The Revs

The Revs
Background information
Origin	County Donegal, Ireland
Genres	Indie rock Punk rock
Years active	1999 to 2007
Labels	Haldern Pop, Evelyn
Website	http://www.myspace.com/sver
Members
Rory Gallagher John McIntyre Michael O'Donnell

The Revs were an indie rock band from Kilcar, Donegal, Ireland. The group consists of three childhood friends: Rory Gallagher (named after the famous blues guitarist Rory Gallagher and who had previously released the album 20th Century at the age of 18) on bass guitar and vocals, John McIntyre (guitar, vocals) and Michael O' Donnell (drums, percussion). They formed on the eve of the millennium with an aim to "change the face of Irish music".^{[citation needed]}

History

Early on, The Revs music courted controversy because of their attacks on manufactured pop. For example, the group's single "Louis Walsh" targeted Louis Walsh (the svengali behind Westlife and Boyzone, amongst others). Their debut album SonicTonic achieved gold status, despite being a low-budget and independent live release.

They followed this up with the stand-alone singles "Tuesday, Monday" and "Loaded" before the debut studio album Suck in February 2003. This album (recorded in Trackmix Studios, Clonsilla, Dublin) entered the charts gaining them many new fans, as well as pleasing the ones who had assembled en masse due to their constant touring across Ireland and the UK. The songs are an eclectic mix of punk rock, surf guitars, pop-rock and indie, similar to Pixies, Radiohead and Muse, with paranoid lyrics (influenced by Bill Hicks) expressing their conflicting love and distaste with the world.^{[citation needed]}They were voted 3rd in the Hotpress readers poll behind U2 and The Frames in 2003. They are one of the few Irish bands to ever play in Slane Castle. In March 2004 they had a top 30 hit in Australia with the single "Death of a Dj". They had a short 2 week coast to coast tour and received rave reviews from the Australian music press.

Taking a lengthy break during which they decided upon a change of direction, wrote dozens of songs and roadtested them in small venues around Ireland, they returned in November 2004 with a sample of the music that was to come: a new single "Broken?", backed with "Ode to Saint Susie, Patron Saint Of Supermarkets". They now sounded more like The Flaming Lips, Big Star or The Smiths, with their love of Radiohead still shining through, and this release confused the public who had dismissed them. During the months that opened up 2005, they recorded their third album, The Revs, in Malmö, Sweden with Tore Johansson, the producer behind Franz Ferdinand and The Cardigans.

This LP was released on 14 October 2005, following the single "Time Slippin'" in September. Despite being their most critically acclaimed release to date, it was their least commercially successful album in Ireland. A successful European tour of Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France followed in 2006, alongside the well received European release of The Revs.

In January 2007 Gallagher announced on the band's official forum that the Revs were taking a break of "indefinite" length. In July 2007, the band played a short tour of Ireland which is widely believed to have been their last, with speculation abound of a definite split or name change.

Two songs from the bands self-titled album - "Take It All Back" and "Streets" - appeared on the soundtrack of the Blockbuster movie P.S. I Love You [1]

Gallagher is currently a resident musician in "Charlies" and the "Craic n Ceol" in Puerto del Carmen, Lanzarote.

Gallagher released a solo album in Sept 2008 called God Bless The Big Bang. It received some great press reaction in Ireland with Hotpress magazine declaring it a "Triumphant return, 4 Stars" but it failed to chart. However the industry response helped him to gain the support slot for Britpop/mod legends Ocean Colour Scene on their 2009 comeback tour.

In 2010 Gallagher had a strange online hit which was in a fact a leaked comedy demo recording called "Ryanair Blues". It broke through to national daytime radio in Ireland in November 2010 and went to number 1 in the download charts the following day as it was released for free. It will not feature on his forthcoming solo album to be released in 2012.

Gallagher then released 4 new singles to iTunes in 2011 under the name of "Rory and the Island" . They all charted in the top 30 in Ireland, with "Colours" reaching number 8. [2] Gallagher played solo acoustic gigs at most of the top Irish festivals that summer 2011 including the Electric Picnic.

Rory and the Island will be touring the UK and Ireland to promote the release of the new album in April 2012. [3]

Discography

Albums

• SonicTonic (2002) - highest chart position No. 5
• Suck (2003) - highest chart position No.3
• The Revs (2005) - highest chart position No. 25

Singles/EPs

Release date	Title	Label	Chart position Ireland
2001	Wired to the Moon	Treasure Island	17
	Alone With You		14
2002	Tuesday Monday/Turnin' Japanese		2
	Loaded		21
2003	Death of a DJ		26
2004	Broken?	Evelyn	44
2005	Time Slippin'	Evelyn/Haldern Pop	no chart
2006	Every Monkey	Haldern Pop	no chart