyrics and MiNI dOG writing the music and producing the demos. His poetry soon evolved into a more lyrical style, although the spoken word delivery and also the style in which they are written remained very true to his poetic beginning.
After uploading demos onto MySpace
, free download sites and also posting CDs out to DJs, the band were played and interviewed on various radio shows including Steve Lamacq
on BBC Radio 1
and BBC 6 Music
, Shamir Masri's 'Raw Talent' on BBC Radio Sheffield
and on Yorkshire Radio
. The band also received airplay on BBC Radio 1
from Colin Murray
and Huw Stephens
and played a Maida Vale
live session for Steve Lamacq on 3 March 2008.
One of the most notable features of the band's initial success was the sheer volume of free downloads from their site. Demo recordings were uploaded as soon as they were finished and from June 2007 to March 2008 they had over 8600 downloads in total.
Having originally planned to release a limited edition single on Stiff Records
, the band signed to Mercury Records
on the 18th March (part of the Universal Music Group
). However, over the summer of 2010 the act parted company with the label.
area, Skint & Demoralised only performed ten gigs before signing their record deal, all of which were in Sheffield
and Wakefield
.
Their first headline Tour was in February 2009 and included dates in Sheffield
, Glasgow
, Manchester
, Oxford
, Birmingham
, Brighton
, London
, Leeds
and finally Southampton
. One particular feature of the live set included Matt Abbott's spoken word poems. During this Tour, he would perform the anti-racism poem "BNP: Nazis on the Doorstep" without a microphone and usually climbed on top of a nearby monitor or fixture to do so, thus raising him a few feet above the crowd.
He has supported and performed with Love Music Hate Racism
since he very first began and has often spoken of his support for the organisation in interviews as well as in Blogs.
In March 2009 he supported one of his main idols - John Cooper Clarke
- at The Duchess in York
as part of a string of Spring dates before the next single campaign, including many headline shows across the North of England.
The band performed at several new music festivals in 2009 such as Camden Crawl in London
and The Great Escape
in Brighton
as well as major festivals such as Glastonbury Festival
, Wireless Festival
in Hyde Park
, London
, Latitude Festival
in Suffolk
, Leeds and Reading Festival
and Bestival
on the Isle of Wight
.
Over the summer of 2010, Abbott performed several Stand-up comedy
gigs which included dates at Latitude Festival
and Leeds Festival
.
in June 2008 with legendary Funk
/Soul
session band The Dap-Kings
at The Daptone Studios in Brooklyn, New York. The Dap-Kings are most known in the UK
for their work on Amy Winehouse
's Back to Black
album and Mark Ronson
's Version
.
The second half of the session was at RAK Studios
in St John's Wood
, London
and the album's producer
was MiNI dOG. MiNI dOG also mixed eight of the tracks, with the other four being mixed by Jeremy Wheatley.
However, the album was leaked online months before it was due to be released, which included full-length promotional copies being sold on eBay
and large numbers of downloads through illegal file sharing
. It was never officially released by Mercury Records, and will be released by new label Heist Or Hit alongside the band's second album This Sporting Life.
/BBC Radio 2
/BBC 6 Music
DJ
Steve Lamacq
that led to them gaining attention from several major labels
. They received national airplay from Lamacq as well as his fellow BBC Radio 1
DJs
Huw Stephens
and Colin Murray
before they were signed and performed a live session for Lamacq at the Maida Vale Studios
in March 2008.
Their first national acclaim in the press came in August 2008 as a "Next Big Thing" from Q Magazine
; an accolade soon followed by Clash Magazine
, The Independent
, The Scottish Sun and The Sunday Times' Culture
magazine before the end of 2008, as well as several online journals.
The Guardian
also named them as their 'New Band of the Day' on 12 January 2009.
The infamous "3am Girls" in the Daily Mirror are also early supporters of the band, and when they released their first single they enjoyed many national radio plays on BBC Radio 1
, BBC Radio 2
, Xfm
and Absolute Radio as well as being on the B-List at BBC 6 Music
. DJ
s such as Sara Cox
, Zane Lowe
, Colin Murray
, Huw Stephens
, Steve Lamacq
, Nick Grimshaw
, Annie Mac
, Dermot O'Leary
, Janice Long
, and Chris Moyles
have expressed their support for the act.
