Biography
Friendly Fire
Religion?
One And All
Monuments
Blood And Sweat
It took us a year to do this, dropping mountains of material we felt was inferior on the way, we took our time. We also as usual pleased ourselves and made an album that WE wanted to listen to free of any constraints of commercial appeal etc blah blah. We play a couple of shows to knock the cobwebs off one with Therapy in Oxford and the NEC as part of hellfire festival, Steve’s amp blows up two minutes before we start to play and they don’t have a replacement, Steve plays through the PA…Steve’s new nickname is “Lucky”
“We spent a year writing and rehearsing, taking our time and arguing intensely about this and that and we feel its been worth it. Its also the first time we have been able to complete the whole process with a stable and complete line up. This recording was time wasting idiot free! It shows, it’s a collective effort with everyone bringing their talents and suggestions into the mix. We took our time and wrote what we feel is a varied album, so many records seem to be ten of the same songs these days, we wanted so much to avoid this, we want the listener to let the album unfold in its own way. Enjoy every last drop of bile”. The album will come as a double CD with the full album produced by John Mitchell at Outhouse Studios and a V.2 (version two) with the whole album being produced by Justin Broadrick (Godflesh etc).
October File - Obligatory band biog / history type thing…
The purpose of band biographies is to inform people about who we are and what we do…..we will try…without including the usual band biog bullshit of who left what to join and when they did it…boring…or even worse some bullshit ice cream crap written purely to tell you how great we are….best thing is to listen to October File and decide…boring but honest…October File - features 4 individuals – John Watt, Matt Lerwill, Ben Hollyer and Steve Beatty bassist . October File's sound - well imagine 4 people who really don't care what you think, don't care about trends, don't care about success - a band that is simply doing it because they want to and they can! Described as sons of Killing Joke, Big Black and Hardcore bands such as Boy Sets Fire - we are confused as you are. October File don't think they sound like anyone else but themselves.APRIL 2004
October File released their debut recording, a three track EP entitled "How To Lose Friends And Alienate People". The EP was well acclaimed with most media agreeing the band has talent and they make good rockin tunes! In fact most media agreed the only thing wrong with the record was that it wasn't long enough!Press from the "How To Lose Friends And Alienate People" EP "Sonic scientists reinvent the art of noise"Big Cheese Magazine
"As close to a UK hardcore super group as you can get!"Big Cheese Magazine
"The debut release by Brit outfit October File is quite simply a breath of fresh air . Their taught angular riffs and deliberately muddy bass lines don't strictly fall into either the emo or metalcore camps, but straddle the two equally well, while incorporating the art rock of Earthtone 9 (all be it in a punk stylee), promising stuff - 8-10"Metal Hammer
"Now sometimes music works best when its dark and abrasive and that's what October File do best - abrasive nu-rock with a twist of melodies does a good song make"Rock Sound
"With impenetrable layers of scuzzy guitars, well placed melodies and murky hardcore aspirations, this is as original as heavy gets"BBC Radio one Rock Show
"Beautifully crafted rock Incredible "Kerrang! Single of the week
“There’s a simultaneous elegance and urgency here that puts it ahead of the competition. Hard as fuck and unpretentious to the core” KKKK Kerrang!“Kerrang – single of the week #2
A Hard as names agit-rock fondue recalling Killing Joke, Jesus Lizard and Steve Albini’s pre Shellac bad boys Big Black. One and All bits and snarls like a pit bull with a migraine”SEPTEMBER 2004
the band released their debut album entitled “A Long Walk On A Short Pier”, here is an explanation of the lyrical content of the album….Overture of An Underwriter- A tribute to our friends in the world of finance and we sincerely hope they all rot in hell for some of things they have done in the name of "profit". An instrumental piece of disharmony. Dead Air Transmission-an assault of emotion directed at the more shallow of our species, the chorus can explain the intent behind this song.."take you shallow ego and burn". Enemy In A State-Everyone knows someone like this, they know everything, it was better when they went there and of course they are always right and boy do they go on and on and on….but did they ever stop to re-evaluate themselves to the same detail they do others? God Bless America -By no means a pop at your average American but certainly its about time the US government stopped acting as the worlds bully, never mind about just Iraq the list is a long one: deposing Democratic governments to put in power-gun toting, drug dealing, right wing lunatic dictators in Guatemala, Honduras, Chile, Afghanistan , The Congo, Angola, Vietnam, The Dominican Republic etc meddling in other countries affairs to suit American business interests, trying to depose Fidel Castro, the CIA and other shady groups, assassinating JFK, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and lets not forget those crazy cats the Bush family who since their reign of terror began arms manufacturers have done pretty well out of the American taxpayer whereas the poor well they got poorer but just look at this shiny new Tank! Our good friend the Shah Of Iran is having an Oil party your not invited….If the C.I.A. call we're not in…Trench- All that credit will catch up with you sometime and yet they still will offer you more until they own you and everything you earn until you die and maybe you might still owe them…..resist greed resist credit! Survival Song- I need my love back as I left none for me….Landslide-The despair one can feel when in love is sometimes overwhelming. South-Well she looks good now and that’s all there is to her…..but looks don’t last forever……Beautiful-He didn't notice just how much she loved him, how much she needed all her love reciprocated. Some people think so little of themselves they can't see why anyone would feel that way about them until its too late and its all gone…Sleeping Through- A roller coaster of a track (well we think so), lyrically inspired by the moment when in the few times in your life you can close your eyes and shut everything out.Be The Best You Can Be-The most unusual track on the album as this features no guitars, no vocals, drums played backwards, strange percussion instruments, looped bass and eerie keyboards feature heavily. Now Jim Jones was a very passionate man, he believed that you could be the best you can be. No leave your CD in the player as we leave the dark world of Jim Jones and his crazy town of Jonestown to celebrate the first man in Space but just "Where Is Yuri ?"The album was received amazingly well with Kerrang going as far as to say the band were “potentially revolutionary” . The band then undertook a UK tour with Planes Mistaken For Stars. Since the album they band have toured or played shows with the Dead Kennedy’s, The Misfits, Therapy?, Amen and Scum!OCTOBER 2005
