Biography

Introduction

The Strange Death of Liberal England also known as TSDOLE are five member band from Portsmouth, England. Their influences range from folk to indie rock with this diversity creating a large number of followers, including BBC Radio One DJs Steve Lamacq, Zane Lowe and Huw Stephens. The band take their name from George Dangerfield's 1935 book.

History

Forming in 2005 the five piece band began life with mainly instrumental songs, however as they grew as a band lyrics began to appear in their songs. Their music is often compared to the likes of Arcade Fire and the early work of Pixies, although as they begin to form their own following they are breaking away from these comparisons and are beginning to form their own path.

Members

William Charlton - Guitar, Drums, Backing Vocals
Kelly Jones - Bass, Backing Vocals
Andrew Summerley - Drums, Backing Vocals
Adam Woolway - Guitar, Main Vocals
Andrew Wright - Glockenspiel, Percussion, Backing vocals

Live

The Strange Death of Liberal England have a huge live following, and have played many gigs throughout the UK and Europe, mostly notable Latitude Festival 2007, and a live Maida Vale studio set for Steve Lamacq. The band have also supported Manic Street Preachers during their 2007 tour. The band are known for their unique style of presentation during their gigs, as rather than speaking they hold up placards with statements such as "we are bandini" and "Repent", as well as song titles, and "thank you". This unique idea and the quality of their live performances has created an almost cult following.

Whilst the band have not played many dates in 2008 they have so far played triumphant gigs at Primavera Sound (Barcelona) and gigs at The Freebutt (Brighton, Monday 14 July) and The Water Rats (London, 15 July).

They also played at The Offset Festival, 30 August, 2008.

The band return to the stage in April 2009 (the 16th, to be exact) at The New Theatre Royal Portsmouth.

Discography

As well as a self-produced and distributed EP, Stop/Go Happy/Sad Forward/Forward (2005), The Strange Death of Liberal England have so far released two singles and one "mini-album". The first single titled "A Day Another Day" was released by Fantastic Plastic early in 2007, it was greatly received by fans and music critics alike, with "Oh Solitude" following in June 2007. The band released their first "mini-album" called "Forward March!" on 9 July 2007 which has received high praise from many sources. "Mute Magic, 7/10" - NME, "quite possibly the best debut album you will leap yourself upon in 2007... 4.5/5" - gigwise.com, “7/10” - Drowned In Sound and more recently the 2008 single Angelou which includes the b side "Scared to death" as well as "angelou".

The Strange Death of Liberal England are currently demoing new material in a small studio in a big city in preparation for their new album due out at some point before all four horsemen can be seen riding the horizon like the crest of a wave of a ferocious sea.

The first track to emerge from these sessions was "Like A Curtain Falling", it was debuted on the bands Myspace page on the 18th March 2009.