“Muscular and melodic, Hell Is For Heroes is a band bursting with ideas, energy and excitement.” (Kerrang)
Five kids go! 2000: Will McGonagle (guitar), Joe Birch (drummer), Tom O’Donohue (guitar) and James ‘Fin’ Findlay (bass) are old friends from SW London, and have some great songs but no singer. Through mutual friends they hook up with rookie singer Justin Schlosberg from the North of the Capital, and they become Hell Is For Heroes.
“They prove themselves worthy of all the attention they’re bound to have thrust upon them in the next few months.” (Kerrang)
2001: Five shows in and Hell Is For Heroes (its an old Steve McQueen film) have a burgeoning reputation for taut riffage and growling atmosphere, and a bidding war follows the release of their limited edition ‘Sick/Happy’/’Cut Down’ (Superior Quality) single. Radio One and Xfm play it, NME, Kerrang, Rocksound and The Fly extol it’s virtues.
“This is rock’n’roll with dynamite in its underpants and sledgehammers for hands, the kind of flailing stomp that will slip a fucking nuclear-powered trampoline under the moshp-its at this year’s festivals.” NME
Summer 2001: Hell Is For Heroes set about becoming one of the best new bands in the country. Will and Joe have previous ‘rock’ experience – once were members of Symposium – but it becomes clear this band have something unique and strangely real to shout about. Singer Justin is Pattonesque, climbing all over the stage, leaping from amp stacks. Will windmills while Tom hardly makes a move. Fin and Joe lock down the parade. The early shows are as tight as they are exciting. They might be just starting out, but a lot of people think that they are already experts in their field. They play their epic, muscular, emotive tunes on tour with The Icarus Line and at the Reading and Leeds festivals, and sign a long-term record deal with EMI.
“By Christmas Hell Is For Heroes will be your favourite band and that flicker of youth will have turned into an adult inferno.” (Kerrang)
Autumn 2001: Hell Is For Heroes record some tracks (including their first full release single ‘You Drove Me To It’) with Andy Gill, and decamp to the country to write more nervy, heavy, edgy, powerful rock music. An emotional show with Alien Ant Farm on September 11th is followed by talk of tours with Jimmy Eat World (UK) and American Hi Fi (Europe). A trip to the US is not far away - they will rendezvous with Bret Bair Management (who number Papa Roach amongst their charges) to spread the HIFH whisper, and turn it into a scream…
2002: The single ‘You Drove Me To It’ is released in January on the independent label Wishakismo, distribution by Vital. Hell Is For Heroes’ EMI debut will follow in the Spring.
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