Albany Down

Artist Information

Biography

Revolution comes in cycles. It happened with the British rediscovery of American blues in the sixties and it's happening again in 2013.

Fresh from recording their 2nd album produced by studio legend Greg Haver, the British 4-piece are currently Touring the UK at major venues and Festivals.

Influences include Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Joe Bonamassa, The Who and The Rolling Stones.




**LATEST REVIEWS**

"These guys are going somewhere, make sure they take you with them!"

* PAUL JONES on his Rhythm and Blues Show on BBC Radio 2


"The passion and love for their music is evident throughout the entire CD and that in itself is infectious. There are obviously some very hard-working guys in and around the band and it shows. This will pay off big style. These guys are bloody awesome!"

http://www.rock-zone.co.uk/2012/07/23/cd-review-albany-down-south-of-the-city/

* Rock Zone UK


"This band has brought Rock Blues into the new decade with style. They didn’t bring it kicking and screaming, they tamed it, then lit a fire in its belly and put it back centre stage. If you can only afford to buy one CD in the next decade then this is the one tobuy."

- Carol Borrington Blues Roots and Shoots.


"Albany Down are a fantastic bunch of young lads who have a superb sense of what's right in music, they were fabulous in the Flowerpot, Bedford last Friday. Miss them at your peril."

* Facebook fan


"I must confess that I knew absolutely nothing about Albany Down beforehand but they quickly settled into an enjoyable and impressive blues groove.

Highlights of their nine song set were “Working Man”, “South of the City” and a surprisingly effective blues cover of the Duffy hit “Mercy”. Albany Down are a very good blues-rock band and well worth investigating if you get the chance."

* ROB STANLEY for The Midlands Rocks

"One example is the up and coming blues-rock band ALBANY DOWN who played a scorching set at this years Burnley International Rock and Blues Festival – earning themselves a bunch of delighted new fans.

Supporting the legendary guitarist Jimmy Vaughan on the main stage at the BURNLEY MECHANICS venue, the band zipped through a highly polished set that included some of their own freshly penned numbers, along with several songs selected from their very successful ‘South of the City’ Album ( produced last year by Greg Haver.)

Their sharp melodies, neurotic lyrics, road rolling percussion and whip cracking bursts of guitar have all helped to establish this band as a tour de force to be reckoned with on the stage of British blues.

Sounding like the marsh-born sons of the Rolling Stones, their blues based heritage shone through each number on their Burnley set. Songs like ‘Save Me’ – shot into the crowd with a glossy cool, clear-headed deliverance, laced with passionate vocals from Paul Muir and resplendent with razor-sharp hooks of guitar from Paul Turley. With haunting rhythms produced by Damien Campbell on drums and Billy Dedman on bass, this soon had the crowd clapping along. Albany Down’s stage presentation is more elegant than a city-boys crisply starched shirt. And as sure as a chancellors swagger. You never feel that the music goes it’s own way. It is always tightly reigned in. And is constantly refined by these clever musicians.

Finishing off the set with their highly accomplished ‘South of the City’ number, with its sweaty, hazy summery-blues heat, and those mosquito stinging lyrics … adorned with a gloriously serpentine bottle-neck guitar finale, this song suitably topped off a magnificent show for the band …. scoring them a hit with the blues fans at Burnley …. and preparing the ground for Jimmie and his famous Tilt a Whirl."

* © Neil_Mach for Revenge of the Blues


"You guys sound sick... Love the Vintage feel to the music!!! I've heard the songs more than 5 times in one go today... your voice & guitar playing made me reminisce about bands like Led Zeppelin mixed with Foo Fighters and Hoobastank. Keep up the good work... Love it :) x"

* Facebook fan

"Albany Down – I only heard about these guys when they contacted me and signed up to band assist a few weeks back. Since then they asked for a review and thank God they did! If they hadn’t I would have never heard “South of the City” which is currently my favourite song in the world and reminds me why I do this, so I get to hear tracks like this. Albany Down are part Skynard, part The Doors and bring a great vibe."

