¡Forward, Russia!

¡Forward, Russia!
¡Forward, Russia!
	File:ForwardRussia.jpg
Background information
Origin	Leeds, England, United Kingdom
Years active	2004 to present
Members	Tom - voice, synth ; Rob - bass ; Katie - drums, shouts ; Whiskas - guitar, shouts

¡Forward, Russia! are an English Indie band from Leeds, formed in the Spring of 2004. The band were particularly well known for its decision to only name tracks with numbers, however the band have decided to stop this tradition, and did so after the release of Give Me A Wall with the track Don't be a Doctor. The band is also famous for it's ¡! logo, which is an increasingly popular t-shirt design.

History

¡Forward, Russia! formed in early 2004 from the embers of Leeds band The Black Helicopters, of which Tom and Rob were members. They joined siblings Whiskas and Katie, and the band performed their first gig in April, closely followed by demos which recieved positive reviews from prominent music magazines such as Drowned in Sound and, more importantly, NME, who called it "Convulsing punk-funk brilliance from Leeds".

In April 2005, ¡Forward, Russia! released 'Nine', a split 7" single with This Et Al, released on ¡Forward, Russia! guitarist Whiskas' label Dance to the radio. BBC Radio 1 and 6Music DJ Steve Lamacq was a fan. This single was reviewed by NME who put it on their 'Radar'. It was this kind of media coverage that led to the single selling out in a week, and now becoming a coveted collectors item for fans.

The band then began to get their first major breaks in the summer of 2005. By this time, Katie had finished college and others had quit their jobs to take up the band full-time. Tour supports for Editors and VHS or Beta, whilst also appearing at major festivals such as Truck and the Carling Weekend

Double A-side 'Thirteen/Fourteen' was released in August 2005 on White Heat Records, accompanied by a UK tour. Also during 2005, the band was featured in NME as one of Leeds' forerunners in the so-called New Yorkshire scene. This was followed by several support slots and culminated in the band's first headline UK tour, which took the band to 37 different venues.

¡Forward, Russia!'s next release, 'Twelve' appeared in January 2006, on Dance to the radio, and became their first chart hit, entering the UK Top 40 at 36. After further touring, the band announced that their next single, a new version of 'Nine', would be released on May 1 2006, and would be followed by a debut album 'Give Me A Wall' on May 15 2006.

The band toured with US band We Are Scientists in early 2006 and they played alongside The Automatic, The Long Blondes, Howling Bells and Boy Kill Boy in the 2006 NME New Music Tour.

It was around this time that the first signs of Toms' electronic side project, AnteAter, began to show, with Woodhead making a myspace page for it in early February 2006. Featuring no vocals on the tracks previewed, fans are still unclear on the direction of the venture

Scotland's T in the Park festival was graced by the Leeds quartet, playing at the "Futures Stage" tent on the Saturday evening (8th July). They also played Hi-Fi North Festival, opening at the main stage to a disappointingly small audience (to quote Tom "the next song is Nine, which is about how many people we have watching at the moment").

Playing live at Summer Sundae, August 2006

Eighteen, the fourth track to be lifted from the album, was released on the 24th July on CD, coloured 7" and regular 7". B sides are Six and Fourteen, and remixes of Eighteen by Yes Boss, the Rollercoaster Project, :( and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.

Towards the end of the year, the band are scheduled to play in the MTV2 Brand Spanking New Music tour along with Fields, The Maccabees and Wolfmother. They also played in Leeds and Reading at the Carling Weekend Festival this year, appearing on the NME/BBC Radio One Stage.

August 2006 saw the band perform at Holland's Lowlands festival, where Russia performed their first non-numbered song. Instead of being called 'Twenty' (the twentieth song the band have written), the song is called 'Don't be a Doctor'. It is expected that other songs will continue to be named instead of numbers.

A recent mailing list e-mail indicated that Forward Russia plans to release an EP based around their already twice released Nine, featuring 4 other non-album tracks and remixes. The CD is expected to be released in the US during October 2006.

Influence

Forward, Russia are most noted in the mainstream due to confusion over their name (the upside down exclamation mark often mistaken for the letter i, leading people to call the band 'i forward russia'), which led the band to have a declaration on their myspace page to put fans right.

Also noted is the popularity of the band's shirts, and the ambiguous nature of both the band's trademark logo and their name often leads to questions regarding the shirt to wearers. At Leeds festival, the sheer number of fans wearing these shirts led to bystanders asking if this was a 'cult'.

Surprisingly for such a new band with only one album, Forward Russia already have a tribute act, called Give me a tree. The band, based in the Manchester area, features members of unsigned act Jack and the Free Trees. Forward Russia have actually noted the effort of this tribute, with Katie, during an instore appearance at Piccadilly records stating that the band were 'ace' an then proceeding to do an impersonation of Give me a Tree's a capella version of Eleven. Forward Russia then left a message on Give me a Tree's myspace telling them that the project was 'officially approved'

Current lineup

Tom Woodhead - lead vocals, synth
Rob Canning- bass
Katie Nicholls- drums, backing vocals
Whiskas - guitar, backing vocals

Crew

Dan Kiener - sound engineer
Daniel Bentley - guitar tech
Alan Ladd - driver, tour manager
Mick McCarthy - management
Alistair Tant - A&R

Discography

Albums

1. Give Me A Wall
May 2006
dance to the radio

Singles

Title	Release Date	Label	UK Singles Chart	Album
Nine	April 2005	dance to the radio		Give Me A Wall
Thirteen / Fourteen	August 2005	White Heat Records	74	Give Me A Wall
Twelve	January 2006	dance to the radio	36	Give Me A Wall
Nine	May 2006	dance to the radio	40	Give Me A Wall
Eighteen	July 2006	dance to the radio	44	Give Me A Wall

References

Joyzine