DAWN OF THE REPLICANTS 1996 - 2006
A brief year-by-year bio by paul vickers.
1996
A kitchen table in Galashiels, Scotland, is struck by improvisation. For many the Kirk Brae kitchen table rivalled King Arthur's roundtable. It had seen the birth of cult music magazine Sun Zoom Spark and now we - its wonky young hacks - were to have a 2nd child: Dawn of the Replicants. The records were pressed; the radio stations informed and respond they did. John Peel spun our ditty 'Lisa Box'. Radcliff and Lard flogged the airwaves to death with 'Cocaine on the Catwalk'. The NME did like and the phone did ring white hot with action.
1997
And soon a man did come, much like the man from Delmonte. He said, 'Yes'. He was tall and told us to record an album and release singles. He was from East/West records, home to the Corrs and Mick Hucknall. Prompted by our hat-trick of wonk-rock EPs, The Times did vote us best new band in Britain. NME made sure we got single of the week honours twice.
1998
Our maiden voyage LP "One Head, Two Arms, Two Legs" hit the shops in
earnest. We supported spiritualised at the Astoria as part of the NME
brats nights. Then a spicy dish called "Candlefire" found its way onto
daytime Radio One. We toured with Ultrasound and did our own headlining
trip around the kingdom, as well as rocking the summer crowds at
Glastonbury Reading and Edinburgh festivals. Plus we got on the telly
via ITV’s the chart show, Marc Lamar’s ‘Edinburgh nights’ and Trash
TV’s show ‘Pop down the pub’.
1999
Work hard we did on our next LP. We hoped it would bring us immortality. Abbey Road flung open its doors and backwards strings we did record. It was the fattest sound in all the land. The press loved it. We loved it. But 'Wrong Town, Wrong Planet, Three Hours Late' lived up to its name when East/West wanted no more of the same. 'Science Fiction Freak' made John Peel's festive 50 (and if I don't stop rhyming could someone please hit me?).
2000
Then a busman's holiday began and the Replicants for a while parted. Fellow co-founder Roger Simian and I became the electro duo Pluto Monkey. This involved frequent trips to Oxfordshire, as this was where our new label Shifty Disco had their seat of power. John Peel dished the Monkey a session and our nutty debut LP 'Little Brenda Bluegrass Mission' hit the Kingdom's cooler shops. Melody Maker christened us the 'Vic and Bob of Indie' but this was to be a brief incarnation and after a drunken gig in our homely shire of Galashiels the Monkey did come to a stop as the Replicants phoenix rose again.
2001
Inspired by a successful recording session with London based Chanteuse Hypnotique. It was decided a new Replicants album needed to be recorded. The hunt for a new label, a new sound and a new future began.
2002
This was Dawn of the Replicants comeback year. Armed with a new album 'Touching the Propeller' (released through Flying Sparks imprint Hungry Dog), we set to work. A 5th John Peel session was recorded. Our 'Rockefeller Centre, 1932' single was a-listed on 6 Music and the press loved the album saying it was up there with the best of our late 90s work and that it was great to have us back. We played gigs and people did come and they did clap.
2003
Then that tricky fourth album beckoned and into the studio once more we were banished. Forced to dream it all up again, like a mad crazy Borders Mr. Ben.
2004
At last our fourth album 'The Extra Room' was released from the traps. The album's cover jumped from the record racks portraying us all as country gents in a reading room dressed up in junk box finds. Even fashion bible The Face printed the image in their 'desirable vinyl' section. Bizarrely the Beta Band seemed to have the same idea, getting a family portrait done in the very same room with the very same photographer. 'Oi! Get Your Own Naff CD Cover, Boys' screamed the headline in the Scottish Sun. Apparently it was a case of great minds think alike. Soon after, the Beta Band split, but as ever we soldiered on. Sadly our most famous fan - the father of invention, John Ravenscroft (known to most as Mr Peel) - departed. To the funeral we did go to pay our respects to the great listening man.
2005
This year started with pudding in the oven as 'Bun Magic' was released onto the plates of the media. This mini LP included a barnyard tumbling cover of 'Rhinestone Cowboy'. Bun Magic's mission was to drum up as much hype as we could about our forthcoming trip to Austin, Texas, as we had been accepted to play at the world famous South by Southwest festival. Marc Riley had us in for a session to celebrate, as did radio Scotland's Tom Morton. As for the NME they proclaimed that 'the world would be a much better place if we all took time to remember how utterly fuckerly ace the d.o.t.r are'. We went out to Texas with high spirits, played a damn fine showcase and enjoyed some Texan hospitality from our hosts the Bonnie House Girls. We returned to Scotland and signed to
our fifth label in ten years, SL Records, who were clearly undaunted
by their reputation as Galashiels most difficult ragtag heroes.
2006
This our tenth anniversary. The celebrations started with the release
of our 5th studio album the mighty “FANGS”, arguably our best batch of
songs yet. Mojo gave the spike toothed opus four stars, Q called it “a
lovely album” and NME went loopy saying “they don’t so much plough
their own furrow as invent an entirely new farm in which all the livestock
speak Spanish and wear funny hats”. We toured the isle packing them out
in Glasgow, Brighton, London and Edinburgh, entertaining converts new
and old. MTV spun our pop videos for “Oh, Bumblebee” and “Fix The Air”.
We rattled off sessions of wonky audio gems for Huw Stephens on BBC
Radio One, Vic Galloway on BBC Scotland and Jim Gellatly on Xfm plus
finding time to pop down to abbey road to record our live set for us
based u-pop radio.
It seems the perfect way to wrap the year up is to pop out our singles
compendium “bust the trunk” and its accompanying DVD of Replicants
vision brandy “bust your peepers”.
May melodies and lunacy reign supreme.
