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The Subways

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The Subways
File:The Subways5.jpg
Background information
OriginHertfordshire, England, UK
Years active2003–present
MembersBilly Lunn
Charlotte Cooper
Josh Morgan

The Subways are a British Indie Rock band. The Subways play a variety of indie rock music, featured on their debut album Young For Eternity, which was released on 4 July, 2005 in the UK and February 14th, 2006 in the US.

Band members

The band have an uncommon line-up, consisting of boyfriend and girlfriend (Billy Lunn and Charlotte Cooper), and also, despite the different surnames, two brothers (Billy Lunn and Josh Morgan).

Band biography

Beginnings

The beginnings of The Subways are considered uncommon, in that they began at a very early age right through to their present average ages of 21. The Subways began by playing Nirvana and punk songs in Billy and Josh's lounge, under the name of Mustardseed. They later changed their name to Platypus, and began to tour small, local venues, such as The Square in Harlow, Essex. An early CD of the band playing live was recorded at The Square which they sold at gigs.

As their fame grew, Billy in particular became annoyed with all the different names the band were coming up with. He came up with The Subways, apparently from his days hanging out. "One of the only places where I felt I could refuge and find peace in my old town of Welwyn Garden City was in a subway under the roads and pavements. I would haunt there in between breaks at work and college." Feeling the most free at that time underneath the rat-race of economic town life, he thought it only appropriate to divulge this "free essence" he felt in that subway to the band, where he felt he could truly escape from the drudgery of everyday life. It was during this time that Billy formed a close relationship with Charlotte Cooper who was later to have a huge influence on Lunn's musical career.

Home recordings

File:The Subways6.jpg
The Subways

The band are well known for releasing endless demo's and EP's in their early days when playing the London circuit in the UK. With every batch of new songs that The Subways would compose, Billy Lunn would insist that the band record them. Unfortunately, at such a young age the group had no money with which to go into a studio to record consistently with, so they came upon the idea of buying their own cheap recording system at home. Eventually, the band had their own website www.thesubways.net, which Billy Lunn himself constructed and maintained, where they would put all their new songs up on the internet. Also, through the use of their own home recording system they now had roughly 8 demo's worth of songs both on the internet and being sent out to local and London promotors at various venues. The Subways then began touring endlessly in the local and London area creating a community of fans with each and every gig.

Having the home recording system also proved useful for another one of the bands' real loves : production. The band felt that it would not only benefit themselves, but other local bands who could not afford the studio prices, even in the Welwyn Garden City area. It was here, that Billy and Charlotte both stumbled upon the opportunity that would eventually prove significant for the band. "I was producing a local Welwyn Garden City band in my front lounge one day and I noticed that it was quite good so I asked if they were going to send it to any London venues, because I knew a few that would like it. They said that they were going to send it off to Michael Eavis who runs Glastonbury, and I asked why..." Michael Eavis that year was running an unsigned bands competition to play on the Other Stage, and The Subways decided that would be a great idea. "It was really just another address to send one of our CD's off to. All we wanted was to play shows and this was another great oppertunity. The CD we sent off to Michael Eavis was literally one among a bunch of 30 that were being sent out to London promoters for a load of gigs we wanted to book. We never expected the phonecall saying that we'd won and were to play Glastonbury." Said Cooper on radio.

Progression

Having played Glastonbury's Other Stage around midday on the Saturday, The Subways then found themselves with quite a bit of media attention.

After Glastonbury, The Subways went on to play The Carling Weekend 2004 in both Reading and Leeds, and then proceeded to play their very first (self funded) tour of the UK consisting of 35 dates. Since then, they have been known to keep up their hard working tour habits by playing no less than 40 dates on each tour of the UK.

The band's music caught the attention of many DJs, including the late John Peel, who was the first DJ to play single 1am on National Radio, and more recently Zane Lowe. Unfortunately, some members of the British press, such as journalists at The Sun, only seem to notice the band because of Charlotte's excellent dress sense -- though The Sun did manage to stab the single of the week with 5 stars out of 5, beating the likes of 50 Cent, Jamelia, Estelle and Natalie Imbruglia to the top spot and being described as :

"Star quality, the next big thing? Oh Yeah! So prepare yourself for the awesome power of The Subways..."

The band signed to City Pavement & Infectious Records in late 2004. Their first album, Young For Eternity, which was released on the 4th July 2005 was produced by Lightning Seeds frontman Ian Broudie, with their debut single "Oh Yeah" reaching number 25 in the UK Music Chart in its release week 21 March 2005.

Singer/guitarist Billy Lunn and bassist Charlotte Cooper revealed news of their engagement to the crowd at a gig at the Camden Barfly on July 18th.

Before playing the track "Somewhere", Billy said: "I'm gonna dedicate this next song to my fiancée" as the audience struggled to act interested.

The band took the podcasting scene by storm becoming only the second act in history to debut at #1, when their song "I Want to Hear What You Got to Say," landed at the top spot on Chris Doelle's PMC Top10 podcast January 15, 2006.

They also appeared in the 7th episode of the third season of hit American drama The OC, performing "Rock & Roll Queen" and "Oh Yeah" at the show's fictional nightclub The Bait Shop. Also featured on this episode was the song "I Want To Hear What You Have Got To Say". This performance has raised their profile both in the UK and most notably the USA.

Some of their tracks, such as "She Sun" and "Rock & Roll Queen", are now being used on television adverts for Rimmel cosmetics featuring British supermodel Kate Moss.

In terms of mainstream reception, it has been a mixed bag. Their Metacritic score for their debut record "Young For Eternity" is 70/100. However, the band has also received its fair share of criticism in the past, mainly directed at Charlotte's backing vocals as she appears to adopt an American accent when she sings, which has never been explained and is therefore considered a sign of disrespect towards British fans. They have also been passed off by many music fans and experts as 'derivative' and 'obnoxious'.

The band have currently postponed touring as Billy has lost his voice.

Discography

EPs

  • "The Platypus EP"
  • "I Lost You To The City EP"
  • "Summertime EP"
  • "Rock & Roll Queen EP"
  • "No Heart No Soul EP"
  • "Young For Eternity EP"
  • "At 1am EP"
  • "Milk EP"

Singles

All singles released in CD and 7" format on the Infectious/City Pavement record labels unless otherwise stated.

Albums

Compilations

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