Teenage Casket Company

Just before Christmas 2003, a reluctant Jamie Delerict had a little jam at his rehearsal studios with Rob Wylde, whose band "China Doll" had recently broken up. Although feeling as if he was cheating on a girlfriend, Jamie D. admittedly had an extremely productive session with Wylde as they blasted through such songs that would eventually become "Down On Luck" and "Ain't Got Nothin' On Me". Blasted would be the correct word too, as Jamie's full on guitar assault blew out Rob's ear-drum and he ended up in hospital the next day. It was left to Wylde to find a rhythm section as Jamie was still busy with his life-long project, Nottingham punk rockers Panic . Much to Jamie's surprise, come January 2004, a practice was arranged with a full band. Laney 74 (from Derbyshire pop-rockers DIP ) was a familiar face to Wylde who attended most of the same Midlands rock shows that he did and he brought with him a drummer from an old band of his named Spike. Rehearsals began. Everything clicked instantly. This is not a cliche. Jamie christened the band TEENAGE CASKET COMPANY. Come April 2004, TCC entered the studio with ten tight and complete songs. The band were offered a record deal. After much thought, TCC decided to release only three songs from the session as a demo CD themselves. These were hand numbered 1-50 with a full colour gate-fold sleeve and a further 25 were made in a simpler colour sleeve. Consider yourselves blessed if you own one of these!
TCC played their first show at Junktion 7 in Nottingham on 28th May 2004 with Canadian bag-pipe rockers The Mudmen to rave reviews. Come July, the inevitable happened and after a three week long, five country tour, Panic decided to call it quits after ten years in the trenches. Gigs were coming in left, right and centre mainly due to the varied and established contacts nationwide that JD, Wylde & Laney 74 had brought to the table after years on the live circuit. Before the year was out, Jamie and Rob had toured with American AOR legend Mitch Malloy as an acoustic duo, the full band had supported punk stalwarts such as 999 and The Vibrators and also debuted in London supporting Acey Slade's ( Murderdolls ) new band Trashlight Vision . Things were moving so fast, that around Halloween 2004, the band were more than ready to take the next logical step and record an LP. They enlisted producers Paul Yeadon (from former Geffen recording artists "Bivouac" and now The Wireless Stores ) and Johnny Carter (founding Pitchshifter member) and set to work on their debut album "Dial It Up".
2005 started where the last year had ended. Plenty of gigs spreading the gospel of the Caskets. After shunning half-arsed record deals from people who talked too much, the band formed Trashpit Records and released "Dial It Up" themselves. The label was named after Laney's critically acclaimed magazine of the same name: Yes, Trashpit . The CD sold amazingly well straight out of the gates, surpassing all other band members previous record sales with ease. The CD was even voted "Best Independent Album of 2005" by glossy UK rock mag Powerplay. So, with the band fully in control of their finances, the merchandise machine started rolling and pretty soon, multiple designs of TCC shirts were running neck and neck with those of the CD's sales! TCC were ready to hit the road properly and it was May of 2005 when they first hooked up with The Erotics from Albany, NY in what was to be the first of many tours together. As soon as that tour ended, (and in between lengthy, but ultimately unsatisfactory discussions with various managers and labels) the boys supported US rock legends Vain a whole bunch of times, then hooked up with goth-rockers Gene Loves Jezebel (shooting a live video that night) followed by US pop-punk legends The Queers . TCC were quickly establishing themselves as a group that could hang with bands from any fucking genre and impress crowds of any musical persuasion. Come July 2005, the band were on fire and headed off to the USA to test the waters over there along side NY's The Erotics once again. On the opening night in New York, (which the band just barely made thanks to Air India!) Danko Jones also played. The tour was a rousing success, with the band making new friends in every city and state that was entered into. Old friends were hooked up with too including the likes of Trashlight Vision and Danger Danger . This only served to make the band hungrier for more Stateside action. Upon their arrival back on UK soil, TCC triumphantly headlined the Trashstock festival at the venue where it all began for them, Junktion 7 in Nottingham. Many more gigs followed that year, including a string of dates with the legendary LA Guns (who Jamie was actually on tour and travelling with as their merch guy) and a Bonfire Night show with future touring partners The Dangerfields . In fact, save for a very short break for Christmas, the bandwagon continued to roll on.

2005 came, went and 2006 started with a month long UK tour with Irish rockers The Dangerfields. A band also well known for their strong work ethic, the DF's and TCC took their rock show the length and breadth of England and Wales. After that, in between yet more gigs, TCC hit the studio once again, this time in Chesterfield at The Foundry, with Paul Hopkinson at the control desk. The plan was to record a brand new CDEP, once again on their own terms and their own label and to have it released in time for the next US tour which was quickly shaping up to be a big one....A few gigs with Canadian glamsters Robin Black followed the studio sessions, with yet another UK tour with The Erotics hot on those heels in May of that year. The "Brawl For It All" tour turned out to be ten times bigger than that of the previous years and Sweden's hottest young pirate band Vains Of Jenna hopped on board for a couple of the shows too. After more gigs in Wales and beyond, TCC yet again hooked up with The Dangerfields and attacked their homeland of Ireland for a week, culminating in the DF's legit 666th gig on 6/6/06. That's pretty fuckin' metal right there. Shortly after that, Norwegian based company Ignore Entertainment shot a video for the track "Don't Look At Me Like That" which involves lots of proper acting from the boys and cast and on June 17th, the brand new six track CDEP "Eat Your Heart Out" was officially released. A couple of weeks later TCC returned to the East Coast of the USA as part of the Metal Sludge Extravaganza III Tour with The Erotics, Vains Of Jenna and Stevie Rachelle of Tuff . The following autumn the band made their European debut in Italy which again was met with rave reviews.
After almost three solid years of touring and recording it was decided at the end of 2006 the band would take a well deserved break from the TCC machine. A break for the first part of 2007 was perhaps a strange term as the individual members of the band took it upon themselves to stay as busy as possible. Jamie Delerict filled the vacant bass player position of long time friends The Dangerfields and undertook a marathon tour of the UK alongside The Supersuckers and Stiff Little Fingers . Laney74 hooked up on bass with legendary US rockers The Bulletboys on their first UK and European Tour in sixteen years with Faster Pussycat and Enuff Z’Nuff, spreading the TCC gospel throughout Norway, Switzerland, Spain and Italy and being the only English musician on the whole tour. Whilst Rob Wylde flew to the USA to work on new TCC material and several solo acoustic shows alongside Stryper frontman Michael Sweet .
Teenage Casket Company made their live return following several warm up shows in July with a full UK Tour supporting hotly tipped Icelandic rockers Sign . With a whole batch of new material and new fire in their bellies the band showed crowds that they were indeed back and hungrier than before which culminated in an explosive sell out return to the TrashStock Festival in Nottingham.
The band ended the year once again touring with American partners The Erotics on The Brawl For It All Tour 2007.
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