The Blueskins

The Blueskins
Years active	1999–2008
Labels	Domino Records
Website	Official Website Official Myspace page
Past members
Ryan Spendlove Andrei Nosov Tom Bailey Paul Brown Matthew Smith Ritchie Townsend

The Blueskins are a four-piece band based in Gawthorpe, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

Career

The band was formed after Spendlove and Brown met at music college in 1999. After college they continued to play together and drafted in school friends Smith and Townsend. In 2003 considerable interest in the band resulted in an influx of A&R men to Gawthorpe and a signing to Domino Records. Three singles, an EP and an album followed, and the band embarked on a tour of Europe and the United States, recording in Mississippi with record producer, Dennis Herring.

In 2005 a change of direction saw Smith and Townsend leave the band and, later that year, the remaining two founder members brought in the Russian former tennis professional Andrei Nosov on guitar and Welsh student Tom Bailey on five-string bass guitar to replace them. The new members brought with them a range of new influences including native Siberian music and dance-inspired indie.^{[citation needed]}

The band spent much of 2006 writing new material and showcasing it to fans across the country. In the summer their 2003 single "Change My Mind" was featured on a television advertisement for Lynx shower gel. It generated considerable interest in the single, leading it to be re-released. Despite the interest from fans, the band's record label did not push the single and it received limited airplay.^{[citation needed]} Finding themselves unable to market the band, and choosing to concentrate on their more commercial signings, Domino Records parted company with The Blueskins, leaving them on the lookout for a new label.

The band spent the latter months of 2006 touring their new songs and writing new material. At the end of the year they played a small gig in their local pub in Gawthorpe, inviting friends to take to the stage and perform with them. After writing new tunes and touring the UK for two years with the new line-up, they decided to disband in April 2008.

Following the split, Ryan Spendlove, The singer and frontman of The Blueskins decided to go solo and formed his own style of acoustic Blues/Folk. In January 2011 he signed a record deal with Candyrat Records in the United States where he recorded his first solo album in 3 days titled "Fable" which was released on 5 April 2011.

Band members

• Ryan Spendlove – lead vocals, guitar
• Andrei Nosov – guitar, backing vocals
• Tom Bailey – bass, backing vocals
• Paul Brown – percussion
• Matthew Smith - bass
• Ritchie Townsend - guitar

Discography

Albums

• Word of Mouth (2004)

EPs

• Magic Road EP (2003)

Singles

• "User Friendly" (2003)
• "Change My Mind" / "I Wanna Know" (2004) - UK #56
• "Stupid Ones" (2004) - UK #61
• "Change My Mind" (re-release) (2006)

Notable quotations

Yorkshire Evening Post

• "Its a crime that the blueskins are not one of the most talked about bands in the country"
• "A mass of hair... took nothing away from a show positively oozing confidence"
• "...they are the best band in the country"^{[citation needed]}

Leeds Music Scene

• "the authorative and skunk-soaked vocals rasp and soar, howling out the words as if the future of the Blues depended on it"
• "If you closed your eyes for just a second it could be Jim Morrison presiding over Brian Wilson, Bo Diddley and Keith Moon. But it's not, just four lads from Wakefield. How amazing is that?"^{[citation needed]}

BBC Liverpool

• "They have the sort of cosmo pop sound that makes The Datsuns and The Hives sound like a lost Hyena who has just eaten a dodgy zebra"^{[citation needed]}

The Junction, York

• "Every single song in the set is an absolute classic"
• "The Blueskins are an incredible band and will do a lot of great work"^{[citation needed]}

External links

• Official website
• Official Myspace page