* (c) BandAssist

Instrumentation

Paul Turley - Guitar and backing vocals
Paul Muir - Vocals
Billy Dedman - Bass Guitar
Damien Campbell - Drums

Discography

Debut album "South of the City"
All 13 tracks available on iTunes and for download at http://store.albanydown.com/

NEW ALBUM "Not Over Yet" Released 26 March 2013

Official video:
"I Won't Wait" - see video section
"South Of The City" - **NEW** - see YouTube

Official Website

http://www.albanydown.com

Links

• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Soundcloud

Audio

• Not Over yet
  Listen  
• A Man Like Me
  Listen  
• She's The Light
  Listen  
• Without You
  Listen  
• I Won't Wait
  Listen  
• I Wanna Know
  Listen  
• South of the City
  Listen  

Lyrics

• DEBUT ALBUM OUT NOW!
• South of the City
• Without You
• She's The Light

Video

I Won't Wait

Photo Gallery

Press

• Album Review [+ Show ]
  

  The new Albany Down “South of the City” disc (produced by Greg Haver) is a bad-mama, rum soaked, spi...The new Albany Down “South of the City” disc (produced by Greg Haver) is a bad-mama, rum soaked, spirited vintage patio-party album- full of passion and heat. Stick it on your iPod dock whilst you sip a few barbecue beers.
  
  Title song “South of the city” has a bittersweet butterscotch slide-guitar sound, drenched in oily gutter-slide hazy summer blues. This track feels so close that it makes make you want to strip off your Hawaiian shirt and howl at the harvest moon .
  
  The oppressive heat of these sounds and the mosquito bites of the sub-text, together with those muttering Will-o’-the-wisp marsh-born guitars, create a sweat stained blanket of melodic loops that lazily crawl around the landscape like snakes on the prowl in the tangle of a mangrove swamp.
  
  Among the other standout tracks are “Save Me”, whose intro twinkly chimes and draws you into it’s grasp, like a voodoo witch on the lure- before giving you an icy-cool blow-off. An acid-dropping guitar solo is squeezed so dangerously close to your chest that it makes you gasp for breath - then the rhythms and arrangements begin playing havoc with your senses and are as catchy as summer colds. The razor-sharp musicianship creates an ascending order of anguish. “I Won’t wait” is a departure lounge party anthem- a rolling thunder road scorching fist of a track. A lot of riff plays and sentimental lines, but clean guitar sounds are delivered with whip cracking speed and set against a low scuzzy bass- going nowhere in a hurry.
  
  The only cover-song is the Duffy / Booker 12-bar song-book standard “Mercy”, which may be the singalong cheese classic of summers past, but here is another thing altogether. Born insecure and alone. On a ledge. This song creates an eerie feeling of isolation and loss. Angst loaded shiny and glittering arrangements create a fuzzy landscape for the voice of Paul Muir that sounds as lofty as a highborn eagle, lost in flight against the blurry dark and rugged landscape below.
  
  “Jealousy” is a licky, brave spring starter number of pop beats. Styled with the utmost precision and creative percussion from Jonny Bescoby. While “The Train Song” is a short fun-time marvel. Accelerating along a descending track like an out-of-control handcart. And “I Wanna Know” starts with that the nagging bass line from Billy Dedman, creating a soundscape for the precarious yet glittering verse; While sudden shafts of light (provided by Paul Turley on lead guitar) break out across the landscape like startled fish flicking up nervously from bright, yet muddy waters.
  
  The epic conclusion to this album is the honest to goodness track “Without You”, the most satisfying and rewarding end-piece I have heard for a long time.
  
  All-in-all this is a brave, soulful, honest and enjoyable album from a group of hard-working every day rock heroes . A great bluesey deal. Highly recommended.
  

• Paul Jones BBC Radio LIVE Sessions [+ Show ]
  

  Albany Down played their first LIVE Session on Paul Jones Radio 2 show on 27 June 2011: Paul Jones ...Albany Down played their first LIVE Session on Paul Jones Radio 2 show on 27 June 2011:
  Paul Jones said of their performance:
  
  "WOW Very Very Good Indeed"
  
  "Excellent guitar from Paul Turley there - Slide Stuff Terrific - and Paul Muir Superb on vocals, Sterling work from Billy Dedman on Bass and Jonny Bescoby on Drums. Thanks to Albany Down for an Excellent Session."
  
