The Shakes
London, England, United Kingdom
Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
''With Liberty Jones, The Shakes will charm your socks off with their catchy choruses, story telling lyrics and damn fine indie pop quirkiness all cherry topped with the swagger of Jagger and a twinkle in their eyes!''
- The Sun (UK)
''The crowd melts – and this time not because of the heat – now we know the Shakes’ secret. This band really does have something to smile about. ''
- BBC
"This band produces a consistently excellent creative output - yearning vocals interweave with an addictively choppy brand of South East London pop to great effect. Energetic live, and attentive to detail in the studio, they are one of our stand-out acts of 2006."
- Tiscali
''Chinking guitar, keyboards and fantastic vocals….Be very interested in this!''
- BBC Radio One
''By far and away the highlight, however, is ‘Liberty Jones’, providing their finale. This anthemic beauty of a track is such good fun that it doesn’t take a fortune teller to look into her crystal ball and predict that this will be the song that will transform The Shakes from up-and-comers to real contenders, springboarding them to stardom.''
- New Noise
''The Shakes already have a dedicated following. Much of the crowd were singing along to every song with great enthusiasm. Their gigs are bound to get bigger and bigger, so see them soon if you want to experience the intimate vibe. Their song ‘I Want A Better Life’ could be prophetic. If they carry on building what they already have, a better life will indeed be theirs.''
- Live On Stage
The Borderline is bursting at its nicotine-stained seams tonight, raking in its largest ever New-Band crowd. All the attention is directed squarely upon South London’s fiercely up and coming ‘The Shakes’.
Having toured the circuit extensively over the last year since signing to Tough Cookie, they are finally enjoying the media attention they deserve. With numerous outings on the airwaves of 6 Music, Radio 2 and Xfm, their instantaneously catchy music (namely first single ‘Goodbye New York’) has earned them a fanbase which stretches far beyond the realms of friends and family.
Tonight we’re all here to celebrate the launch of their second single, ‘Liberty Jones’, a slice of pop genius that promises to raise the band’s profile to dizzying new levels. Juxtaposed with the band before them – a dreadful, sweating hair-band without a shred of irony, whose grizzly rock moves went out with tasselled leather jackets and the likes of Skid Row – The Shakes are like a breath of fresh air with their retro take on modern indie-rock.
The band’s excitement from playing to such a hefty crowd is almost tangible, bounding onstage and launching straight into the riff of ‘A Year Alone’, and the tune's jagged hooks have teeth. A series of memorable melodies follow, from the classic poppiness of ‘Valentine’ to the raw power of acoustic number, ‘Daylight’.
Touring extensively has matured The Shakes and while their youthful enthusiasm still abounds, they have the comfortable complacency of knowing the spots how to please a live audience. Singer Ed’s presence upon stage is akin to a young Jagger as he struts, pouts and brandishes guitar, tambourine and kazoo in succession.
The crowd rises in unison with the opening chords of ‘Liberty Jones’ - pretty much everyone knows all the words. If you’ve yet to hear it, you’re missing out and should log on to their website pronto, because this is music writing at its very best. And judging by the whopping grins on the band members' faces, this is exactly the reception they were hoping for.
Better still, brand new song ‘Little Sun’ doesn’t deflate the spirit of the night, and enjoys a triumphant roar from the crowd. Some bands only have a few good songs in them, but The Shakes, although only on their second single, have a repertoire of consistently strong melodies that cannot fail to strike a chord with a larger audience. And the audience is rewarded for its support with an encore of ‘Janine’, boasting an almost ska riff with huge sing-along potential – always a good thing for a final number.
Catch The Shakes while it is still possible to enjoy them in intimate surroundings – it won’t last long.
- Live On Stage
''The Shakes will charm your socks off with their catchy choruses, story telling lyrics and damn fine indie pop quirkiness all cherry topped with the swagger of Jagger and a twinkle in their eyes.''
