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Your Vegas are an English rock band from Leeds, England, currently based in New York City. The band comprises Coyle Girelli (vocals, guitar), Mat Steel (guitar, vocals), Mark Heaton (keyboards, guitar, vocals), Jon Langford (bass) and Mal Taylor (drums).

Background

Girelli, Steel and Langford started playing music together while attending Prince Henry's Grammar School in Otley, West Yorkshire. Their first band was called Orka but they later changed their name to Salvadore. In December 2004 they joined forces with Heaton, a friend from the vibrant Leeds music scene and enlisted the services of Taylor, an old school friend, and Your Vegas was born.

They signed with indie label White Duke Records in 2005 and the band released two singles, Your Vegas and Flybuzz, the latter hitting number 12 in the UK Indie Singles Chart. They began extensively touring the UK and in the summer of that year they performed on the unsigned stage^[1] at Leeds Festival.

In mid 2006 while taking a break from touring, Girelli visited some friends in New York City and after playing a few acoustic shows and handing out demos a buzz began to build around the band. The four other members flew out for a few weeks, with the band playing a handful of shows and by Christmas 2006 a record deal with Universal Republic^[2] was signed.

A Town And Two Cities

2007 began with the band being chosen by Playboy magazine as one of their first "Rock The Rabbit"^[3] bands. The band designed a limited edition Your Vegas t-shirt for the campaign and performed at Playboy's spring break event in Cabo, Mexico.

They spent the rest of the year recording their debut album, A Town And Two Cities, with producer David Bendeth^[4] (Paramore, Breaking Benjamin) at his studio in New Jersey then, mixing it at Electric Lady Studios in New York City with Brian Sperber.

The epic sound on “A Town and Two Cities,” and its attention to detail, is readily apparent throughout^[5]. Although the songs on the record are unabashedly anthems, the meaning behind them is far more insular for Coyle. “The lyrics, they’re personal to me in many ways, even if I’m writing from another person’s point of view,” he says, pointing to the song “Birds of Paradise.” Said the singer in an early biography: “That’s about two life-long friends, and one who goes to war and dies while being far, far away. Even though it’s a song about war and death, there are many aspects of it that are autobiographical.”^[6]

As for the album title, according to the band it directly reflected the journey leading up to the recording of the album. “We grew up in a small town, and then spent a lot of time in Leeds – which is an amazing city for musicians,” says Coyle. "Then we came here to the States, and that was our last inspiration before recording the album. So I guess it’s about our journey, in a town and two cities".^[7]

In January 2008 Your Vegas released its debut EP, A Town And Two Cities EP, which reached number 27 in the itunes rock chart. In late January they performed at the Sundance Film Festival before embarking on their first North American tour as support for The Bravery^[8].

In March the band played several shows at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas before partnering with Pan Am for the release of their Spring/Summer '08 collection of retro bags sold in Bloomingdale's stores across the USA. The band appeared live in-store at the New York launch event. Debut album, A Town And Two Cities, was released in the US on April 29 along with the leading single 'In My Head'.

2008 was a year that saw the band continuously on the road across the US and Canada completing six major North American tours. After supporting The Bravery on two tours, they opened up for Duran Duran as the only support act on their 2008 Red Carpet Massacre Tour of North America throughout April and May and then again during the second leg of the tour in December. Over the summer Your Vegas headlined their own tour up and down the east coast of America as well as performing at various major US Music festivals in 2008, including The Bamboozle in California, Bonnaroo in Manchester, TN, Lollapalooza in Chicago and All Points West in Jersey City, New Jersey.^[9]. In November they were once again an opening act, this time touring the US and Canada as support for Shiny Toy Guns.

Your Vegas made its national network television debut on May 5, 2008 when they performed debut single, In My Head, on Last Call with Carson Daly.

Avid football fans, in November Your Vegas founded their own celebrity football team along with MLS Magazine called Champions United named after their song "Champion", which was penned for the MLS. On November 22nd 2008 they played a charity football match against Hollywood United, which resulted in a 7-7 draw^[10]. Proceeds raised from the event went towards helping hurricane victims in Houston. Since the event Coyle and Jon have participated in a number of Hollywood United games and events.

Early 2009 saw the band come off the road and return to the studio in New York City, to begin working on their as yet untitled second record. In March they took some time out of the studio to perform several shows at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas^[11] and then again in the summer months for a series of performances in New York. Labeled by the band as 'The Blitz', Your Vegas performed over 20 shows in under 40 days in NYC throughout the summer^[12] road testing new material. According to blogs from the band at the end of 2009, the new record is due for release in 2010^[13].

Discography

Albums

A Town And Two Cities (1 April 2008) US Digital release. (29 April 2008) US Physical release.

EPs

A Town And Two Cities EP (January 2008) US

Singles

"In My Head" (June 2008) US
"Flybuzz" (January 2006) UK
"Your Vegas" (August 2005) UK

Other Tracks

"Champion"
"Christmas And Me Are Through"

External links

References

[1] BBC - Leeds - Entertainment - Unsigned stage line-up

[2] Your Vegas

[3] rock the rabbit

[4] David Bendeth - Discography

[5] ttp://www.myspace.com/yourvegas

[6] ttp://www.myspace.com/yourvegas

[7] ttp://www.myspace.com/yourvegas

[8] All Bets Are On For Indie Music Fans As Universal Republic Newcomers Your Vegas Makes Live Trek Across US With The Bravery @ Top40-Charts.com - 40 Top 20 & Top 40 Music Charts from 25 Countries

[9] Theodore, Jeff (2008-08-08). "Band makes move from small town to big time". The Jersey Journal. Retrieved 2008-08-14.

[10] ttp://www.hollywoodutd.com/news/35

[11] ttp://sxsw.com/music/shows/schedule/?a=club&s=Maggie%20Mae's

[12] ttp://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=20644391&blogId=505994258

[13] ttp://yourvegasmusic.blogspot.com/

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 == Background ==
-Girelli, Steel and Langford met and started playing music together while attending [[Prince Henry's Grammar School]] in [[Otley]], West Yorkshire.  Their first band was called Orka but they later changed their name to Salvadore.  In December [[2004]] they joined forces with Heaton, a friend from the vibrant Leeds music scene and enlisted the services of Taylor, an old school friend, and Your Vegas was born.
+Girelli, Steel and Langford started playing music together while attending [[Prince Henry's Grammar School]] in [[Otley]], West Yorkshire.  Their first band was called Orka but they later changed their name to Salvadore.  In December [[2004]] they joined forces with Heaton, a friend from the vibrant Leeds music scene and enlisted the services of Taylor, an old school friend, and Your Vegas was born.
 They signed with indie label White Duke Records in [[2005]] and the band released two singles, Your Vegas and Flybuzz, the latter hitting number 12 in the [[UK]] Indie Singles Chart.  They began extensively touring the UK and in the summer of that year they performed on the unsigned stage<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/articles/2005/08/10/music_festival_unsigned_stage_line_up_feature.shtml BBC - Leeds - Entertainment - Unsigned stage line-up<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> at [[Leeds Festival]].