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BIOGRAPHY
They're
naked, they're loud, they're riotous and they want your soul. They
are The Parkinsons and they are here to shoot you up with the passion
that has been missing from your life for so long and inject the
current music scene with a long overdue kick up its saggy arse.
Raised in Portugal,
the band released three LPs there as The Tedio Boys between
1994 and 1998. They quickly earned their reputations as the nation's
Kings of Chaos, attracting notoriety for their impromptu gigs on
top of buildings in their city centre. It was this word of mouth
that got them an invite to play at Joey Ramone's birthday
party in New York's Continental in 1997, an incredible honour for
a little known act, and they never looked back - touring Portugal
with the likes of The Fall and John Spencer in 1997/98.
Then, in 2000,
having ripped the States apart again, they relocated to the home
of punk, London. Every gig since their first riotous appearance
in Camden has been punctuated by fast, furious punk music, onstage
nudity, interband scrapping but also, most importantly, an ever
increasing number of fantastic songs and fanatical followers.
Their energy
on stage has been described by one journalist as "making At
The Drive-In seem like The Corrs", and on seeing the band play
at the 100 Club Mark Perry of ATV and Sniffin' Glue fame remarked
that Victor was "the finest guitarist he had seen since The
Clash's Mick Jones". Lunatics they may be, but these boys can
play. And play they do! In the last two years alone they have set
the new world record for the number of Japanese tour dates a Western
band has ever played - in five hectic weeks culminating with an
arena appearance at Fujirock alongside Foo Fighters - not to mention
sold out dates in Europe and at all the major UK festivals including
T in the Park, Reading, Leeds and Glastonbury, as well as support
slots for the likes of Dead Kennedys, Nickelback and an opening
set for Sum 41 at the Brixton Academy which prompted the
NME to say: "There's been nothing this good since the early
Manics! ...Gig of the year!"
Following the
release of their critically acclaimed debut album A Long Way
To Nowhere on Fierce Panda in the spring of 2002, the band spent
most of the next year spreading their own brand of ferocious punk
rock across the globe to legions of fans worldwide. Following the
festivals of summer 2003 they decided to take time out to work on
new material and further hone their sound. The results are a new
album and a new line-up, both sounding even more explosive than
The Parkinsons ever have before. Afonso
has left the band, allowing Victor to sing his own songs the way
they were always meant to sound, and he and Pedro have now been
joined by a punk rock demon in the form of new guitarist Jet. Add
new drummer Eric into the mix and you have a truly awesome foursome
waiting to unleash their sound onto the world!
The band will
be releasing their new single New Wave this spring, supported
by a UK tour and followed by their incredible second album, ensuring
that things are set to go even more ballistic for The
Parkinsons in 2004! Watch this space!
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