Ey up...we’re Terrorvision from Bradford!
Terrorvision began life in Keighley, Yorkshire, as a band called Masquerade when Shutty, a fan of AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Motorhead had bought his first drum kit by washing cars on Saturday mornings. He managed to recruit Leigh Marklew on guitar and two other school friends from Greenhead Grammar School to join him. It was some time in 1984 that Masquerade performed their first gig in the sixth form common room at that very same school...
Later that year Shutty and his family moved to Bradford where he started work as a printer, while Leigh went off to art college. The band’s name changed a number of times with names like ’Strutter’ and ’Vietnamese Babies’ and they met up each week to practice, playing covers of Joan Jett and Ramones classics.
Meanwhile...Mark Yates who had been playing guitar since he was 11 years old had already been in a couple of bands; the ’Electric Nosebleeds’ and ’Brute Force’ who nearly burnt down their school when they set alight to a stage prop. It was at art college where Mark and Leigh met and began a band, with Leigh moving over to play bass leaving Mark to play guitar. However, they still needed a vocalist and so they advertised in Kerrang! - a British rock magazine...this turned out to be entirely fruitless.
At 15, Tony Wright had sung in a band called ’Subject’, but never considered singing as a career and went through a few jobs and a few dole queues before becoming the band’s vocalist. Mark was a DJ at the legendary biker pub ’The Wheatsheaf’ in Bradford when Tony heard that the band were looking for a singer and after some persuasion he got an audition. However, this wasn’t by any means an audition in the true sense of the word and comprised of Tony watching the band play and Leigh sing ’Teenage Kicks’ by the Undertones. Despite not airing a note, Tony made it into the band.
Changing their name again to ’Spoilt Bratz’, the renamed band made their debut at a friend’s party at the ’Videotech’ in Huddersfield. During 1987 they played a few more small gigs around the area and a year later, taking the music more seriously, they recorded two demos: ’Spoilt Bratz’ and ’Gasoline and Suicide’. These both failed to get them noticed. If this band were going to make it, decisive action was needed.
So, they booked themselves into the ’Slaughterhouse Studios’ in Driffield, East Yorkshire and in June 1989 they recorded a third demo ’Be My Guest’ a more polished version than the previous two. It was this demo that caught the attention of Al Rhodes, a writer for Kerrang! Al Rhodes tried to sign them to his own label ’Major Records’ for a 12" single, then three albums and then a five-album deal, but they rejected all his offers. However, he was so sure of the band’s talent that he closed his ’Major Records’ label in favour of becoming their manager.
Now having a manager and three demos under their belt, the Spoilt Bratz continued in their quest for success, they rehearsed three to four times a week and changed their name to Terrorvision after a 1960’s horror movie of the same name (aliens come down through a man’s TV set and eat his family!).
The first gig they did as Terrorvision happened at the ’Players Snooker Club’ in Wakefield, with an audience of about 18 people. The next day they did another gig at the Marquee in London supporting American band Slaughter. Chrysalis Records had organised the Marquee show and Al Rhodes managed to get the label to pay for another demo ’Prime Time TV’, again recorded at the Slaughterhouse Studios in August 1990. Although the demo was more promising, Chrysalis decided not to sign Terrorvision.
Another year and another demo in March 1991 at the ’Woodland Studios’ in Castleford. Called ’Pump Action Sunshine’, it contained an original version of ’My House’ which was later to become their first single. Al Rhodes distributed this tape to the record companies which included EMI. Nick Mander was working for EMI at the time, remembered the now Terrorvision from when they had supported an EMI band ’The Beyond’ from two years previous. Not liking their music much himself, he was nevertheless impressed with the band and decided to gave them the chance to demonstrate their talent to the head of the label at the time, Nick Gatfield. Unfortunately, Gatfield wasn’t so taken with the band - fortunately, his girlfriend was and EMI financed a final demo which was recorded in the Summer of 1991...by October 1991 Terrorvision were signed to EMI.
Although signed to a major label, it was through their own label ’Total Vegas Recordings’ that they would release their records, something which all their releases to date have been recorded. Terrorvision’s debut release was the ’Thrive EP’ in February 1992. It reached number 100 in the charts and was deleted a week later. The release was promoted by a tour of the UK supporting Zodiac Mindwarp and Claytown Troupe - they also played a one-off London gig with L7.