Entitled “Monuments” the EP features four new studio tracks and two tracks from a Radio One Rock Show session, released on October the 3rd 2005 to co-incide with the bands UK tour with legends Killing Joke. Track List :Blood And Sweat, Monuments, One And All, 4 (Features Boyd Ride Sample), Sleeping Through (BBC Session Track), Enemy In A State (BBC Session track). An explanation of the record: “Blood and Sweat” - Ever had a bad day?, felt real mean?, felt like you just wanted just go someplace, get drunk and abuse something? Did it ever go wrong and you were left feeling disgusted at yourself and everything else, we did…“Monuments” – Give it time and the corporations will rule completely (like they don’t already?). The world after the tenth world war will be a wasteland, humans adapt to the new world, a grey loveless world, a cruel world of industry and soot, every breath is heavy, every move is followed and you fear everything. But look to the sky and see what we have done and you can see those beginnings now….“One And All” – Forget what you have been taught, don’t forget its what they wanted to teach you! Lets get everyone together and start again, burn all the flags and lets wipe the slate clean, lets start again….all of us …..”4”This speaks for itself or rather the warm and friendly voice of Boyd Rice does…Band tours UK with Killing Joke….survives….JUNE 2006
Ed is ejected from the band. Andy Robinson joins the band and new life is injected. We are working on our new album and Jaz Coleman from Killing Joke has said he will produce the album. “HolyArmour From The Jaws Of God” promises to be our finest work to date, The Tracks are so far: Hallowed Be Thy ArmyFriendly Fire
Religion?
One And All
Monuments
Blood And Sweat
AUGUST 2006
Bands play first show with new drummer, headline and supports Ministry at London’s Forum.OCTOBER 2006
We are confirmed as main support for Killing Joke European tour (it got cancelled due to illness). New EP “Hallowed Be Thy Army” is released 23rd October with three new tracks from forthcoming album. Press reaction was amazing with everyone agreeing just how great we really are!MARCH 2007
Andy Robinson is sacked as our drummer, all said and done he did not share our vision, we look to a replacement.APRIL 2007
A replacement in the shape of John Watt is found, we are finishing our next album “Holy Armour From The Jaws Of God” and Jaz Coleman will guest on the album on a track….AUGUST 2007
We entered the studio to record new album, Jaz Colemand guests with us and we start work on booking shows…….SEPTEMBER 2007
This is menace tour is cancelled due to problems internally with them. We are confirmed for Prong European tour in January and Unsane show at Camden Underworld.JAN 2008
Disaster strikes and we have to pull out of the prong tour. Steve gets an awful ear infection and cant do the tour…it turns out steve gets Tinnitus which he really doesn’t like. From Jan 2008 steve took time out to concentrate on his health and calm his hearing problems down. Steve gets professional earplugs fitted to avoid any further damage and see’s a hearing specialist who give him the all clear to carry on playing loud, nasty rock music. Aside from a terrible performance at Metal Camp festival (where everything that could have went wrong, went wrong) we take time out write our third album. This time we have a stable line up and agree to take our time to do what we all really want to do, make a great album that’s idiot free. 2009…It took us a year to do this, dropping mountains of material we felt was inferior on the way, we took our time. We also as usual pleased ourselves and made an album that WE wanted to listen to free of any constraints of commercial appeal etc blah blah. We play a couple of shows to knock the cobwebs off one with Therapy in Oxford and the NEC as part of hellfire festival, Steve’s amp blows up two minutes before we start to play and they don’t have a replacement, Steve plays through the PA…Steve’s new nickname is “Lucky”
November 2009
October File announce the release of their third album “Our Souls To You” on the 5th April 2010 via Candlelight Records. The album contains 11 tracks that are best described as a raging assault of post-apocalypse sonic heaviness on the senses from start to finish. . . Dark, aggressive, angular and downright angry are the closest descriptions. Musically, OCTOBER FILE deliver an even heavier and more direct approach than the highly rated last album, 'Holy Armour From The Jaws Of God'." Steve Beatty – Bass player, comments;“We spent a year writing and rehearsing, taking our time and arguing intensely about this and that and we feel its been worth it. Its also the first time we have been able to complete the whole process with a stable and complete line up. This recording was time wasting idiot free! It shows, it’s a collective effort with everyone bringing their talents and suggestions into the mix. We took our time and wrote what we feel is a varied album, so many records seem to be ten of the same songs these days, we wanted so much to avoid this, we want the listener to let the album unfold in its own way. Enjoy every last drop of bile”. The album will come as a double CD with the full album produced by John Mitchell at Outhouse Studios and a V.2 (version two) with the whole album being produced by Justin Broadrick (Godflesh etc).
The album contains eleven tracks:
Crawl, Corporate Evasion, Falter, Dredge, Eau Du war, Our Souls To You (Part 1) A Public Display Of Anger, Isolation, September, Love is (A Warm AK47), Our Souls To You (Part 2)December 2009
Its Xmas we wait for Justin to finish mixing…
