Fightstar
Fightstar |
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Fightstar is a four-piece rock band from London, England. In 2005, frontman Charlie Simpson left the highly successful British guitar trio Busted, in order to concentrate fully on Fightstar, citing his preference for post-hardcore-based music over the lighter pop rock music he had produced with Busted.
Origins
Fightstar formed in late 2003 after an impromptu jam session at a party in Charlie Simpson's London home. Simpson, impressed by their ability, soon asked the members to join a band. After a few songs had been written, the band recruited bassist Dan Haigh, a school friend of guitarist Alex Westaway.
The band are heavily influenced by the author Chuck Palahniuk, with the band naming a song after him (Palahniuk's Laughter) and including a drawing of Edward Norton's character in the film adaptation of the Palahniuk book Fight Club on the reverse side of their début EP, They Liked You Better When You Were Dead.
Rehearsing and playing as often as Simpson's schedule would allow, things soon became more serious and it became apparent that a decision regarding the band's future had to be made. Simpson ultimately made the decision to leave Busted, with the group officially calling it quits in early 2005, and he looked eagerly ahead to life with Fightstar.
They Liked You Better When You Were Dead
Fightstar's début EP, They Liked You Better When You Were Dead, was released on February 28 2005, following a rapid promotional tour of the UK. The release was deliberately constructed to be made ineligible for the British music charts — Simpson's first attempt to clearly leave Busted and its teenage fanbase behind. The release proved popular enough to warrant a reprinting on March 23 2005. The first track, Palahniuk's Laughter, enjoyed heavy rotation on music video channels and spent many weeks in charts based on video and radio requests. The track was originally entitled "Out Swimming in the Flood", but was renamed after the 2004 tsunami.
Initially, the band faced criticism from much of the British music press, because of Simpson's past career. Most vocal in the early days was Kerrang! magazine; however, the magazine quickly became one of the band's biggest supporters in the media, giving strongly positive reviews to early gigs and to the EP.
The band's first single, "Paint Your Target" was released on June 13, 2005 in the UK, peaking at #9 in the singles chart. Their second single, "Grand Unification Part 1" was released on October 31, 2005, and peaked at #20 in the UK singles chart.
A new version of the They Liked You Better When You Were Dead EP was released in early 2006 through Deep Elm Records in America.
In March 2006, they were listed by the US rock magazine Alternative Press as one of the 100 bands to watch out for.
Grand Unification
A week before the release of their début album, Fightstar released their third single, "Waste A Moment" which peaked at number 29 on the UK singles chart. It was only in the UK Top 40 for one week. The video for the single was filmed in an abandoned London Underground tunnel, the same one used by The Prodigy for their video for "Firestarter". A week later, Fightstar released their début full-length album on 13 March 2006 through Island Records, entitled Grand Unification. Produced and mixed by Colin Richardson (Bullet for My Valentine, Machine Head, Funeral for a Friend), the album entered the midweeks at #11 and ended up débuting at #28 in the UK charts. Grand Unification was released in America in March 2007, along with a full US tour.
Fourth single "Hazy Eyes", backed by a cover of Funeral for a Friend's "She Drove Me to Daytime TV" was released in the UK on June 5, 2006. The single only got to number 47 in the UK singles chart, no doubt affected by the World Cup. The band also played a slot at the Download Festival at Donington Park Race Track and also headlined the Sunday of Welsh rock music festival The Full Ponty under Biffy Clyro and Funeral for a Friend. Fightstar toured with Funeral for a Friend for three months in 2006 covering such places as Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom.
Fightstar have also recently covered Metallica's "Leper Messiah" and Deftones' "My Own Summer" for Kerrang! magazine free CD giveaways during 2006. They have covered Deftones' "Minerva" acoustically, which is available on the 7" vinyl version of the Waste A Moment single.
One Day Son, This Will Be All Yours
Kerrang magazine reported that Fightstar have set up camp on a farm in Northamptonshire (Al's Barn) to begin work on the follow up to their 2006 début album Grand Unification. According to Charlie, Fightstar have already written four songs for the next album. He has also said that the band is a fan of Muse and Deftones in the way they push boundaries and aim to do the same.
The band hit the road for an extensive tour beginning at Glasgow Barrowlands on October 8 2006 with a supporting cast that they personally hand picked, including Mancunian prog-rockers Oceansize, rising US post-hardcore stars The Receiving End Of Sirens and Arizona rockers Scary Kids Scaring Kids.
On 8 September 2006 it was reported that Charlie Simpson had "torn up his contract" with his label Island Records, after the music bosses tried to force him into returning to a pop sound for his next Fightstar album. The former Busted star has struggled to be taken seriously as a rocker — and he has no intention of turning back now. And Simpson is even considering a complete new start in America with the band, where he hopes he can tap into the ever-growing emo-rock market. He says, "Earlier this week we decided to tear up the contract. "They wanted a pop album and we didn't. I've put so much into this band I don't want to start compromising now. "We're thinking about going to America. The market for our stuff is much bigger over there."[1]
On 19 September 2006, Charlie Simpson confirmed on Fightstar's official forum that they had left Island Records. Apparently seven songs have been demoed and he expects Fightstar's second album to be released late in 2007 after finding a new label.