As well as a TV appearance and performance on Loose Women
, they enjoyed national airplay over the summer of 2009 with their single "Red Lipstick", spending several weeks on the BBC Radio 1
B-List and being chosen as the "Weekend Anthem" by Sara Cox
.
movement since performing spoken word at one of their gigs in April 2007. He performs a spoken word piece at every gig entitled 'Nazis on the Doorstep' which criticises the basis of the British National Party
's policies and constantly speaks out against them on his social network sites.
Through working with LMHR he has performed at and helped to organised gigs and carnivals nationwide, delivered workshops in schools across the Yorkshire
area around election time and given talks at the Unite Against Fascism
National Conferences in London.
He has also worked with trade union
s such as GMB
, particularly around the 2009 Leeds refuse workers strike
. Despite being an active member of the Liberal Democrats
at the age of 16 and strongly opposing the Iraq War, Abbott is now a committed voter for the Labour Party.
and Facebook
pages that the band would be reforming, after it was initially announced over a year ago that they had in fact split in favour of a solo project from Abbott. A second album was written and recorded in the last few months of the year at MiNI dOG's home studio in Sheffield.
Videos were made for demo tracks from the second album, setting the songs to stills from Abbott's favourite films including A Taste of Honey
, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
, L'Appartement
, Amélie
and Trainspotting
.
With a new band composed of Abbott's closest friends from Wakefield, live dates began to gather pace over spring 2011 and the band announced that they'd signed a deal with Indie label Heist Or Hit Records
. Both the band's new album This Sporting Life and their previously unreleased debut Love And Other Catastrophes
were released as a 2CD Bonus Edition on 2 August 2011.
The new album was named after the 1963 Wakefield
-based kitchen-sink
drama of the same name
and was recorded at MiNI dOG's home studio in Sheffield
between August and November 2010.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
lyric
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
-based alternative indie/pop
Indie pop
Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...
act, fronted by 22-year-old Matt Abbott from Wakefield
Wakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
and produced by MiNI dOG from Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
, South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...
.
History
Skint & Demoralised began when WakefieldWakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
teenager Matt Abbott started doing stand-up performance poetry
Performance poetry
Performance poetry is poetry that is specifically composed for or during a performance before an audience. During the 1980s, the term came into popular usage to describe poetry written or composed for performance rather than print distribution.-History:...
in late 2006. With comical themes such as tales from Seaside towns and tragic nights-out, he was often a hit with a pleasantly surprised audience. This was mainly in the West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
area, and included support slots for Reverend and the Makers
Reverend and The Makers
Reverend and The Makers are an indie pop band based in Sheffield, England and signed to Wall of Sound. The band is fronted by Jon McClure, nicknamed "The Reverend"...
, Last Gang and The Research
The Research
The Research were a band from Wakefield, England. The members were : Russell 'The Disaster' Searle , Georgia Lashbrook , and Sarah Williams...
. He also performed for Love Music Hate Racism
Love Music Hate Racism
Love Music Hate Racism is a music-oriented campaign based in Britain by the Anti-Nazi League and Unite Against Fascism. The campaign involves concerts aimed at spreading an anti-racist message...
and his unusual style soon earned him a name locally.
Abbott temporarily ceased to perform poetry when he was contacted on MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
by MiNI dOG, with whom he began to write. MiNI dOG began to turn Abbott's poetry into songs by chopping them apart and laying them over backing tracks before the two had even met. However, after meeting the pair developed a strong songwriting partnership, with Abbott writing lyrics and MiNI dOG writing the music and producing the demos. His poetry soon evolved into a more lyrical style, although the spoken word delivery and also the style in which they are written remained very true to his poetic beginning.
After uploading demos onto MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
, free download sites and also posting CDs out to DJs, the band were played and interviewed on various radio shows including Steve Lamacq
Steve Lamacq
Steve Lamacq , sometimes known by his nicknames Lammo or "The Cat" is an English disc jockey, currently working with the BBC radio stations BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 2.-Early career:He was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire...
on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
and BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
, Shamir Masri's 'Raw Talent' on BBC Radio Sheffield
BBC Radio Sheffield
BBC Radio Sheffield is the BBC Local Radio service for English metropolitan county of South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire. This includes the city of Sheffield, plus Doncaster, Barnsley, Rotherham, Chesterfield and surrounding areas. It was the BBC local radio station, beginning on 15 November 1967...
and on Yorkshire Radio
Yorkshire Radio
Yorkshire Radio is a British digital radio station broadcasting to Yorkshire on DAB. The station is owned by Leeds United A.F.C. and broadcasts live coverage of all first-team games, plus pop music from the 1960s to the present day.-History:...