  "These Guys are going somewhere, make sure they take you with them"

• BAND OF THE MONTH - Albany Down [+ Show ]
  

  "Albany Down – I only heard about these guys when they contacted me and signed up to band assist a f..."Albany Down – I only heard about these guys when they contacted me and signed up to band assist a few weeks back. Since then they asked for a review and thank God they did! If they hadn’t I would have never heard “South of the City” which is currently my favourite song in the world and reminds me why I do this, so I get to hear tracks like this. Albany Down are part Skynard, Part The Doors and bring a great vibe."
  (c) BandAssist
  July 2010
  

• LATEST REVIEW - at the Hob [+ Show ]
  

  Wow! What a show! As if touched by grace during the past six months, Albany Down put on a mesmerisin...Wow! What a show! As if touched by grace during the past six months, Albany Down put on a mesmerising and masterful show for the eager crowds at the Staines Hobgoblin last Thursday. The breadth of their musical achievement is amazing. High dancing vocals from Paul Muir, exciting solos and pushing, tearing power-chords on the guitar by Paul Turley, pounding great grumbling bass notes from Billy and wildly wicked thunderclaps of earth-shattering power from Jonny on drums. It was like an eruptive force of nature exploding onto the stage at The Hob. Those of us who had witnessed Albany Down in the past were in for a surprise. Expecting their usual subtle blends of grown up Rock, Blues and Indie originals (with maybe a few exciting covers chucked in) none of us could have foreseen such a seismic change in the talents of this conservative looking and conservative sounding young band. But their new show is classic rock to be reckoned with. And this was more than just a performance. It was an urgent, volatile, flaming heart, ears buzzing declaration of power and creative energy.
  The band shared a bundle of new material with the delighted crowd at Staines. The Morning After with its progressive bass-play and pulsating rhythms of tension and groove constructed to create a mocking anthem for sliders and shifters laced with those treacly lead guitars and culminating in an elegant and hummable chorus. This is an accomplished and worthy song. And Wasted starts with a riff that is so tense that it makes you want to urgently seek much needed climatic release. This is a poisonous mix of clean-cut vocals and dirty, dirty guitars all chugging along with that insistent drive.
  Evidently someone must have whacked a rattlesnake up Paul Muirs kilt at some stage, because he is now a rampant beast prancing, jumping and parading around the stage like an addled Mick Jagger crossed with a libidinous Marti Pellow. He really held on to the heartstrings of the crowd. And Paul Turley not only gave up his quality southern-soaked guitars, but also gave us some note-perfect, sizzling lead vocals on a blues number, and plenty of melodic and expressive backing vocals on other songs. Billy the Bruiser was equally flamboyant on bass guitar, lurking, leeching and leering his way all around the stage whilst wildman Jonny, on those frantic drums, provided a confetti of pyrotechnic percussive achievements.
  The final four songs of the set; The Albanys blues-style version of the Steve Booker / Duffy hit Mercy, followed up by the Train Song, Jealousy and Save Me draw influences from early Stones, Who, even Zeppelin. And these numbers demonstrate that the band would be comfortable working in a blues club, an indie rock venue, a metal festival or up on the high altar at a stadium sized event. Such is their ability and their scale of work.
  Yep, Albany Down are now as hot a volcanic ash and yet as cool as snow slippers. This sparkling band goes from strength to strength. Check them out as soon as you can. They will pour passion into your pumps, fire flames up your flares and ram jumping beans down your jumper. True quality!
  Neil_Mach
  May 2010
  

• AD at Esquires Bedford [+ Show ]
  

  “Indie blues-rockers Albany Down are based in London and mix their own written songs with a few appr...“Indie blues-rockers Albany Down are based in London and mix their own written songs with a few appropriate covers. A fast and furious beginning as "The Morning After" and "Baby" culminate with the band almost catching "Fire" as they cover a Jimi classic. With everybody needing to recover after such a frenetic start, "Without You" does slow things down a touch. A very bluesy cover of "Mercy" works, as does a rocking "Jonny B Goode". It all gives way to the slow burning "Save Me" which is such an inflammatory end to their set.”
  
  
  
  Martin Stapleton
  
  Review of appearance at Esquires, Bedford on 4 July 2009

• An Interview with Albany Down [+ Show ]
  

  Friday, May 29, 2009 An Interview With Albany Down! It is the afternoon after Jonny's 24th Bir...Friday, May 29, 2009
  
  An Interview With Albany Down!
  
  It is the afternoon after Jonny's 24th Birthday bash and the band ALBANY DOWN is full of beans. It appears that they went out last night to one of those hedonistic Hellfire type clubs in London, where semi-naked depravity was the main item on the menu. "At least I now know that I don't have any fetishes" says bass player Billy Dedman as he shakes his head trying to delete the bad images of gimps and whips that are etched into his mind. Jonny Bescoby (drummer) appears to still be dumb struck from the experience with a permanently puzzled look on his face. "It was like sick and mental at the same time... but it was cool" He says "I am absolutely definitely going back".
  
