Big Linda
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Big Linda

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"Big Linda: I Loved You - the Sunday Times review"

A list of the bands that Big Linda have already been compared with - Black Crowes, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin - would make you think two things. First, they must be pretty good; but second, they’re going to sound pretty old-fashioned, aren’t they? Admittedly, when the band get all ballady, they do sound like a Bad Company tribute band, but most of the time they bring a fresh energy to the usually stale hard-rock medium, which suggests, to cite a more contemporary reference point, that they might just be Britain’s answer to Queens of the Stone Age: a band who can make dumb-ass guitar rock cool again. Vitally, they have enough unstoppable choruses - on IDELU, Golden Girl and Jenny Don’t, in particular - to transcend their genre. - The Sunday Times


"Big Linda - New band of the day"

Today, Paul Lester finds a group of progressive rockers whose genesis owes much to a shadowy benefactor and a recording studio in the hills of Antigua

Hometown: London.

The lineup: Rob Alder (vocals), Patrick Murdoch (guitars), Vezio Bacci (bass), Geoff Holroyde (drums).

The background: We've had rock group names demeaning to underweight females (Thin Lizzy) and oversized bedding (Fat Mattress), but never before has a band excitingly combined the two adjectives - until now. Big Linda are a rock band with lots of "a"s, "w"s and "k"s (as in "raaaawwwwkkkk"), a band whose hi-NRG raunch'n'roll is crying out (and the lead singer in particular does a lot of crying out) for stacks of Marshall amps and a sweaty audience that craves base R'n'R thrills. They've already caught the ear, or rather battered senseless the ear, of the world's top moviemakers, with two, count 'em, Big Linda tracks featuring in films this autumn: The Seeker starring Christopher Eccleston and Ian McShane, for which the band have appropriately reworked the Who's The Seeker, and Passengers starring Ewan MacGregor, for which the band have recorded, not Iggy's The Passenger but their own song called Get It While You Can, where the "it" refers to sensory derangement and the urgency of existential pleasure as much as it does simple carnal delights. We are possibly giving Big Linda some credit here.

We could ask them outright, of course - they do, after all, live in London. But they came together from all corners of the globe. Holroyde (born in Peterborough, grew up in Birmingham, hair by Plantesque Manes) bumped into Murdoch (born on the Wirral, grew up in Hong Kong) at Metropolis Studios where they decided to jam together, because that's what young men of a certain bent do. Producer Andy Wright introduced the pair to a mystery third party who offered to fly them both to Antigua to record some songs at the island's palatial Pelican Lodge Studios. There, they bumped into Italian-born Bacci (it was dark) at Antigua's main airport. They proceeded to record nine songs in the hills (footage apparently exists of the band performing on a helipad), and came up with their name after hearing that their shadowy benefactor occasionally, um, corresponded with a Madame called Big Linda.

Back home, the first song they recorded was the Ramones-ish ramalama riff-rock of Golden Girl but they still lacked a lead singer whose primal screams could match the hoary bluster of the guitars-bass-drums. They road-tested a dozen hirsute hopefuls and were about to give up when Holroyde noticed a quiet, unassuming 22-year-old reading Heidi in a corner of Townhouse Studios. He came from Bishop's Stortford, looked like a pre-bathtub Jim Morrison, and when he opened his mouth to sing a sound like a Norse god yodelling extracts from Zen & The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance emerged. The final piece of the Big Linda puzzle was in place. They've got Noel Gallagher in their corner and their debut album I Loved You was produced by Paul Stacey, who worked on Oasis' Don't Believe The Truth. Now all they've got to worry about is a certain L Zeppelin, whose appearance on the horizon has stolen their thunder somewhat. Still, if you can't get tickets...

The buzz: "The very caterwauling essence of rock'n'roll." - Guardian


"Big Linda Cover Glass Onion"

MOJO says: The sound of a match lighting, nefarious bubbling and a Sabbath-styled Sweat Leaf cough underlines the fact that London-based four-piece Big Linda are there for the heavy things in life. And yet, despite their crunching roots rock, this version of Lennon’s referential track is delivered in with menace and poise in equal measure, not to mention a taught Gilmour-esque guitar solo. - Mojo


"Classic Rock Critics’ Top 50 Albums 2008: 9-7"

When Big Linda formed, they set about creating a rock band ‘with tunes and choruses that were set to mark a generation’. From the Skids-like anthem Forgiven to the irresistibly commercial Golden Girl, they might just have succeeded - classic rock magazine


Discography

Big Linda - I Loved You

Photos

Bio

The story of Big Linda is the story of rock ‘n’ roll itself. It involves circumstance and intrigue. It involves an extraordinary trip to Antigua and a very real person called Big Linda. And it also involves four ever-more real characters who met under a cloud of coincidence and just knew they had to be together.

Big Linda is Rob Alder (voice), Patrick Murdoch (guitars), Vezio Bacci (bass) and Geoff Holroyde (drums). Holroyde (born in Peterborough, grew up in Birmingham, hair by Rock Manes Inc.) bumped into Murdoch (born on the Wirral, grew up occasionally in Hong Kong) at Metropolis Studios where they decided to jam together. Producer Andy Wright subsequently introduced the pair to a mystery man who offered to fly them both to Antigua to record some songs at the island’s palatial Pelican Lodge Studios. Blithely, brilliantly they agreed, thereby necessitating a course of events that would see them bump into Bacci (born in Rome, you’re getting the picture by now) at Antigua’s main airport terminal. They recorded nine songs in the hills, came up with an amazing name (after hearing that their mysterious benefactor occasionally, ahem, corresponded with a Madame with just such a name) and then came home.

The first song they recorded eventually became Golden Girl but this band are no Shadows and they knew something was missing from the off: Alder. But where were they going to find him? They must have tried and tested a dozen singers and just about given up before Holroyde noticed the quiet, unassuming 22 year old locked in his own thoughts in a corner of Townhouse Studios. He looked like a young Jim Morrison and something about him made Holroyde wonder whether he sounded like him too. And when Holroyde heard him sing, Big Linda knew they had their man.

Naturally, Alder was already in another band but this was soon rectified when he promptly left a week later. Alder (born in Bishop Stortford - I am sure even Rob’s yawning at the incumbent rhetoric therein) turned up to an official rehearsal armed with melodies, lyrics and a voice that blew the room apart. This was now something entirely different: A Rock Band with tunes and choruses (remember them?) that were set to mark a generation. Naturally, there’s no such thing as generation anymore but you know what I mean. And there’s something very Un-Generation about Big Linda.

The nine songs recorded in Antigua were torn asunder and quickly became ten, then fifteen and now an album called I Loved You that (no doubt) you are gonna love. Let me tell you – the feeling is almost mutual. The record has been produced by Paul Stacey (Oasis) and includes the edgy Ramones-esque Golden Girl, I Don’t Even Like You (inspired by an incident when the wrong girl proposes on Feb 29th unleashing the answer; “Marry you? I don’t even like you!”), an incredible, (did I say incredible?) version of Thomas Dolby’s Windpower and a song called Another Way that’s got some serious business (or no business at all) existing in this day and age (ie it’s seriously Non Year Zero). You haven’t heard it yet? Well then you haven’t heard anything.

You’re bored, I’m bored, don’t be. Big Linda might just be what the world’s been waiting for.

And I think they might be sticking with the name.