. The band also received airplay on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
from Colin Murray
Colin Murray
Colin Murray is a Northern Irish sports and music radio and television presenter. He is the current host of the BBC Television show Match of the Day 2 on BBC Two, and the BBC Radio 5 Live shows 5 Live Sport and Fighting Talk, as well as a show on BBC Radio Ulster. He has previously hosted regular...
and Huw Stephens
Huw Stephens
Huw Stephens is a radio presenter currently broadcasting shows on BBC Radio 1.-Early life and career:Stephens was born in Cardiff, Wales, the son of the author and literary journalist Meic Stephens...
and played a Maida Vale
Maida Vale
Maida Vale is a residential district in West London between St John's Wood and Kilburn. It is part of the City of Westminster. The area is mostly residential, and mainly affluent, consisting of many large late Victorian and Edwardian blocks of mansion flats...
live session for Steve Lamacq on 3 March 2008.
One of the most notable features of the band's initial success was the sheer volume of free downloads from their site. Demo recordings were uploaded as soon as they were finished and from June 2007 to March 2008 they had over 8600 downloads in total.
Having originally planned to release a limited edition single on Stiff Records
Stiff Records
Stiff Records is a record label created in London in 1976, by entrepreneurs Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman , and active until 1985. It was reactivated in 2007....
, the band signed to Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
on the 18th March (part of the Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
). However, over the summer of 2010 the act parted company with the label.
Live performances
With a live band of musicians from the SheffieldSheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
area, Skint & Demoralised only performed ten gigs before signing their record deal, all of which were in Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
and Wakefield
Wakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
.
Their first headline Tour was in February 2009 and included dates in Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
and finally Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
. One particular feature of the live set included Matt Abbott's spoken word poems. During this Tour, he would perform the anti-racism poem "BNP: Nazis on the Doorstep" without a microphone and usually climbed on top of a nearby monitor or fixture to do so, thus raising him a few feet above the crowd.
He has supported and performed with Love Music Hate Racism
Love Music Hate Racism
Love Music Hate Racism is a music-oriented campaign based in Britain by the Anti-Nazi League and Unite Against Fascism. The campaign involves concerts aimed at spreading an anti-racist message...
since he very first began and has often spoken of his support for the organisation in interviews as well as in Blogs.
In March 2009 he supported one of his main idols - John Cooper Clarke
John Cooper Clarke
John Cooper Clarke is an English performance poet who first became famous during the punk rock era of the late 1970s when he became known as a "punk poet"...
- at The Duchess in York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
as part of a string of Spring dates before the next single campaign, including many headline shows across the North of England.
The band performed at several new music festivals in 2009 such as Camden Crawl in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and The Great Escape
The Great Escape Festival
The Great Escape Festival is a major music festival that covers all genres of music and is held in the city of Brighton every year over 3 days in May. The dates for 2012 are May 10th to 12th. It kick starts the festival season, introducing 15,000 music lovers to the key artists and sounds of the...
in Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
as well as major festivals such as Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
, Wireless Festival
Wireless Festival
The Wireless Festival is a music festival in England that takes place every year in Hyde Park, London, and took place at Harewood House, Leeds in 2006 and 2007. It is owned and managed by Live Nation....
in Hyde Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Latitude Festival
Latitude Festival
The Latitude Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk, England. It was first held in July 2006....
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, Leeds and Reading Festival
Leeds Festival
Leeds Festival may refer to:*Reading and Leeds Festivals , a rock music festival in Leeds , West Yorkshire, England*Leeds Festival , European classical music festival in Leeds...
and Bestival
Bestival
Bestival is a four-day music festival held at the Robin Hill country park on the Isle of Wight, England. It has been held annually in late summer since 2004. The event is organized by DJ and record producer Rob da Bank and is an off-shoot of his Sunday Best record label and club nights. The initial...
on the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
.
Over the summer of 2010, Abbott performed several Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
gigs which included dates at Latitude Festival
Latitude Festival
The Latitude Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk, England. It was first held in July 2006....
and Leeds Festival
Leeds Festival
Leeds Festival may refer to:*Reading and Leeds Festivals , a rock music festival in Leeds , West Yorkshire, England*Leeds Festival , European classical music festival in Leeds...
.