As of 2007, the official website and forum is currently down. Island Records are currently re-doing many of their artist's websites and considering Fightstar have left Island Records, it is unlikely they will continue to keep the site up for the band.
The band have also just signed to Institute Records, a brand new imprint of Gut Records. They will be recording the next album in LA with producer Matt Wallace who has also produced the likes of Faith No More, Satchel, Deftones and Sugarcult. The album is set to be released around July/August 2007.
On 4 April 2007, Kerrang! Radio débuted a new Fightstar song called "99", which is scheduled to be released as a free download-only single on the 23 April 2007. The music video for "99" can currently be seen on Scuzz TV. After circling Kerrang and Scuzz TV for 2 weeks, the video for "99" was finally playlisted on Kerrang TV on 4th May 2007. Fightstar have also launched a microsite for the download-only single, "99", on which you can download the single and the video for free, on 11th May 2007.
The band released their début album, Grand Unification, in the US and Canada on April 17 2007. The release differs from the British and Japanese versions by including the "Hazy Eyes" B-Side, "Fight For Us" as a 14th track.
In the 23rd May 07 release of Kerrang! Magazine, the band at last confirmed the title of their second
record to be "One Day Son, This Will Be All Yours", and is scheduled for release on 3rd September. The article also mentioned the official first single from the album will be the track "Floods", to be released 20th August. Other tracks on the new album include "I Am The Message", "Amaze Us", "Our Last Common Ancestor", "Deathcar" and "We Apologise For Nothing".
Trivia
- The Original UK version of the EP "They Like You Better When You Were Dead" was released as a digipack, unlike the later US and Japanese releases and has five tracks with a "hidden" sixth track.
- "Paint Your Target" was used to coincide with a collection of video clips of Big Brother 7.
- Fightstar appeared on CD:UK to promote the hit single "Paint Your Target".
- Fightstar cancelled their appearance scheduled for massive UK chart show Top Of The Pops, despite the fact "Paint Your Target" reached #9 in the UK singles chart.
- The song "Mono" is rumoured to be a tribute by Charlie Simpson to the Japanese band Mono.
- Fightstar did a cover of Metallica's "Leper Messiah", from the album Master of Puppets, for Kerrang!'s Master of Puppets: Remastered CD.
- Fightstar were nominated two years running at the annual Kerrang! awards. The nominations were for Best British Newcomer (2005) and Best British Band (2006). They lost both years.
- Alex Westaway and Dan Haigh co-own a company called "Vs" which makes t-shirts.
- Fightstar played a secret gig at the water rats theatre london the night before GIAN 2007 under the name "Grand Unification"
- Fightstar headlined the second stage at Give It A Name 2007, playing the festival for the second year in a row.
- The band refer to Matt Wallace, the producer of their second album, as "Old Waldo".
- The June 20th edition of Kerrang Magazine featured a free cd in which fightstar covered Judas Priest's "Breaking the law"
Members
- Charlie Simpson — Lead Vocals / Guitar / Keyboard
- Alex Westaway — Backing Vocals / Lead Guitar / Piano
- Dan Haigh — Bass / Guitar (Live for My Own Summer)
- Omar Abidi — Drums / Percussion
Record labels
UK
- Island Records/Sandwich Leg: 2003 – September 2006
- Gut Records Via Institute Records: February 2007 – present
US
- Deep Elm Records: January 2006 – March 2007
- Trustkill Records: March 2007 – present
Discography
EPs
| EP Cover | Date of Release | Title | Label | UK Album Chart Position | UK sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
28 February 2005 | They Liked You Better When You Were Dead | Island Records | CD - Not Chart Eligible
Vinyl - #12 In Indie Charts |
7500 CD Limited Release
1000 Vinyl Limited Release |
Albums
| Album Cover | Date of Release | Title | Label | UK Album Chart Position | UK sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 March 2006 | Grand Unification | Island Records | 28 | 40,000 | |
 |
3 September 2007 | One Day Son, This Will Be All Yours | Gut Records | - | - |
Singles
| Date | Song | UK Singles Chart | Album/EP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | "Paint Your Target" | 9 | Grand Unification |
| 2005 | "Grand Unification Part 1" | 20 | Grand Unification |
| 2006 | "Waste A Moment" | 29 | Grand Unification |
| 2006 | "Hazy Eyes" | 47 | Grand Unification |
| 2007 | "99" | - | One Day Son, This Will Be All Yours |
| 2007 | "Floods" | - | One Day Son, This Will Be All Yours |
References
- ^ "Fightstar ditch Island Records". www.contactmusic.com.