  The two more 'stable' looking city-slicker type members of the band (Paul Muir the singer and Paul Turley the guitarist) stare at their fellow band-mates with a look of weary acceptance. The 'two Pauls' declined last night's scandalous activities preferring, instead, to have a quiet night in. This characterises the 'division' within the young band. One half of ALBANY DOWN are crazy young guns up for anything... the other half are laborious, safe handed stay-at-home rock-steady Eddies. Somehow it works. Sprinkle some pepper on half basket of strawberries and taste the results - it shouldn't work- but all the same it does. It is the same thing with ALBANY DOWN. Sugar and spice.
  
  Baby faced Jonny Bescoby wears a short black jacket, bondage pants and black nail varnish. He looks like a rock star. Jonny is a ferociously fast drummer. He is totally self-taught and his band-mates are blown away by the speed that he develops his sound. In rehearsal he starts off a new song fairly basically and then builds up layer-upon-layer of rhythm to completely transform and reinvigorate the percussive elements.
  
  Paul Muir, the talented lead singer, is considered to be the 'perfectionist' of the band. Paul wears a slate grey suit and a starched blue shirt ... his hair is neatly trimmed and styled into a gentle fauxhawk. "It is my job to slap people around and to get things done... I get the others to study and to concentrate" he says, like some kind of college lecturer. The other band members just nod in agreement. Paul also writes the lyrics for the ALBANY DOWN songs. "They tend to evolve from 'stupid' to more 'serious' over a few days" he states, with a grin. The band is going into the studio this June to lay down six new tracks (working in close collaboration with legendary 'Manics' & 'Skindred' producer Greg Haver). And they are looking forward to the experience of concentrating on the their music, focussing on their style and developing their sound. Paul Muir's favourite singer is Paul Rodgers (Free and Bad Company) but he once thought about replacing Plant as the lead singer in Led Zep. "Yes, yes, it is true that I wrote to Robert Mensch (manager of Jimmy Page) and sent him some of my demos ... I suggested that I would make the ideal replacement for Robert if the band wanted to start playing live again in the near future ..."
  
  Looking like some kinda out-of-work estate agent, the band's guitar supremo Paul Turley wears a crisply laundered striped shirt and neat grey trousers to go with his clean cut workaday hair. He is famous for the look of post-coital satisfaction plastered across his contorted face during guitar breaks. But, off stage, Paul wears a look one would normally expect from a smug thirty-something city banker- you know, something between tristesse and melancholy spread across a serious young face. Paul describes the pleasure of playing live as " Working on pure adrenalin - you feel it and it moves you". The band share a passion for Joe Bonamassa (they recently all went to see him play at the Albert Hall) so it is no surprise that ALBANY DOWN are often compared to the old style Brit blues bands like John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers or Free. Paul plays a Suhr thru a Dr Z Route 66 amp and already possesses some of the spirited rawness and technical prowess of those Brit-blues greats. Paul is often compared to a young Jeff Beck, with the same lyrical and melodic style.
  
  Billy plays the 5 string bass for the band. He is constantly dressed in a dark Trilby hat and his lank hair dribbles down his cheeks framing a broad smile that is permanently beamed across a wide face. He reminds me of Desperate Dan. He probably eats cow pie and shaves with a blow-torch too. Billy comes from a musical background and has been exposed to a wide variety of musical influences throughout his upbringing but he admits he has a secret penchant for the darker and more elemental sounds in rock. In other words, bass is where he's at. Technically, his playing ranges from aggressive thrums to muted melodic slaps. In many ways it is Billy who controls the energy, power and raw emotion of the band... keeping the songs chugging forward and helping to maintain their overall melodic style of R'n'B - often even adding a little funk to the mix.
  
  The band are remarkably prolific song writers and tend to write a new number every 2-4 weeks. The songs often start with a riff or a bass line from Billy or Paul (Turley) and then Paul Muir tends to craft and embellish those early visions into workable numbers for the stage. Later on, I watched as the band played two new songs at The Hobgoblin in Staines ... "Take Me Home" and "Looking Out Of My Window". Although the band play all their own songs, I noticed that they also include a couple of inspired covers into their set - and these go down well with a crowd. The Hendrix single "Fire" (The Chili's used to open with this cover) is a triumph, as so is a rocky metal sing along version of Duffy's "Mercy" - both covers getting a huge response from the audience.
  