Debut album
Skint & Demoralised began recording their debut album Love And Other CatastrophesLove and Other Catastrophes (album)
-Personnel:*Written by Abbott/Gledhill*Produced by MiNI dOG*Performed by The Dap-Kings, David Gledhill, Tracey Wilkinson, Eddie Hick, Matt Abbott*Mixed by MiNI dOG, except for tracks 3, 5, 8, 9 and 11 which were mixed by Jeremy Wheatley...
in June 2008 with legendary Funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
/Soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
session band The Dap-Kings
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings are a funk/soul band. They are signed to Daptone Records, where the Dap-Kings are the house band. They are spearheads of a revivalist movement that aims to capture the essence of funk/soul music as it was at its height in the mid-1960s to mid-1970s...
at The Daptone Studios in Brooklyn, New York. The Dap-Kings are most known in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
for their work on Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse
Amy Jade Winehouse was an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful deep contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse's 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize...
's Back to Black
Back to Black
Back to Black is the second studio album by English recording artist Amy Winehouse, released on 27 October 2006 by Island Records. It is the last album released in her lifetime. The album incorporates 1960s soul music styles and modern R&B production, with subjective lyrics that concern...
album and Mark Ronson
Mark Ronson
Mark Daniel Ronson is an English DJ, guitarist, music producer, artist and co-founder of Allido Records. He currently works with his band under the music alias of Mark Ronson & The Business Intl....
's Version
Version (album)
-iTunes digital edition:-Japanese CD edition:-Chart performance:-Release history:-External links:* at MetaCritic...
.
The second half of the session was at RAK Studios
RAK studios
RAK Studios are located near Regents Park in central London. The Studios were created by Mickie Most in late 1976 and they have been host to the recording of a number of artists for over three decades.- Artists recorded at RAK :All info from artist list....
in St John's Wood
St John's Wood
St John's Wood is a district of north-west London, England, in the City of Westminster, and at the north-west end of Regent's Park. It is approximately 2.5 miles north-west of Charing Cross. Once part of the Great Middlesex Forest, it was later owned by the Knights of St John of Jerusalem...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and the album's producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
was MiNI dOG. MiNI dOG also mixed eight of the tracks, with the other four being mixed by Jeremy Wheatley.
However, the album was leaked online months before it was due to be released, which included full-length promotional copies being sold on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
and large numbers of downloads through illegal file sharing
File sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
. It was never officially released by Mercury Records, and will be released by new label Heist Or Hit alongside the band's second album This Sporting Life.
Critical acclaim
Skint & Demoralised enjoyed critical acclaim from a very early stage in their career, and in particular it was the praise of BBC Radio 1BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
/BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
/BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
Steve Lamacq
Steve Lamacq
Steve Lamacq , sometimes known by his nicknames Lammo or "The Cat" is an English disc jockey, currently working with the BBC radio stations BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 2.-Early career:He was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire...
that led to them gaining attention from several major labels
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
. They received national airplay from Lamacq as well as his fellow BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
DJs
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
Huw Stephens
Huw Stephens
Huw Stephens is a radio presenter currently broadcasting shows on BBC Radio 1.-Early life and career:Stephens was born in Cardiff, Wales, the son of the author and literary journalist Meic Stephens...
and Colin Murray
Colin Murray
Colin Murray is a Northern Irish sports and music radio and television presenter. He is the current host of the BBC Television show Match of the Day 2 on BBC Two, and the BBC Radio 5 Live shows 5 Live Sport and Fighting Talk, as well as a show on BBC Radio Ulster. He has previously hosted regular...
before they were signed and performed a live session for Lamacq at the Maida Vale Studios
Maida Vale Studios
Maida Vale Studios is a complex of seven BBC studios on Delaware Road, Maida Vale, London.It has been used to record thousands of classical music, popular music and drama sessions for BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 from 1946 to the present...
in March 2008.
Their first national acclaim in the press came in August 2008 as a "Next Big Thing" from Q Magazine
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
; an accolade soon followed by Clash Magazine
Clash (magazine)
Clash is a popular music and fashion magazine based in the United Kingdom. Its magazine title is published 12 times a year. It has a circulation of around 40,000....
, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, The Scottish Sun and The Sunday Times' Culture
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
magazine before the end of 2008, as well as several online journals.
The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
also named them as their 'New Band of the Day' on 12 January 2009.
