BIOGRAPHY 2007
Steve Lomax - guitar/vocals. Mal Bruk - guitar/vocals.
Mathias Stady - bass. Phil Martini - drums/vocals.
Back in 2003/ ‘04 with the runaway success of The Darkness in full flight, it suddenly seemed as if the UK music scene might succumb to a full classic rock revival. Confused A&R’s at the major labels were obliged to seek out their own fledgling rock act, and at Island it was Tokyo Dragons – by then a hit with the UK’s press corps elated by the band’s obvious showmanship and anthemic hard rock delivery – who registered strongest on the radar. Already with a single option on the band through a fortunately short-lived MTV hook up, both their Island deal and future producer Pedro Ferreira (who had recently delivered the ‘Permission To Land’ album), were effectively secured one evening at London’s Borderline venue, a pivotal show also attended by The Datsuns, who were so impressed they immediately invited them to join them on their forthcoming UK tour. The Dragons naturally said yes to it all and quickly decamped to Rockfield Studios to record their debut. Over the next few months the band released a trio of singles ‘Teenage Screamers’, ‘Get ‘Em Off’ & ‘What The Hell’ while touring their butts off with Do Me Bad Things, The Datsuns, Winnebago Deal, Therapy?, Mooney Suzuki, and even boogie granddads, Status Quo.
But the anticipated revolt into denim never happened and within a matter of months the labels were offloading their newly acquired rosters like they were going out of fashion (which, of course, they were). Most quickly fell by the wayside and were soon forgotten. But for the Dragons, who had been hard at it since the dawn of the new millennium, performing shows at the shabbiest of rock-holes with the joie de vivre one might expect from a band headlining their first stadium, the commitment was more than skin deep, and it showed. New label, the Swedish based Escapi Music weren’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, quickly stepping into the breach to release the thunderous debut ‘Give Me The Fear’ to great acclaim in September 2005. Normal service resumed, the band began the first of many forays into Europe and the US where the debut had been released that October.
And here they are back with more in the proud form of follow up ‘Hot Nuts’ (could we get away with calling it ‘the wryly titled’? – er; no). They’ve stuck by their guns and continued to ignore that little sad voice in everyone's head which warns 'Be cool', instead stepping up onto the stage with the question 'Why be cool?' posed at raging volume. They've shown that the best way to become a Rock star is to be a Rock star.
After hammering around the European festival circuit last summer, and the release of stop-gap ‘Come On Baby’ mini-album (a collection of live tracks and unavailable studio cuts), the band headed to America last autumn to record their second long-player, this time helmed by producer Kurt Bloch (Nashville Pussy – ‘Let Them Eat Pussy’, ‘High As Hell’, Supersuckers ‘Evil Powers Of Rock 'n' Roll’) at Seattle’s legendary Litho (owned by Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard) & Avast studios (the entire class of Seattle,1990 - present day has recorded there). Laid down on a subsistence diet of “fish burritos, cold Heineken & Cheap Trick”, singer Steve Lomax describes the new album thus; “We wanted to make a record that combined the raw power of the MC5’s ‘High Times’ with the groove of ZZ Top”. And a few weeks on – returning home via a devastating CMJ show in New York – the band were safe in the knowledge that they had achieved that - a great rock’n’roll record was in the can. ‘Hot Nuts’ amalgamates more 70’s American rock influences than it’s Brit-rock predecessor, especially the likes of Cheap Trick & Tom Petty who can be found rubbing shoulders with the more familiar Thin Lizzy & Motorhead influences, and a cover of Todd Rundgren’s classic ‘Couldn’t I Just Tell You’ seals the deal.
Tones Sansom/ Steve Jelbert, July ‘07
