With live local airplay and a scarily large number of gigs in the space of few months, Sang By Fire are going hell for leather and plan to keep this momentum up. With a few lineup changes and a number of unexpected new arrivals within the first year they've just about got their set-up finalized and are planning to hit the road.
Formed from a variety of backgrounds the band only emerged in it's present state in April 2009. The bands style is defined by Mick Mclaughlin's painful rants at hypocrisy, , Sean Haslett's multi-intrumental endeavours and Stephen Sheridan's four year stint at the University of Dramatic Drumming (Sweden).
Mick McLaughlin completed a history degree at Queen's University. He somehow thinks that that gives him the right to rant uncontrollably. He believes that if you throw in a few facts here and there then now one can argue against your point. He has played in several bands in Derry and Belfast, the most recent being Man Versus... a noise project. *Note* Mick has never played in a cover band, this is important.
Sean Haslett also played in Superstition but has played with others ranging from a Johnny Cash tribute band to being the bassist in a full orchestra. Sean has been likened to Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers in ability, but is capable of writing incredibly diverse songs. He can not be pigeon holed my friends, not at all.
Stephen Sheridan also played in Deploy. He is known by many names ranging from 'Red Skull' to 'Stoom', none of these can be explained in the limited space we have. In 2003 Stephen was successfully enrolled in University of Dramatic Drumming. He quickly became top of his class.
The University was established as a polytechnic in 1981 by Phil Collins when he got together with the guy who wrote the Eastenders theme tune. They decided to start a school that would change the world. In 2001 the Polytechnic was reclassified as a University and it was on May 2007 Stephen graduated with a 1st. He particularly excelled in the areas tom work and rim-shot management, we are all very proud of him.*Note* The University of Dramatic Drumming has since went bust. This is due to an ongoing legal battle based on tax discrepancies.
Sang By Fire started as nothing more than idea in Feb 2008 when Mick McLaughlin began writing and recording acoustic tracks with Producer Ciaran Haslett of fledgling Front Room Records.
In late March 2008 two new members emerged from out of no where. Stephen (Stoom) Sheridan was brought on board the Sang By Fire bus after a chance meeting; strange indeed. Even stranger was the fact that Ciaran's brother Sean actually volunteered to make an extremely long drive to Belfast for the first practice as a band after hearing some rough tracks that Mick had recorded. This occurred on 05/04/08. At this stage Sang By Fire had gained two gigging veterans, and were coming along in leaps and bounds.
Ciaran Haslett left the band in April 2009 and was replaced by a mini Korg synth. The rest of the band agreed that this was a worthy replacement and have adopted Korg as one of the family.
In the mean time you should be able to catch Mick in any of the Open Mic nights located in several good bars in Belfast. Mick McLaughlin also plays with his band Man Versus- www.myspace.com/manversussuck or you can check out his electro breakbeat advances at www.myspace.com/mrstoneybrown .
+++++
Available for gigs all round NI and the Republic. For Booking Information please contact [email protected].
DISCLAIMER - An element of artistic license may have been taken in the above text. 'Facts' that can not be verified, or that may be construed as libel must be ignored. If you are working on behalf of a fat talentless bald man then pay heed to this.
I made this myspace background at