In June that year the band started to record their first album in Bradford and their first single ’My House’ was released with the B-sides ’Coming Up’, the first of several B-side covers. December 1992 brought with it Terrorvision’s first album ’Formaldehyde’ the name itself being a poisonous liquid used to preserve dead animals. The band offered fans the chance to get in free at their gigs if they dressed up as the cactus logo used on their Total Vegas Recordings label.
During 1993 Terrorvision supported the Ramones to promote the album and headlined their first UK tour supported by Die Cheerleader. A second single, ’Problem Solved’ was released in April. The band toured around Europe supporting Motorhead and Formaldehyde was officially released in May, reaching number 75 in the UK album charts. Joe Elliott from Def Leppard was so impressed with the Formaldehyde album that he asked them to open his own group’s gig. A day after the release of their third single ’American TV’ they opened for Def Leppard at the Don Valley Stadium, Sheffield in front of 40,000 people - their biggest show to date. The bill also included Thunder and Ugly Kid Joe.
Terrorvision did another tour UK tour, supported by Kerosene and ’My House’ was re-released in December 1993 with a 3D cover. It became Terrorvision’s first Top 40 hit in January 1994. In December 1993 they went to New York and took just 17 days record their second album ’How to Make Friends And Influence People’ with Pixies producer Gil Norton. They then flew to Los Angeles to shoot the videos for the next two singles they would release, the first of which ’Oblivion’ was released in March 1994 and Terrorvision made their first appearance on Top of the Pops, with the album being released a month later.
Another UK Tour came in April, this time they were supported by Mutha’s Day Out, The Wishplants and Valve. In June, Terrorvision appeared on the new second stage at the original pre-Download ’Donington Monsters of Rock’ festival, where the Terrorvision t-shirt was the most popular item that weekend. Also appearing were The Wildhearts and Headswim.
The band won their first (of many) Kerrang! awards for ’Best New British Band’. The singles ’Middleman’ and ’Pretend Best Friend’ were released and Terrorvision began to make numerous guest appearances at events such as the ’Smash Hits Poll Winners Party and Night of a 1000 Guitars. ’Alice What’s The Matter?’ was released in October, while a UK tour supported by Die Toten Hosen and Baby Chaos. The band then switched headlining places by supporting Die Toten Hosen and Therapy? on a European tour.
January 1995 and Terrorvision were named ’Best Band’ by Kerrang! ...the first British band to achieve this since Iron Maiden in the mid-1980’s. They also came top as ’Best British Band’ in RAW, ’Best Single’ for ’Alice What’s the Matter?’ in Kerrang! and Tony Wright was ’Tastiest Geezer’ also in Kerrang!. How to Make Friends and Influence People came second in the Best Album poll in RAW and Kerrang!. They also came third in Kerrang!’s Best Gig / Tour category.
Another top 30 single came in March with the re-recorded version of ’Some People Say’. On its release, Terrorvision made a fourth appearance on Top of the Pops as well as appearing on the festival circuit including T In The Park, Phoenix and supporting REM at Huddersfield MacAlpine Stadium, where they were delighted to see Michael Stipe singing along to their tunes at the side of the stage.
In April, Terrorvision brought out their first video ’Fired Up And Lairy’. This was made up of video singles, live performances and a brief history of the band. In May, the band went on a UK tour, with support from EMF and Joyrider. The band then went into the studio to begin recording their third album ’Regular Urban Survivors’. During September 1995, the band recorded and contributed a song ’Tom Petty Loves Veruca Salt’ for the War Child compilation charity album ’Help’. The album was recorded and despatched to record shops in six days and other contributors included Oasis, Blur, Manic Street Preachers, Radiohead and the Stone Roses. Terrorvision’s song later re-appeared as a re-mixed B-side.
Terrorvision started 1996 with a gig at the London Astoria, with support coming from Honeycrack, Cecil and Pusherman. The week after the gig, the first single ’Perseverance’ from their third album was released and reached number five in the charts. The album ’Regular Urban Survivors’ with its cover paying homage to James Bond was released in March where it made the top ten. A 17 date sell-out tour of the UK during March and April, with support from American band Love Nut followed. The single ’Celebrity Hit List’ came released in April reached number 20. A tour of Europe ensued, only to be cut short when vocalist Tony broke both his ankles.