- The Sun
One to watch for 2007 - BBC
Discography
'Goodby New York' single November 05
'Liberty Jones' single - October 06
'I Want A Better Life' single - April 07
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Ed - Lead Vocals / Keys / Harmonica
Gaz - Guitar / Backing Vox
Junior Bass / Keys / Backing Vox
Tim Drums
In a world, where it is easy to be cynical about the hyping power of the internet, hot S.E. London four-piece, The Shakes have played their online calling card to massive advantage. Twice hitting number 1 in the Worldwide Podcast Music Charts - ahead of big acts such as James Brown, Subways, Moloko, Panic at the Disco! Etc. Over 1 million people around the world have downloaded podcasts featuring music by The Shakes.
Weve basically always played 3 ½ minute pop songs, its what weve done with them online & in podcasts afterwards thats got everyone excited now, says lead singer Ed. Its like the music really, we try to mix classic songwriting and catchy choruses with tough modern sounds, synths and electronic drums. Its all in the mix of old and new.
While still unsigned, The Shakes sold out The Borderline (3 times), The 100 Club, and The Metro. 1000 fans bought The Shakes self-financed single before the band were snapped up by audio/visual production company Tough Cookie (part of Malcolm Gerries Whizz Kid Entertainment), in a unique content and distribution deal.
On how the band got together, Gaz explains, Me and Ed went to school together, in the same year, I met Junior when he was born were brothers, and we tricked Tim into joining the band, saying we only needed him to fill in for a couple of weeks! Three years ago, the band bought themselves a hearse (to tour in!) from a funeral parlour in East Ham and recorded their demo in the rock & roll Mecca of Brendan Lynchs studio (Paul Weller, Primal Scream).
The Raindance Film Festival picked up on The Shakes demo of (1st single) Liberty Jones and commissioned a music video (including cartoon killings of all the band Gaz gets eaten by a shark, Junior gets snared in a bear trap etc ) Soon after this The Shakes began getting fans to film their live shows and started to record radio shows from Eds bedroom starting an extraordinary run of monthly podcast & vidcast shows, after episode 6 they had over 10,000 subscribers. Shakecast: http://feeds.feedburner.com/shakecast
UK website Tiscali noticed the podcast subscriptions The Shakes were receiving and invited them to record a session at The Reading Festival - alongside Jet, Yeah Yeah Yeahs & The Fratellis. These filmed sessions, along with tour diaries, gig movies, a rooftop acoustic sessions and fans clips from gigs comprise enough material to make a full feature length film from The Shakes youtube page! http://www.youtube.com/theshakestube
Guitarist Gaz says it best. "It's not about being the next 'internet phenomenon' because everyone knows it's bullshit. It's just about using the things that are there for what they're best for - sharing new stuff with fans and meeting new people."
Its not just online where The Shakes have picked up devoted fans. Dermot Oleary made 1st single Liberty Jones his one to go buy Monday, whilst XFMs Evening Sessions inbox crashed under sheer weight of fan requests Radio 6 and Indie 101 in LA and over 75 UK regional radio stations lent their support.
Soon after the success of Liberty Jones, The Shakes headed to the studio to record their album (due summer 2007) with James Lewis (The On-Offs, Morning Runner, Dead 60s, Artic Monkeys). Moving on from the catchy pop-charm of Liberty Jones The Shakes have developed to show a rawer and rougher side to their sound.
Great stories are prevalent in The Shakes music such as tracks like Valentine. Valentines Day is the perfect time to celebrate love. Unfortunately thats not what The Shakes track Valentine is about says Ed Its a love-song-gone-wrong about a girl who gets with you, gets bored of you and leaves you a mess.
Goodbye New York finds a relationship spinning out of control, commenting when I left I keyed your car and new single, I Want A Better Life finds the usually chirpy Ed, more like a man on the brink of losing it more than these 4 walls and my loving wife I want a better life. Its another great example of The Shakes writing songs with great stories and moody twists.
Undoubtedly, The Shakes music stares squarely down the barrel at the mainstream. Any young band, who can turn the microphone on an audience who sing back all the words to all the songs are bound to have huge pop sensibilities.
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