  ALBANY DOWN are mainstream enough to be able to tour the 'working mans club' circuit playing their fresh faced self penned blues-rock. But they are also professional and gifted enough to 'go large'. And I predict that they will be supporting some well-known headline bands on stadium-sized stages in the near future. "Yes we conform", says Paul Muir, "But that doesn't devalue our music... some of the hugest bands in the world, those with the largest audiences, playing on the biggest stages, play the same kind of unthreatening, energetic blues based rock as we do. Just think of the Stones or Zeppelin". Indeed!

• Albany Down at the HobGoblin [+ Show ]
  

  Dont try to tell me Ive had my share.. Albany Down are on the way up! I saw the boys at the Hobgo...Dont try to tell me Ive had my share..
  
  Albany Down are on the way up! I saw the boys at the Hobgoblin Staines last night performing new tracks and laying down the
  beat. They are also soon to be heading for the Purple Turtle and the Barfly in Camden, as well as completing some new [free]
  streaming MP3 tracks.
  
  The sound of Albany Down is stripped-down-to-the-waist no nonsense rhythm and blues 70s inspired Brit rock ( the feel of
  early Free or John Mayalls Bluesbreakers) but with a bit of jazz-funk to mix it up a little. The sensation is a bit like having an-honest to goodness pint of real ale in a local pub with your best mates, whilst your girls are all up on the dance floor bopping to Sly & the Family Stone the two things shouldnt go together but they really do. For example, the Albany Down song Baby Whered You Stay is a classic Stones type song through-and-through, yet we all know how funky the Stones can sound- especially after a few large ones.
  
  Paul Muir is the band vocalist ( he looks like a smaller version of Clydebank born Marti Pellow - and he sounds like him too when he introduces each song) but Paul needs to project his voice a good deal more if he is to achieve clarity and intensity. He needs to demand attention by lifting that voice up to a new level. Sometimes his vocals were lost inside the hard-as-nails musical themes, which is a shame.
  
  The large bruiser in the porkpie hat is the bassist Billy Dedman -his bass play is fast and deadly in its earnest gusto. It is finger-lickin good too. Billy has a prowess for solid bass lines and a certain reliability about him - but he also demonstrates the aptitude and dexterity for a higher vision and pulled off some nifty bass solo pieces of his own.
  
  Diminutive drummer Jonny Bescoby is as fast as the white water at the Grand Rapids, after a particularly heavy downpour. Many of the Albany Down songs have a funky beat to them, so the drummer needs to have loose wrists and a compassion and an understanding for rhythm with a grooving back-beat. His musicianship brings to mind Blink-182s Travis Barker in style and ability, with an intrinsic understanding of agile rap-rock box-beats that he adds to the rhythmic soundscape when so required. But Jonny is also reliable and prescient enough to provide reliable and thunderous percussive downpours in the more conventional blues settings.
  
  Paul Turley on lead guitar makes most of the magic happen up on stage. Wearing the face of Jimi on his chest, but the smugness and charm of a rogue city trader upon his countenance, he may be clean-cut and young but his guitar-work speaks of generations of earthy blues players cutting their thumbs on sharp chords and picking up the notes of barbed tunes in an artful agony almost angelic in its anguish. He puts on a very fine and accomplished performance with a few daring and flaring Hendrix-style licks but reverts down to a sensible chug-a-chug chord or two when things are brimming.
  
  The surprise of the evening was the Steve Booker/Duffy number Mercy played stripped down to the gun-metal and served with
  plenty of angst. This and the crowd pleaser The Morning After with its tribal thumping (the feeling of drums banging in your head after a session we know dont we kids?) were the musical highlights in an enjoyable set. Albany Down can be counted on for pleasure and honest to goodness fun. Insistent guitar hooks, stripped down licks and rattling good-time rock are all handed out to an eager crowd like a kind of pass-the-parcel game full of authentic British R&B sounds.
  
  Grab some and join in!
  
  
  
  

Setlist

Save Me
Wasted
Mercy
Baby Where'd you stay last night
Jealousy
The Morning After
All Night Long
South of the City
Train Song
Looking Out My Window
Take Me Home
Dirty
I Wanna Know
You'd Better Run
Without You
I Won't Wait
Rock and Roll
She's the Light
Travellin Blues
She Ain't Coming Home
You'd Better Run
Born Under A Band Sign
Stop Breaking Down
The Working Man
You Wanna Be My Baby
Back Again
Who do you think you are
My Lucky Streak
Take The Town

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