’Bad Actress’ was released in July and got to number ten. Terrorvision then picked up their third Kerrang! award for the second year in succession and brought Lionel Blair along for the occasion. They played several festival dates, including Reading and Phoenix; where their tour bus accidentally ran over a sleeping concert goer! Supporting Def Leppard for a European tour in October / November 1996 and a seven-date headline tour of the UK in December, Terrorvision ended the year with the release of the single ’Easy’.
Tony became a father for the first time in early 1997 and the band made several festival appearances including the main stages at Glastonbury and Reading. They also recorded the David Bowie song ’Moonage Daydream’ for a tribute album which was released in aid of the Tibetan cause.
1998 was spent working on the new album ’Shaving Peaches’ on which they collaborated with the likes of Edwyn Collins, Utah Saints, Pat Grogan (who produced their Formaldehyde album) and John Cornfield of Supergrass fame. The first single from the album ’Josephine’ was released in September and the album several weeks later in October, which was accompanied by a sell-out UK tour.
January 1999 and the Mint Royale Shot remix of ’Tequila’ is released as a single. The song itself was inspired after Tony nearly broke his legs trying to steal the ’H’ from Madrid’s Hard Rock Café while under the influence of tequila stating, "It was spelt wrong for Yorkshire folk, I was trying to make it say ’Ard Rock Cafe!" Regardless of him being in plaster, the band continued to play live.
Radio 1 DJ Zoë Ball loved the remix of ’Tequila’ so much that she played it extensively on her show, which helped it reach number two in the charts and was only denied the number 1 slot by ’Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)’ by The Offspring. The band played a short tour with fans from the audience invited onstage every night to provide backing vocals for the song. With the success of ’Tequila’, the album was re-issued to include the Mint Royale Shot version and May 1999 saw the release of the single ’III Wishes’.
Despite increasing success and their highest achieving single to date, Terrorvision were dropped by EMI, making them the biggest unsigned group to play at the Reading and Leeds festivals. That year they also headlined the Kerrang! stage at the ’Big Day Out’ at the Milton Keynes Bowl, in which they got into a dressing room brawl with Queens Of The Stone Age. A dust down and cold beer later, the band appeared on stage all dressed as Evel Knievel’s. Terrorvision received a fourth Kerrang! award, this time for Best Single.
The year 2000 started off with Terrorvision playing several low-key shows in March, as well as trying for a new record deal which wasn’t an easy thing. Record labels openly admitted that they weren’t signing rock bands because they could make more money from boy bands and ’real’ music came second, as far as they were concerned. Despite this attitude from the record companies, a new deal came for Terrorvision and Total Vegas Recordings with Papillion Records.
They played several shows and festivals over the Summer, and began to write songs for their fifth album, the first on the Papillion label. For ’Good To Go’ they were due to record with Brad Wood in Chicago. However, they met Neil McClellan and decided to do one track with him, ’D’Ya Wanna Go Faster’ - they were so impressed with the track that they abandoned the idea of going to Chicago at all and did the whole album with Neil in November 2000. A 29 date UK tour followed and took them up to the end of the year. During this time the band appeared on MTV, Scuzz, TOTP and Nevermind The Buzzcocks.
On 15th January 2001, Terrorvision’s two-year absence from the charts ended with the single ’D’Ya Wanna Go Faster’ reaching the top 20, making it their 13th top 30 hit. It was accompanied by five more shows and the ’Good to Go’ album was released on the 5th February the same year. A second single ’Fists Of Fury’ followed along with a couple of tours and a sell out gig at London’s Astoria which was filmed for a live DVD ’For One Night Only’ following the release of the bands greatest hits album ’Whales & Dolphins’.
After a brief line-up change with Sweet Suzi bassist Danny Lambert filling in, the original Terrorvision have returned to the UK gig circuit with the ’Lost Weekend 1 & 2’ and ’4 Days In May’ tours.[LOVEMYFLASH]
