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The Blazing Zoos

About Me

"If Badly Drawn Boy made an album in Nashville, it would sound like The Blazing Zoos" - MCPS-PRS Alliance podcast
"Phenomenally marvellous" - Uncut
"They really rock" - The Outlaw Punk Cowboy Show
"A country band" - The Adelaide Advertiser
"A country band" - The South China Morning Post
If it was legal to drink yourself to sleep in Libya, none of it would ever have happened. The Blazing Zoos, a country & western group, gestated in late 2005 and early 2006 in Sydney, Tripoli, London, Nashville and a small Cameroonian town called Kumbo. The linkage between these disparate locations was the peregrinations of the journalist and author Andrew Mueller , who is the person chiefly responsible, although he pleads in mitigation a singularly unmake-uppable series of happenstances and coincidences which have persuaded him, perhaps foolishly, that ineffable cosmic forces with which it would be daft to trifle are at work, and that this was Meant To Be. There is a reason for The Blazing Zoos' name, but since disclosing it is apt to encourage folk to mistake The Blazing Zoos' raison d'etre for vindictive misogyny, it will be revealed only upon application. And probably not even then. Just enjoy the repeated "Z" sound.
The Blazing Zoos made their live debut in July 2006. For reasons far, far too complicated to explain here, this occurred at a festival on a beach in southern Albania. The Blazing Zoos' lineup that evening comprised Andrew Mueller (vocals, guitar) Jesus Jones frontman Mike Edwards (guitar, vocals), justly revered Shetlandic chanteuse Astrid Williamson (piano, vocals), Dan Burke (guitar, vocals), Alec Pointon (bass) and former Jesus Jones drummer Gen Matthews (drums, unsurprisingly). There are photos confirming that this did actually happen in the Pics section of this site.
The Blazing Zoos' piano stool has since been filled by the unarguably less glamorous but riotously gifted Robin Colgan. As of August 2007, bass guitar duties have been temporarily transferred to the capable hands of Seymour Patrick , late of Miss Black America, presently of Ten City Nation and Open Mouth.
More shows are being scheduled in the maddeningly rare windows which find every one of the jetsetting playboys that comprise the group in the same country at the same time. However, support spots to such luminaries as Kris Delmhorst, The Dials and Corb Lund & The Hurtin' Albertans have already been discharged. And, thanks to the patronage of a burgeoning clique of discerning broadcasters, The Blazing Zoos are cropping up on the radio in at least four US states, which delights us severely.
The Blazing Zoos are now determinedly plotting their next steps towards owning graceless mansions with banjo-shaped swimming pools, a rhinestone-studded tour bus with moose antlers jutting from the front, and feeling entitled to swan about wearing stupid big hats despite a collective inability to discern one end of a cow from the other.
In January 2008, they began recording, with producer Mark Wallis (Go-Betweens, Alabama 3, Paul Kelly, Travis, among a zillion others) what will become their debut album, at time of writing more likely than not to be titled "I'll Leave Quietly", for unleashing at a date to be confirmed.
Updates will appear here as and when.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 2/13/2006
Band Website: This is, at present, it.
Band Members: Those currently labouring beneath the supervision of producer Mark Wallis on what will become The Blazing Zoos' debut album are Andrew Mueller (vocals, guitar), Mike Edwards (guitar, vocals), Robin Colgan (keyboards, mandolin, vocals), Seymour Patrick (bass), Gen Matthews (drums). Special guests thus far corralled include Jason Moffat (banjo), Matthew Dupuy (bass), John Moore (saw), Astrid Williamson (backing vocals), Neil Herd (pedal steel).
Influences: George Jones, Glen Campbell, Gene Clark, Leon Payne, Waylon Jennings, Robbie Fulks, Cracker, Shel Silverstein, Johnny Cash, The Old 97s, John Hiatt, Chris Mills, Big & Rich, The Bottle Rockets, Dwight Yoakam, Beasts Of Bourbon, Buck Owens, Green On Red, The Handsome Family, Jim Reeves, Corb Lund & The Hurtin' Albertans, Dallas Wayne, Paul Kelly, 16 Horsepower, John Kennedy's Love Gone Wrong, Thin White Rope, Jim White, Lee Hazlewood, Willie Nelson, Todd Snider, Drive-By Truckers, Bobbie Gentry, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, Faron Young, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Emmylou Harris, Merle Haggard, Laura Cantrell, Violent Femmes, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Merle Haggard, Johnny Paycheck, The Arlenes, Uncle Tupelo, Travis Tritt, The Dillards, Hank Williams, The Jayhawks, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, John Prine, Sparklehorse, Alabama 3, American Music Club, Steve Earle, Kris Kristofferson, Lynn Anderson, Weddings Parties Anything, The Louvin Brothers
Sounds Like: Shel Silverstein and The Old 97s yelling at each other, in a shed.
Type of Label: Major

My Blog

Fame, wealth beyond imagining

. . . and other related accoutrements now only a matter of time, as news breaks that we'll be featured on the next instalment of the What's Cookin' club's "What's Kickin'" compilations, and that one o...
Posted by on Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:14:00 GMT

No, but really. There's a tracklisting and a title and everything.

While recognising that our work rate of late has made Axl Rose look like Ryan Adams, we are tentatively in a position to state with near certainty that the thing will be actually done, dusted, home, d...
Posted by on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 02:21:00 GMT

So, anyway. We’ve finished it.

No, really. We have. More or less. The album, that is. All that remains is for Mark to finish doing to it whatever it is producers do to these things, and it will be, uh, done. More anon.
Posted by on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:27:00 GMT

We know, we know. . .

. . . Rome itself probably was built faster than this, we're in danger of being teased about our tardiness by Axl Rose, and all that, but we are officially Getting There. We now have backing vocals an...
Posted by on Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:56:00 GMT

No, but really

We are, still, getting there, with the last of Mike's lead guitar now banked, and only the last few of the literally several guest stars awaiting synchronisation of their schedules. In the meantime, w...
Posted by on Wed, 28 May 2008 03:39:00 GMT

Nashville-on-Thames, this Sunday 18th

North London's finest every-third-Sunday honky-tonk is back on May 18th, will feature live music from the truly fantastic Southern Tenant Folk Union and - possibly, even - one of our number as a compo...
Posted by on Mon, 12 May 2008 01:09:00 GMT

We are getting, in a very real sense, there

Our debut album, still gestating under the title "I'll Leave Quietly", can now be rightly thought of as a cake awaiting icing. Some of this has already been squirted liberally all over it, in the form...
Posted by on Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:21:00 GMT

Nashville-on-Thames, this Sunday April 20th

Our favourite country & western night returns to Buffalo Bar this Sunday the 20th, with live music from The Barker Band and special guests Hillbilly & The Bonfire. It's only a fiver: further details r...
Posted by on Sun, 13 Apr 2008 06:16:00 GMT

The Blazing Zoos endorse the following product or service

A new site dedicated to music, and matters arising, called The Quietus, which is going to rock.In other news, work continues on our debut waxing, which we can exclusively reveal is going to be titled,...
Posted by on Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:15:00 GMT

Nashville-on-Thames is back, this Sunday 16th

The redoubtable - yes, that's the word, redoubtable - North London country & western club returns to the Buffalo Bar this Sunday. There's live music from The Epstein, who are - and we do not suggest s...
Posted by on Sun, 09 Mar 2008 04:25:00 GMT