Terrorvision

Terrorvision were formed in Bradford, (or more accurately the small town of Keighley) West Yorkshire, England in 1987, originally with the moniker "The Spoilt Bratz". After a undeniably wise name change, the band released their first album "Formaldehyde" in 1992. Although showing their obvious Heavy Metal influences, there was a sense of humour and pop leaning which could not be hidden, particularly in their breakthrough single "My House". It was those pop quirks which informed their breakthrough second album "How To Make Friends And Influence People". A collection of exuberant pop-metal classics, it featured the single "Oblivion", which showed off TVs trademark mix of disenfranchised lyrics coupled with enormously catchy tunes, in this case with added "Doo-Wops", giving the band a genuine crossover hit. The singles from HTMFAIP all charted well, propelling the decidedly unfashionable Terrorvision firmly into the mainstream. By the time their third record, "Regular Urban Survivors" was released in 1996, Briptop was firmly established in the mainstream, but perhaps surprisingly Terrorvision thrived. Single "Perseverance" charted at number five (It's awesome "Whales and Dolphins" hook proving irresistable to daytime radio and indie dancefloors alike) and the album was a commercial and critical hit. In many ways a bigger, widescreen sequel to HTMFAIP (with a couple of songs suspiciously close to re-makes - Bad Actress = Middleman, Celebrity Hitlist = Discotheque Wreck...) the cover featured the band larking around as spoof filmstars and was ostensibly a soundtrack to a fictional film - an idea reflected in songs such as "Didn't Bleed Red" (sci-fi) and "Dog Chewed the Handle" (An implausible murder mystery) The band still got in a few digs in at the Briptop elite, with "Superchronic" taking a few swipes at Oasis. The odd man out, though, of Terrorvision albums is without doubt 1998's "Shaving Peaches", a curiously restrained record which in hindsight sounds like an ill-founded attempt to gain a mainstream audience which in truth they probably already had. Basically, TV forgot how to rock. Despite the album selling poorly, it ironically spawned their biggest hit, "Tequila". Admittedly it was a Mint Royale remix of the track which reached number 2, but in truth it didn't differ that much from the original, adding only an irresistably immediate speed-mariachi tempo. The band took this in their stride - where other, cooler bands would have turned their nose up at such psuedo-success, Terrorvison cheekily just learned to play the remix live instead. Dropped from major label EMI after "Shaving Peaches", Terrorvision finally returned in 2001 with the independently released "Good To Go". Probably knowing it would be their final record, it is very much a return to 'classic' Terrorvision and in many ways a return to form. Whilst the record lacks some of their prime period sparkle, the choruses are undeniably huge and the album brims with the band's trademark good time party vibes. "Friends And Family", in particular went down a storm at festivals, with its joyously profane "Party Over Here, Fuck You Over There!" refrain. Terrorvision played their 'final' gig in October 2001, in their hometown of Bradford - a riotous celebration of all things TV which was eventually released as a double live album, "Take The Money And Run". It remains a fact though that every fan present knew that TV were more likely than most to reform for a good time knees up at the drop of a hat - perhaps the biggest surprise is that it took until 2005 for Terrorvision to do a short reformation tour. At the time of writing (Nov 2007) they are playing another handful of dates, though this time without founding bass player Leigh Marklew. In 2008 they reformed again including Leigh Marklew playing a string of dates across the UK. In 2009 they embarked on another short tour which has now been extended. This tour marks the 15th anniversary of How To Make Friends & Influence People & they are playing the album in it's entirety. 4 dates have been played at time of writing with a further 4 to follow on the anniversary tour while further dates are being played as a Greatest Hits concert. TV will also be amongst the headliners at Hard Rock Hell in Prestatyn in December. Since Terrorvision split there have been a number of side projects including Tony Wright's Laika Dog, Leigh Marklew's Malibu Stacey and Mark Yates's Blunderbuss. Ultimately Terrorvision were a wonderful oddity - despite coming from a undeniably Heavy Metal background, the band took the genre, (Which, lets not forget, was in terminal decline during the mid 90s) stripped away the po-faced seriousness, and fashioned a rock party band from the ashes. Often dismissed as a novelty act, TV in truth simply loved what they did, and never once considered being too cool to show it. Mark Yates's urgent, exciting guitars anchored the band musically, but it's Tony Wright's hyper-go-go vocals which truly make the band, delighting in rolling his Yorkshire vowels around wordplay which lyrically is sometimes closer to rap than rock. They never hid behind the too-common pretence of disliking success - Terrorvision celebrated every foray into the mainstream and were never afraid to show it. At the same time, they surely gave a generation of Britpop kids a taste what rock delights could await them - witness the bands cover versions of Iggy Pop's "The Passenger", Cheap Trick's "Surrender", Free's "Wishing Well" or perhaps most bizzarely, their lounge-blues version of Iron Maiden's "Take Your Daughter To the Slaughter". They even dabbled with Paul Oakenfold remixes and their very own handbag-house-rock foray, B-side "Too Stoned To Dance". All hail Terrorvision then, Bradford' finest (and most proud) musical export. 2010 : Terrorvision are back & will play a string of dates throughout summer of 2010,including a slot at Sonisphere Festival. It's also been confirmed on the bands official Myspace page that the band have parted company with long term member & drummer Shutty. Also the band will be recording a new album in the autumn for release in the spring of 2011. 2011 : Super Delux is released to rave reviews on 24th February 2011. The band also embark on a tour to support it. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.