Artist description A spooky and twang-tastic mixture of spooky country, beatnik caberet filth and tongue-in-check punk rock malevolence. John Wayne Army play songs about betrayal, revenge, vanity and shame. Their music conjures up a dense vista of pain.

Music Style noirish ballads, murderous torch songs, punk folk blues and country

Musical Influences The Velvet Underground, Johnny Cash, The Clash

Similar Artists Nick Cave, The Pogues, Calexico, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen

Artist History John Wayne Army #1 - Cowpunk Warriors on the edge of time The first lineup included Ade Williams on guitar, Ian Thompson on bass, Joolie Wood on fiddle, Andy Hilton on drums and Alistair Newton on vocals. Their auspicious debut gig was playing for free drink at a deserted Irish bar in a Tottenham industrial estate and it was a roarding sucess. They started gigging around London, quickly garnering a reputation for enthusiasm, speed, diversity and unpredictability. They had a video shown on BBC. Ade was replaced by Aiter Markovich on guitar and Ollie Hodge played some mean harmonic. Then they split up and Ian joined the Mike Flowers Pops, Joolie joined The Mekons, The Rockingbirds and Radial Spangle. John Wayne Army #2 - The lounge lizard shakedown Alistair Newton then formed a new band with Tim Sanpher on guitar, and were joined by Chip Carpenter (ex Pigbag, Red Dirt, Lost in Austin) on Drums, Ruth King(ex Pigbag, Red Dirt, Lost in Austin) on bass and Sara Baille (The Bisons) on fiddle. They recorded Swinging Time - their debut EP - in a bedroom in Dalston. Then split up. John Wayne Army #3 - Transgressive Punk Country Confidential Tim and Al formed a new band with Fabio D'Agostino (The Washington Rays) and Frank Foley who was soon replaced by Simon Dickenson. They started recording a whole bunch of new songs and live favourites for their Beat City Soundtrack EP which was released by Calavera Records as a seven inch single on 01/07/96. Sam Ireland (Die Cheerleader) joined for one gig. She now shares lead vocals with Al. In 1997 they started recording a new album using a mixture of four track masters and some favourites from other sessions. The new album -"Closing Time At The Last Chance Saloon" was released on 11/05/98. It received ecstatic reviews in Select, Time Out and a feature in Mojo. Fabio left to concentrate on his own band - The Washington Rays and the JWA started looking for a new trap-rattler. John Wayne Army #4 - Mawkish Trash and Vainglorious Blues Fabio moved on and was replaced by origonal drummer and maverick property developer, Andy Hilton. In 1999 they started recording “Night without End” a sprawling noir-ish album which took in all different genres and a whole bunch of guest appearances, including Paul Hofner (Gretschen Hofner) and Ade Williams. It was released on 120201 and was instantly hailed as a modern classic. Tim left and was replaced by Jamie Reid. John Wayne Army #5 - The New Frontier These days Ian plays bass, Simon plays rhythm guitar, and Patmo Sheeran (The Stone Rangers) plays lead guitar.

Group Members Alistair Newton, Simon Dickenson, Andy Hilton, Sam Ireland, Ian Thompson, Patmo Sheeran

