Miss Halliwell
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Miss Halliwell

Rugby, England, United Kingdom | Established. Jan 01, 2014

Rugby, England, United Kingdom
Established on Jan, 2014
Band Alternative Rock

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"Live Supporting The Fall November 2007"

Miss Halliwell. Remember that name. I will. For fans of The Fall, The Buzzcocks, Billy Childish...all class acts in my book...Miss Halliwell are a must hear. God help anyone who supports The Fall, after all the guy's a legend and his admirers are a loyal bunch (which don't always make for the most receptive audience), but Miss Halliwell were bloody impressive from start to finish, lyrically and musically. Sure they've got some rough edges and a few people didn't get it, but that's what makes performances like this really special...if you ain't dividing opinion then you might as well be Westlife. It looks like they've only been going a year or so as Miss Halliwell (in a previous incarnation some (?) of them were The Racists) - even less with their current line up - but I loved 'em. Lead Halliwell, Matthew (Halliwell...that's handy innit?) has a wonderfully sneery sort of voice, perfectly suited to the often caustic lyrics, drummer Sarah powers the whole thing along like Meg White on speed and CN Support (the stand stilliest man in rock) provides some darn funky bass. I've just listened to their two My Space tracks about 20 times and I'm still not bored. That is the mark of something glorious my friends. - http://www.thehearingaid.blogspot.com/


"Live Supporting The Fall November 2007"

Miss Halliwell. Remember that name. I will. For fans of The Fall, The Buzzcocks, Billy Childish...all class acts in my book...Miss Halliwell are a must hear. God help anyone who supports The Fall, after all the guy's a legend and his admirers are a loyal bunch (which don't always make for the most receptive audience), but Miss Halliwell were bloody impressive from start to finish, lyrically and musically. Sure they've got some rough edges and a few people didn't get it, but that's what makes performances like this really special...if you ain't dividing opinion then you might as well be Westlife. It looks like they've only been going a year or so as Miss Halliwell (in a previous incarnation some (?) of them were The Racists) - even less with their current line up - but I loved 'em. Lead Halliwell, Matthew (Halliwell...that's handy innit?) has a wonderfully sneery sort of voice, perfectly suited to the often caustic lyrics, drummer Sarah powers the whole thing along like Meg White on speed and CN Support (the stand stilliest man in rock) provides some darn funky bass. I've just listened to their two My Space tracks about 20 times and I'm still not bored. That is the mark of something glorious my friends. - http://www.thehearingaid.blogspot.com/


"Imp-imperfection review"

West Midland based Miss Halliwell are an eclectic mix of the bizarre & the kooky. This three piece mix together crunchy punk rock and the oddball quirky nature of bands like Television Personalities. This mainly centres around singer Matthew Halliwell's perky vocals (which often recall early Gary Numan circa his Replica era). Each track scatters around almost The Fall like lyrics, often throwing in something quite peculiar for good measure. There's certainly something really lofi and very anti about their music. Their sound doesn't really nestle in amongst anything around at the moment. Roy Orbison is rolling in his grave when we hit the 'pretty woman' piss take mid way through 'Jeer Up'. The down tuned guitars break the song in two and it kicks back into life with some thudding drums and splashy cymbals. 'Funny Games' recalls Blur's 'Bugman' with it's heavy distorted and jolting riff. The playing is almost mechanical at times, the drums grinding out a great rhythm alongside the heavy scratchy bass. 'Parasol' sees splatters of harmonica fused between detuned guitar and black-death-like catchy pop. Matthew Halliwell's ability to fit in more words than humanly possible always keeps your ears primed for outrageous or comical wording. Through the weird and building intro including such devilish statements as "Six Six Six, Kebabs.." and "A Man Is Santa Selling The Big Issue" you get the starts of something quite weird and wonderful in 'The Plague'. Very punky, yet morbid and aggressive it cuts right through with some sharp and quirky double tracked vocals and scatty guitars. Not to forget the dance off chorus. Miss Halliwell will confuse as many people as they will gain fans but under the layers of weirdness and crunchy guitars lies a band who write really good tunes. Like nothing else around at the moment. Daft yet uncompromising indie rock. Stay behind the glass. They bite! - http://www.theplasticashtray.co.uk/


"Imp-imperfection review"

West Midland based Miss Halliwell are an eclectic mix of the bizarre & the kooky. This three piece mix together crunchy punk rock and the oddball quirky nature of bands like Television Personalities. This mainly centres around singer Matthew Halliwell's perky vocals (which often recall early Gary Numan circa his Replica era). Each track scatters around almost The Fall like lyrics, often throwing in something quite peculiar for good measure. There's certainly something really lofi and very anti about their music. Their sound doesn't really nestle in amongst anything around at the moment. Roy Orbison is rolling in his grave when we hit the 'pretty woman' piss take mid way through 'Jeer Up'. The down tuned guitars break the song in two and it kicks back into life with some thudding drums and splashy cymbals. 'Funny Games' recalls Blur's 'Bugman' with it's heavy distorted and jolting riff. The playing is almost mechanical at times, the drums grinding out a great rhythm alongside the heavy scratchy bass. 'Parasol' sees splatters of harmonica fused between detuned guitar and black-death-like catchy pop. Matthew Halliwell's ability to fit in more words than humanly possible always keeps your ears primed for outrageous or comical wording. Through the weird and building intro including such devilish statements as "Six Six Six, Kebabs.." and "A Man Is Santa Selling The Big Issue" you get the starts of something quite weird and wonderful in 'The Plague'. Very punky, yet morbid and aggressive it cuts right through with some sharp and quirky double tracked vocals and scatty guitars. Not to forget the dance off chorus. Miss Halliwell will confuse as many people as they will gain fans but under the layers of weirdness and crunchy guitars lies a band who write really good tunes. Like nothing else around at the moment. Daft yet uncompromising indie rock. Stay behind the glass. They bite! - http://www.theplasticashtray.co.uk/


