Special Needs

After a five year sabattical, Special Needs returned to action in February with a triumphant sell-out gig at Proud Camden.
Several electric London dates have followed, as well as trips to Norway and the United States.
On November 22nd they embark on their first UK tour for six years and John Kennedy of Xfm has provided a sneak preview of their first new music since that time, by playing their upcoming single 'I Agree With Nick/Stuck in Human Resources' which is released on Monday November 28th 2011.



Reviews:
"Clasp Special Needs' posthumous debut to your hearts, people. Foolishly dropped by Mercury in 2005, the band split in 2006, but leave an epitaph of pure-bred pop class.".
NME, 8/10
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What's On in London
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
"As epitaphs go, Funfairs And Heartbreak is very special indeed." 4 out of 5
The Independent On Sunday
Mixing shambolic indie-rock with dashes of doo-wop harmonies and girl-group backchat, they sound alternately like wide-eyed and legless dreamers, and impassioned, vainglorious self-believers. 7/10
Subba-Cultcha
"Theres narey a duffer on here. And perhaps its the knowledge that well never hear these songs played live, and that this is the entire testimony to what could have been, that every note is beyond reproach. You feel protective of them - youll want to nurture and love this album for the pop masterpiece it is - share it and speak of it in hushed tones - listen to it in darkened rooms and cry.
The Sun
"Any band would be proud of this as a legacy." 7/10
Special Needs was formed in fledgling form in 1998 by London guitarist Daniel Shack and Irish singer Zachery Stephenson. Shack recruited school friend Philip James to play bass. Shack and James moved to [[University of Sheffield]] in the autumn of 1998 and it appeared that the band would never get off the ground. At Sheffield, Shack and James met Andrew Pearson who would join the band on rhythm guitar and convinced Stephenson that the band could still work despite the distance between members. The band played their first gig in September 1999 at the Bull & Gate, Kentish Town. In the first three years several drummers played with the band as they went under the name of Panacea, having originally considered the name Mute Witness. The first of these was former BBC Radio 2 Young Musician of the Year, the violinist Yuri Zhislin.
The band finally located to London in 2001 and deployed former [[The Men They Couldn't Hang]] drummer Jon Odgers. At this time the group, tired with pleading with venues for gigs started their own club night called Funfairs & Heartbreak after a lyric from their demo 'Stick Around.'
At the end of 2002 Neil Allan was recruited on drums and would continue in this role until the band's disbandment.
In 2003, the band began to play more high profile gigs, as John Kennedy of London station [[Xfm]] began to champion the band. All of the band's singles became John Kennedy's 'Single of the Week.' At the start of 2004, Twinstar Revolution released the double a-sided single 'Sylvia' and 'Tarts.' The single was met with some critical acclaim but did not chart.
The band formed close alliances with other bands on the London scene such as The Rocks, The Barbs and Cherubs and embarked on two tours with the former two.
In the summer of 2004, former [[Creation Records]] boss [[Alan McGee]] signed the band to his Poptones label and the band released the single 'Francesca,' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZcpdkKG17A&feature=related 'Francesca' video] which entered the British charts at number 69.
The band's profile continued to rise as the video was featured frequently on [[MTV2]] and by the end of the year the band had signed to [[Mercury Records]]. There was also interest from [[Rough Trade Records|Rough Trade]] but they failed to officially declare their interest until after the day after the group had signed to Mercury.
In September 2004, the band flew to [[Belfast]] at the request of [[Johnny Borrell]] of Razorlight to support them at their Rizla 'Inspired By' gig at Belfast Empire. Borrell also named Andrew Pearson as a person who should have been included in the 2004 [[NME]] Cool List.
Possibly the most tumultuous incident in the band's history occurred around this time when a clearly intoxicated Stephenson punched Pearson on stage at the Infinity in Mayfair and for a while the band's future appeared in doubt. Management moved swiftly to address certain issues and the band continued to function. [[Q magazine]] chose the band as one of their acts to look out for in 2005.
On New Year's Eve 2004, the band played their biggest gig at the [[London Forum]]. In March 2005 the band began recording their album 'Funfairs and Heartbreak' at 2khz studio in Kensal Green with Ian Grimble who had previously engineered albums for [[Manic Street Preachers]] and [[Travis (band)|Travis]]. The band's third single Blue Skies [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSpOeHgZrPE&feature=related Blue Skies video] was released in June 2005 and entered the charts at number 56. The band embarked on several UK tours [http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/articles/2005/05/24/special_needs_review.shtml BBC review] and on the sold out London leg of the tour stopped traffic by arriving at the venue in motorized dodgem cars. The single was runner-up for the NME's Single of the Week and Single of the Week by [[Tom Robinson]] on his [[BBC 6 Music]] show. The band played the 2005 [[Glastonbury Festival]], the 02 [[Wireless Festival]] in [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]] and partook in Channel 4's Road to V competition although they lost out to [[The Young Knives]] who coincidentally supported Special Needs around this time on an NME Tour.
In the autumn of 2005, Mercury Records decided to cancel the band's recording contract. New label management culled many of the bands around this time, including several other bands that had also started out on Alan McGee's [[Poptones]] label such as [[Thee Unstrung]] and [[The Others (band)|The Others]].
At this point, the band decided to change their name to The Needs as they felt the name was a hindrance, anecdotally quoting one booking agent who refused to even listen to their record because of their name.
After several months of discussions with various labels about releasing the album, no offer was on the table and the band, feeling that they were starting to go backwards decided to break up.[http://www.nme.com/news/theneeds/21831 NME article about split]
During 2006 the members of the band were approached by ReAction records with a view to release the album and it was released (under the resumed moniker of Special Needs) in August 2006. The album was very well received,[http://www.re-action.uk.com/SN%20Reviews.html Album reviews] with the NME giving it 8/10 and ''[[The Sun (newspaper)|The Sun]]'' and ''[[The Independent]]'' on Sunday offering glowing reviews. The only exception being a fairly negative review in Q by John Robinson who ironically had previously described the band as 'essential' on his Channel 4 teletext column.




On January 1st 2011, the band announced via Facebook that they had reformed with Nicholas Bukowski (formerly of The Rocks) replacing Neil Allan on drums, who has returned to his home country of Scotland.