Instruments croon, wail, thunder, twang, trash, kiss and bash

Albums Night Without End, Closing Time At The Last Chance Saloon,

Press Reviews "On their second LP Night Without End (Calavera), North-East-London band John Wayne Army go country, from bar-room weepies (I was betrayed) and twang-guitared, punk voiced Spaghetti Western noir (Revenge) to booze-fests that sound like cowboy-hatted Pogues (Marylou)." MOJO "Groovy grinding and trashy blastin' big boss twang from this deadbeat country crew. Expect a doozy mess of bad ass guitar, shakin'flophouse rock'n'roll and bastard punky hellfire bump and grind ... Their fine new album evidences a more slowed and melodic aspect to their sound." TIME OUT "Superb album of rowdy-but dark whiskey songs. Like the Beats of Bourbon and Nick Cave drunk." SOUTHERN CROSS "Newton has the same sprawled-against-the-bar vocal quality as Shane MacGowan, only raspier, while his music... has the rhythmic freewheel of wagons thundering across the plains..." METRO "A missive from the other side of midnight JOhn Wayne Army's second self-released album comes smeared with tears and lipstick, and reeking of cheap liquor. Alistair Newton and Sam Ireland's twisted duets emanate lust, regret, love turned bad, and booze addled rancour, all set to a suitably atmospheric score of simmering rockabilly and bluesy twang and fuzz. Seething malevolence slugs it out with star-crossed romanticism, resulting in 50 minutes of sleaze-riddled glamour par excellence!" THE BIG CHEESE "Midnight-flavoured sounds from the suavely-sleazemongering London outfit. Music to drink yourself to death to" RHYTHM "John Wayne Army give country punk a seriously good seeing to." TIME OUT "The second album from these troopers and it's another heady cocktail of bluesy, gin-soaked sleazey (sic) country/rock played with passion from the wrong side of the tracks. 'Ghost Train' sounds like The Pogues forced to play a square dance and comping up trumps;''I Was Betrayed' is a achingly wrought ballad which demands to be played at 3am when you've just been dumped and you're having that one last drink that you just know is going to make everything alright; 'Slaughtered Again is more jaunty but still retains the brooding edge which mark the band down as heroes of pub culture relations. Intense, sad, funny and wistful, this is as intoxicating as whatever their tipple has to be." THE CRACK "They get full points for a name that just makes youwant to put it on for a listen 0- although "experience would ahve been better. It gets better when you put it on, because whikle healing from North East London, these guys are into country music. Not of the 'we play both cinds of music:- country and western' variety. but orather of that nasty spooky dark variety. This is the other side of the chicken-wire." LAM An interview with Bucketful of Brains "Hackney. North East-London. It's cold as hell this time of year, and dark too. The occasional gunshot breaks the night air' as the wind blows the daily trash like tumbleweed, something that the bankrupt - financially, if not morally - council are powerless to do anything about. Somewhere nearby a band is playing, a band ultimately forged by this no-life environment. Someone said Memphis makes Hackney look like Mayfair; a sentiment the John Wayne Army can appreciate. GERRY RANSOM, BUCKETFUL OF BRAINS What they said about Closing Time At The Last Chance Saloon "Bottleneck-slidin' fatalistic paganist fucked-over blues punk country." VOX "Oh oh. Another groovy, grinding, trashy blast of big boss twang and fuzztone bump and grind from this deadbeat country crew (check out Sam Ireland's heavenly gait) mashing up a wonderful mess of bastard rockabilly, crazy rhythm and punky hellfire songs. TIME OUT "The songs Elvis would have done if he were still alive." THE INDEPENDENT "Raw, bass-driven punkabilly country beats." MOJO Live reviews "Sort of Gallon Drunk meet The Pogues at a hoedown somewhere outside Glasgow. There's a whole lot of a-whoopin' and a-hollerin' going on and, if Al's voice occasionally errs on the side of flatness the fun had by all concerned sure compensates. There's fiddle-de-diddling' and blues harpin' and , sheesh, did someone mention a square dance? Al starts off snake-hipping in a sharp suit, cracks jokes between songs, affectionately murders "One Night (With You):, and ends up shirtless and dripping ("Who needs the f**kers from Suede, anyway?") If an army marches on it's stomach, this one is definitely lager fuelled. "Devil's highway" and "Diesel Smoke" are real crackers. I'm enjoying myself. Yeehah and so on. Great stuff." VIRGINIA BLACK, MELODY MAKER "A whisky-soaked journey through the darker recesses of psychobilly, with sleazy riffs and drunken, tortured, banshee-style vocals. Imagine The Cramps playing after a ram-raid on an off-license. Superb" Rating: 4 out of 5 WIPEOUT

Additional Info It's high fidelity music for a faithless society!

Location London, England - United Kingdom

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