The infamous "3am Girls" in the Daily Mirror are also early supporters of the band, and when they released their first single they enjoyed many national radio plays on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
, BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
, Xfm
Xfm
Xfm is a brand of two commercial radio stations focused on alternative music, primarily indie pop, and owned by Global Radio.-History:Xfm was created in London in 1992 by Sammy Jacob, who later co-founded NME Radio in 2008. Xfm subsequently expanded to a network of four stations; there are...
and Absolute Radio as well as being on the B-List at BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
. DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
s such as Sara Cox
Sara Cox
Sara Cox , known as "Coxy", is an English TV presenter and radio DJ, most well known for presenting the breakfast show on BBC Radio 1 between 2000 and 2003...
, Zane Lowe
Zane Lowe
Zane Lowe also known as 'Zipper', is a radio DJ and television presenter. He was born in New Zealand and grew up in Auckland, where he was a presenter on the local music station Max TV, before moving to England...
, Colin Murray
Colin Murray
Colin Murray is a Northern Irish sports and music radio and television presenter. He is the current host of the BBC Television show Match of the Day 2 on BBC Two, and the BBC Radio 5 Live shows 5 Live Sport and Fighting Talk, as well as a show on BBC Radio Ulster. He has previously hosted regular...
, Huw Stephens
Huw Stephens
Huw Stephens is a radio presenter currently broadcasting shows on BBC Radio 1.-Early life and career:Stephens was born in Cardiff, Wales, the son of the author and literary journalist Meic Stephens...
, Steve Lamacq
Steve Lamacq
Steve Lamacq , sometimes known by his nicknames Lammo or "The Cat" is an English disc jockey, currently working with the BBC radio stations BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 2.-Early career:He was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire...
, Nick Grimshaw
Nick Grimshaw
Nicholas Peter "Nick" Grimshaw is a British television and radio presenter. Commonly known as 'Grimmy', he has presented shows for Channel 4, E4, BBC One, BBC Two and Channel 4 youth strand T4...
, Annie Mac
Annie Mac
Annie Mac is an Irish DJ and television presenter who hosts an eponymous electronic dance music show on BBC Radio 1 in the United Kingdom which airs at 7:00 pm on Friday evenings as well as a Sunday evening show alongside co-presenter Nick Grimshaw.-Personal life:Annie Mac was born in Dublin,...
, Dermot O'Leary
Dermot O'Leary
Dermot O'Leary is an English television and radio presenter. He established himself as a presenter of Big Brother's Little Brother on Channel 4 before moving on to The X Factor on ITV. O'Leary has also presented on the BBC and has his own radio show on BBC Radio 2...
, Janice Long
Janice Long
Janice Long is an English radio broadcaster currently working on BBC Radio 2. Her show is on Sunday to Thursday nights from midnight to 02:00. She is the older sister of TV and radio personality Keith Chegwin.-Early career:...
, and Chris Moyles
Chris Moyles
Christopher David Moyles is an English radio and television presenter and author, who currently presents The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 and Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on Channel 4....
have expressed their support for the act.
As well as a TV appearance and performance on Loose Women
Loose Women
Loose Women is a British lunchtime television programme, first broadcast in 1999 on ITV. It consists of a panel of four women who interview celebrities and discuss topical issues, ranging from daily politics and current affairs, to celebrity gossip...
, they enjoyed national airplay over the summer of 2009 with their single "Red Lipstick", spending several weeks on the BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
B-List and being chosen as the "Weekend Anthem" by Sara Cox
Sara Cox
Sara Cox , known as "Coxy", is an English TV presenter and radio DJ, most well known for presenting the breakfast show on BBC Radio 1 between 2000 and 2003...
.
Political activism
Matt Abbott has been a keen supporter of the non-profit Love Music Hate RacismLove Music Hate Racism
Love Music Hate Racism is a music-oriented campaign based in Britain by the Anti-Nazi League and Unite Against Fascism. The campaign involves concerts aimed at spreading an anti-racist message...
movement since performing spoken word at one of their gigs in April 2007. He performs a spoken word piece at every gig entitled 'Nazis on the Doorstep' which criticises the basis of the British National Party
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
's policies and constantly speaks out against them on his social network sites.
Through working with LMHR he has performed at and helped to organised gigs and carnivals nationwide, delivered workshops in schools across the Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
area around election time and given talks at the Unite Against Fascism
Unite Against Fascism
Unite Against Fascism is an anti-fascist pressure group in the United Kingdom, with support from politicians of all mainstream UK political parties...
National Conferences in London.
He has also worked with trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s such as GMB
GMB Union
The GMB is a general trade union in the United Kingdom, and has more than 600,000 members. Its members are drawn from many sectors, with particular strength amongst manual workers in local government and the health service...
