BRMC

Fact Sheet

Musical genre:	Rock
City	San Francisco, California, USA

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are an American rock and roll band from San Francisco, California, now based in Los Angeles. BRMC, as they are known for short, formed in 1998, taking their name from the 1953 film The Wild One. On their first two records they played hard driving punkish rock influenced by Iggy Pop And The Stooges, The Ramones, The Doors, Sex Pistols, and 1980s British acts like Spacemen 3 and especially The Jesus & Mary Chain. Their style also encompassed slower paced psychedelic dreamy grooves influenced by shoegazers like My Bloody Valentine and Ride. Recently, with their third record Howl, they developed a new sound somewhere between Blues, Folk, Gospel and Rock, but still with their old melancholy. The vocals are shared between Robert Levon Been (Bass) and Peter Hayes (guitar). Been used the pseudonym Robert Turner on the first two Records, in an attempt to not be linked to his famous father (His father being none other than Michael Been of The Call.) He later dropped this identity when promoting "Howl".

Been and Hayes met at high-school in San Francisco and quickly formed a band, writing music and playing together. Looking for a drummer, they met Nick Jago, who hailed from Cornwall in England, who had moved to California to be with his parents.

The band were originally under the name 'The Elements' but after discovering that another band had the same name, they swiftly changed to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

Caught up in the hype of the Music-press fuelled 'new rock revolution' which included The Strokes and Kings of Leon, the band quickly separated themselves from the others in both sound and image, proving they were very different to their contemporaries in quality, songwriting and touring mentality.

The band were dropped by Virgin Records in 2004, with Nick Jago leaving the band at the end of their summer tour of the same year due to "internal conflict" (later revealed to be a drink and drug addiction problem) .

After Jago was thrown out, Hayes and Been posted at the Official Website that the doors are open for him to come back if he has solved his problems.

In 2005 the band signed to Echo in the UK, and RCA in the US, with Jago also returning. Their third album "Howl" was recently released to wide spread critical acclaim. Jago returned after most of the album was done, but he can be heard on Track 7 named "Promise".

Line-Up

Peter Hayes: guitar, bass, vocals Robert Levon Been: guitar, bass, vocals Nick Jago: drums/percussion

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