The Aftermath FRIENDLIER UP HERE OUT NOW

Buy our debut album "FRIENDLIER UP HERE" at the link below for €11 + €2 shipping anywhere in the world.A wet May night a few years ago in the 100 club Oxford Street, London town. The brothers Cronin had just performed with their band to another lack lustre crowd of the usual London A & R bunch with none of them forthcoming with any shape of a deal. Things were not looking good for guitar based groups based in the northern UK town of Leeds where Johnny and Michael were brought to in the early 90’s away from the dark recession hit Co Longford where they grew up as children. Friends Parva (who went on to become Kaiser Chiefs) had just been dropped along with many others and legendry venues (where the brothers had played with the likes of the Wedding Present, The Frank & Walters, The Fall, Mark Mullcahey, Gallon Drunk, Spacehog and Shed 7) such as the Duchess of York and The Town & Country club had just been shut down.With a few support gigs with The Frames and Damien Rice over the following months Johnny and Michael had a revelation. They decided to start anew, move back to Ireland and go about things the independent route the way said acts had done so very successfully.Upon returning to Ireland in Oct 2004 they set about putting plans together that were started on tour with The Frames. The following January the brothers set of to Black Box studios in the Loire region of France with David and Karl Odlum to start initial sessions of what would become The Aftermaths debut album (new start, new name after their favourite Rollin Stones record which punk poet John Cooper Clarke and former associated of The Who ‘Irish” Jack Lyons agree is a top mod name and the Stones at their best). Recording continued at a slow pace for the rest of 2005 with money fairly tight with the relocation back to Ireland. It was around this time they met guitarist Justin McNabb and former Anathema bass player Duncan Patterson and the gigging machine that is The Aftermath started out on what would become a nearly never ending tour of the Irish musical landscape. They decided to not release anything just yet and try and build a fan base around the county as well as turn the live act into something special.In March of 2006 the band received an offer to support The Mission for 5 dates around Greece. Wayne Hussey had come across the bands myspace during their European tour and loved what he heard. The gigs went down a storm playing to over 20 thousand people on the short tour. The Aftermath continued to visit Greece once a year for short tours and plan to release their debut there in late September. It was around this time that Duncan Patterson became busier with his solo projects and they had to find a new bass player. Rather than audition someone new they reinstated Martin ‘Sleepy’ Gray who had been playing with them in the UK. Martin was not the only player they kept in touch with from their time in England. Helen Turner who was a member of The Style Council and played with Paul Weller until the Stanley Road album and had also been a part of the brothers live band in the UK reinstated herself at a few recording sessions and a few live gigs including the whole of The Aftermath’s UK tour Nov 07. Another person they kept in touch with was Gallon Drunk man Terry Edwards. Terry famous for his arrangements for PJ Harvey, The Tindersticks, Nick cave and David Holmes to name a few was asked for a few string and brass arrangements to be done. You can hear his work on Hollywood Remake and Joyful Mystery on Friendlier Up Here.In July 2006 the band released debut single in Ireland “One Is Fun” named after a Deliah Smith cook book for singletons). It debuted at no11 in it’s first week and kept in the top 40 for a further 3, ending up as one of the highest selling singles of 2006. With One Is Fun The Aftermath received their first national airplay from Larry Gogan on 2fm and Ann Marie Kelly at Today fm as well as getting on the play list for the online based then Phantom fm. The tour continued throughout July/ August with their first sold out shows in Crawdaddy Dublin, Roisin Dubh Galway and The Stables Mullingar and finished when the band were asked to open the HIFI festival that year sharing a stage with Razor light, The Streets, Ian Brown amongst others.The band continued to build momentum with the release of Hollywood remake in mid October 2006. The single went in at no 19 in the Irish charts beating both Madonna and My Chemical Romance to the highest new entry. It was during the tour for the single that the brothers had a chance meeting with Waterboy Steve Wickham who agreed to lay down some violin parts on the recordings which were developing when the finances were scraped together. Another thing that happened around this time was for the band to be name checked in BBC dram series Spooks. The plot involved some terror threat named The Aftermath which the characters googled but all the could find was an Irish based indie group.2007 started well with The Aftermath named number 6 hope for 2007 in the Hot Press readers poll and One Is Fun number 38 in the 105 best singles of Phantom fm’s end of year list. Touring continued with visit to the UK and Greece and dates around Ireland. When something does so many miles as the band do it was inevitable what happened next. On the way to the Phoenix Festival in Tullamore on Friday the 13th of July 2007 for the start of a tour to promote single “All I Want is for you to be happy” their van hit a patch of oil on the road, skidded and flipped several times until finishing upside down in a ditch. Luckily the band were all wearing seatbelts and still can’t believe how no one was injured at all bar a few cuts and bruises. After a weeks rest the band hit the road again with promotional duties which seemed to pay of with the single debuting at no 10 that week and getting extensive play on 2fm and Phantom in Dublin. There were full houses all round on the tour which finished of with the brothers Cronin playing a home town show with Declan Nerney at The Marquee in Drumlish Festival in front of 2800 people.In November of 2007 the band hit the road in the UK for dates to promote “All I want is for you to be happy release on Littlest Mojo records. The single picked up quite a few plays on Xfm both in London and Manchester as well as on BBC 6. Back to Ireland in December for another jaunt around Ireland which started with playing to their biggest Dublin audience yet as support to The Blizzards in the Ambassador.The focus for the start of 2008 was to get the record finished. The Sessions that had continued with Karl were sounding great and included such musicians as Vyvienne Long of the Damien Rice band,Daragh O Toole on piano, Steve Wickham of The Waterboys as well as Helen Turner.(paul Weller) The band then employed the services of Ger McDonnell to mix the majority of the album. Ger who had previously worked with U2, The Manics, Travis and Martha Wainwright worked on 8 of the finished tracks with Marc Carrolan (Turn, The Thrills, Muse) mixing 2 and David Odlum taking care of the rest. The Aftermath also employed the services of legendary Masterer Greg Calbi who has been responsible for so many classic albums working with the likes of John Lennon, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, The Strokes, The Frames, Interpol to name but a few.The debut album by The Aftermath called ‘Friendlier Up Here’ is released on Live Transmission Records on April 25th 2008.With endorsements from the likes of Jackie Hayden from Hot Press who said ”touches of Talking Heads and Roxy Music with spacey drum sounds, strident string’s, fuzzed up guitars and impassioned vocal’s. When a band avoid the obvious they can be truly inventive and stimulating.” Totally Dublin said, “…think Arcade Fire carousing with Franz Ferdinand and you’re nearly there.” The Leeds Guide ‘ they sound like Roxy Music having a fight with the Pixies down a Northern backstreet.” and The Sunday Tribune called them “the perfect pop machine”."Stylish,Sophisticated pop for stylish,sophisticated people"Johnnie Craig In Dublin