, particularly around the 2009 Leeds refuse workers strike
2009 Leeds refuse workers strike
The 2009 Leeds refuse workers strike was an eleven week industrial dispute in City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England between Leeds City Council and the city's binmen.-Background:...
. Despite being an active member of the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
at the age of 16 and strongly opposing the Iraq War, Abbott is now a committed voter for the Labour Party.
Reformation in 2010 and Second Album
On 21 September 2010, Abbott announced via his TwitterTwitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
and Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
pages that the band would be reforming, after it was initially announced over a year ago that they had in fact split in favour of a solo project from Abbott. A second album was written and recorded in the last few months of the year at MiNI dOG's home studio in Sheffield.
Videos were made for demo tracks from the second album, setting the songs to stills from Abbott's favourite films including A Taste of Honey
A Taste of Honey (film)
A Taste of Honey is a 1961 British film adaptation of the play of the same name by Shelagh Delaney. Delaney adapted the screenplay herself, aided by director Tony Richardson, who had previously directed the first production of the play...
, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (film)
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a 1960 British film. It is an adaptation of the 1958 novel of the same name by Alan Sillitoe. Sillitoe wrote the screenplay adaptation and the film was directed by Karel Reisz.-Synopsis:...
, L'Appartement
L'Appartement
L'Appartement is a 1996 French film directed by Gilles Mimouni and starring Vincent Cassel, Monica Bellucci and Romane Bohringer.-Plot:Max is a former bohemian and an amateur writer who gets a job in New York and leaves his girlfriend Lisa, who he was madly in love with, in mysterious circumstances...
, Amélie
Amélie
Amélie is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre...
and Trainspotting
Trainspotting (film)
Trainspotting is a 1996 British satirical/drama film directed by Danny Boyle based on the novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh. The movie follows a group of heroin addicts in a late 1980s economically depressed area of Edinburgh and their passage through life...
.
With a new band composed of Abbott's closest friends from Wakefield, live dates began to gather pace over spring 2011 and the band announced that they'd signed a deal with Indie label Heist Or Hit Records
Heist Or Hit Records
Heist Or Hit Records is an independent record label located in Ashford, Surrey and Manchester, founded in late 2007 by Mick Scholefield. Its most notable signees are The Answering Machine, LoveLikeFire, Rapids! and Pomegranates....
. Both the band's new album This Sporting Life and their previously unreleased debut Love And Other Catastrophes
Love and Other Catastrophes (album)
-Personnel:*Written by Abbott/Gledhill*Produced by MiNI dOG*Performed by The Dap-Kings, David Gledhill, Tracey Wilkinson, Eddie Hick, Matt Abbott*Mixed by MiNI dOG, except for tracks 3, 5, 8, 9 and 11 which were mixed by Jeremy Wheatley...
were released as a 2CD Bonus Edition on 2 August 2011.
The new album was named after the 1963 Wakefield
Wakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
-based kitchen-sink
Kitchen sink realism
Kitchen sink realism is a term coined to describe a British cultural movement which developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose 'heroes' usually could be described as angry young men...
drama of the same name
This Sporting Life
This Sporting Life is a 1963 British film based on a novel of the same name by David Storey which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award. It tells the story of a rugby league footballer, Frank Machin, in Wakefield, a mining area of Yorkshire, whose romantic life is not as successful as his sporting...
and was recorded at MiNI dOG's home studio in Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
between August and November 2010.
Albums
- Love And Other CatastrophesLove and Other Catastrophes (album)-Personnel:*Written by Abbott/Gledhill*Produced by MiNI dOG*Performed by The Dap-Kings, David Gledhill, Tracey Wilkinson, Eddie Hick, Matt Abbott*Mixed by MiNI dOG, except for tracks 3, 5, 8, 9 and 11 which were mixed by Jeremy Wheatley...
(unofficial promo release 2009, full release 2 August 2011) - This Sporting Life (2 August 2011)
Singles
- "The Thrill of Thirty Seconds" (17 November 2008)
- "This Song Is Definitely Not About You" (2 March 2009)
- "Red Lipstick" (13 July 2009, UK #100)
- "The Lonely Hearts of England"/"43 Degrees" (4 July 2011)
- "Hogmanay Heroes" (12 September 2011)
External links
- http://www.youtube.com/user/SkintandDemoralisedOfficial Skint & Demoralised YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
channel] - http://www.twitter.com/iammattabbottMatt Abbott on TwitterTwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
]