The Quireboys are an English hard rock band formed in 1984 in London, England, with strong ties to Newcastle. When the band formed they were originally known as The Queerboys and later as the London Quireboys in the United States.
The band were successful during the late 1980s and early 1990s, with their debut album A Bit of What You Fancy reaching #2 on the UK charts. Their highest charting single for the band was with the song "Hey You", which reached #14.
In 1993, the Quireboys broke up but briefly reformed live in 1995 with different members. A more permanent reformation came in 2001 when frontman Spike, guitarist Guy Griffin and bassist Nigel Mogg put together a new line-up. The band is still active, recording new material and playing live.
The Queerboys started to build up a following, playing at the Marquee Club. The band's drummer Paul Hornby soon left to form Dogs D'Amour, which contained future friends of the Queerboys, he was replaced by Nick Connell (known as Cozy). Connell, Bailey, Johnstone and Mark Sweetmore were old friends, having grown up together and attended Alleynes School in Stone, Staffordshire in the 1970s.
By 1987 the band's controversial name was starting to hinder them, it caused some of the gigs on their tour with Andy McCoy's band to be cancelled. They were also booked to play Reading Festival on the understanding that they would change their name.
Sharon Osbourne was appointed as manager and The Quireboys were signed to EMI for the release of their debut album, A Bit of What You Fancy. By 1990, the Quireboys had fired Ginger (who went on to form The Wildhearts), who they replaced with former Cradle Snatchers guitarist Guy Griffin. For the debut album Cozy was substituted by Ian Wallace who played with Bob Dylan.[5]
The debut album was produced by a school friend of the band's Andrew Witham and entered the UK Albums Chart at #2. A Bit of What You Fancy drew positive reviews and was compared favourably to British rock names such as Rod Stewart and The Faces. The album was produced by Stewart's musical director and guitarist Jim Cregan.
In support of the debut, the Quireboys toured for the next year. They played with a variety of bands in different settings in the United States, including L.A. Guns, Soundgarden, The Cramps and Iggy Pop. After the tour, they also played some gigs in the United Kingdom; in Spike's hometown of Newcastle were they supported The Rolling Stones at St James' Park. Two months after the Stones show, they played in front of 72,000 people at Monsters of Rock at Donington with Whitesnake, Aerosmith and Poison.
The long touring schedule was finished off with a gig in Japan at the Tokyo Dome on New Years Eve in front of 50,000 people. A live album was released following this long touring, entitled Recorded Around the World.
With a new drummer, Rudy Richman, they began working on the follow-up, Bitter Sweet & Twisted, which was released in 1993; but the birth of grunge changed the music scene and they were left behind. Axl Rose asked them to join the "Use Your Illusion Tour" with Guns N' Roses, and they followed the band for a while during their 1993 summer European tour.
The band reformed for a number of concerts in the mid 1990s and found themselves with a loyal following. A new line up recorded and released This Is Rock'N'Roll in 2002 and followed it with the moderately successful Well Oiled in 2004.
On 12 May 2008, The Quireboys released their next album Homewreckers & Heartbreakers on the Jerkin Crocus label.
Talking about the inspiration for the new album, Paul Guerin said "It's a funny story. We were in Malmö, Sweden in the dressing room. It was just before the show and we'd had a few frothy quenchers. We were trying to come up with album titles, and everyone was laughing at the suggestions. A certain member of the band was regaling a story about something he'd done, and another member of the band said "you're just a home wrecker," and someone else said "yeah, and a heartbreaker". We were just having a laugh, and bang, there it was. It was as simple as that."
In 2010, The Quireboys teamed up with Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott to record an album under the name 'Down N Outz'. Two singles have been released to date, both of which are covers of Mott The Hoople songs: England Rocks (June 2010) and Overnight Angels (January 2011). Down N Outz will be supporting Paul Rodgers on tour in April 2011.