"Predateoralbum launch party, Smalandsposten"

The review roughly translates like this:

"Like some Alice, Miss Halliwell jumps around in the Wonderland where the logics of pop songs are turned up-side-down. It's quirky, weak and rough, bold and cute at the same time. A riffing distorted bass, talk-singing in a can, happy lunatic melodies - those things are always welcome home to me.
Yep, it's heavily Fall-influenced. But where other epigones, at best, borrows Mark E Smith's old slipover Miss Halliwell is more like a new incarnation.
First there was a self released ep in December, here's six new songs and another album is already in the making. Miss Halliwell has flow."
- Smalandsposten ,Swedish newspaper Kronoberg County - 21st May 2008


"Predateoralbum launch party, Smalandsposten"

The review roughly translates like this:

"Like some Alice, Miss Halliwell jumps around in the Wonderland where the logics of pop songs are turned up-side-down. It's quirky, weak and rough, bold and cute at the same time. A riffing distorted bass, talk-singing in a can, happy lunatic melodies - those things are always welcome home to me.
Yep, it's heavily Fall-influenced. But where other epigones, at best, borrows Mark E Smith's old slipover Miss Halliwell is more like a new incarnation.
First there was a self released ep in December, here's six new songs and another album is already in the making. Miss Halliwell has flow."
- Smalandsposten ,Swedish newspaper Kronoberg County - 21st May 2008


"Preadte review, The Fly"

Predateoralbumlaunchparty (Shabby Records). This album is a tirade of sneering remarks and character assasinations spat over a blizzard of spiky guitars. It's fleetingly hilarious, occasionally disorentating, but ultimately, utterly brilliant. www.myspace.com/misshalliwell - The Fly Magazine, May 2008


"Preadte review, The Fly"

Predateoralbumlaunchparty (Shabby Records). This album is a tirade of sneering remarks and character assasinations spat over a blizzard of spiky guitars. It's fleetingly hilarious, occasionally disorentating, but ultimately, utterly brilliant. www.myspace.com/misshalliwell - The Fly Magazine, May 2008


Discography

Miss Halliwell's First EP 'Imp-imperfection' (available through Shabby Records) was released at the end of 2007 and the track 'Parasol' received airplay on BBC6music on the Tom Robinson show. 'Jeer Up' became a favourite of John Kennedy's on XFM London and is currently available to listen to on the bands myspace page. All the tracks have been received well on local radio including BBC WM and Birmingham's best new music show Brumcast, infact a whole show was named after the second song on the EP 'Funny Games' , a musing on the then to be unreleased remake of the excellent Michael Haneke's film of the same title.

The bands first full length album 'predateoralbumlaunchparty' (early 2008) was named so partly as an attack on the increasing trend of local bands throwing launch parties everytime they record a new song and partly to highlight that Miss Halliwell predates the ginger Spice girl of the same name and isn't infact a tribute to her (See Biog). The album received great reviews and was championed by John Kennedy as 'one of the surprise album's of the year' and gave repeated plays to 'K/I/N/N/E/L/L' . 'I'm a puppy' and 'Shopping' are both available to listen to on the band's myspace and 'the rash' is currently available as a free download for a limited period.

On the bands website www.shabbyrecords.co.uk their is a wealth of early recordings and demos available for FREE download, all of which give a great taster of the early days and evolution of Miss Halliwell.

Photos

Bio

So what do a bunch of overly critical kids call themselves? To conjure something that had no real meaning seemed futiler. The only idea that seemed acceptable was to steal Sarah's brothers old band name, and claim it as their own, so thus began the reforming of '90's band Miss Halliwell without any of the original line-up or songs!! Miss Halliwell's second release, 'predateoralbumlaunchparty' is partly a reference to the fact that the Miss Halliwell name predates the ginger spice girl who is now so far deep in the modern consciousness that she just can't stop herself popping into people's head at the mention of Halliwell. Infact the name came from a line in a porno watched by the lead singer of the original line up.

There have been many line-up changes, and the band is constantly evolving but MPH and Victory Rose have always been at the core. The band would like to give a big shout out to the beloved Tristam Adams and Marky Smith. The current band also involves CNSupport an old school friend of MPH's who has been trained up on bass especially for the band. The bass used to be Sarah's department but she retired in order to learn the drums which she's also been doing for about a year. MPH has been doing this longer than any of them so rightfully takes control as band leader and boss!! MPH is a big fan of visionaries and band leaders such as Mark.E.Smith, Captain Beefheart, and Frank Zappa. The highlight of the bands career thus far was supporting The Fall in November 2007. Other bands they are fans of include Pavement, The Flaming Lips, Clinic, QOTSA, deerhoof... the list really coud go on ad infinitum but as the band aren't trying to emulate any particular banmds sound it doesn't really seem important. They hope what they are doing is fresh and exciting and will stand the test of time!

Band Members