ORKUS International Festival Tour 2007
LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT
KIRLIAN CAMERA
DOPE STARS INC.
LOLA ANGST
The English version of Germany's most successful Gothic magazine has been available in music stores and at newspaper agents around the globe for more than a year. In order to celebrate this fact properly the first "ORKUS International Festival Tour" will take place in autumn featuring both top acts and newcomers in the field of dark music.
The tour will be headlined by the legendary LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT who will simultaneously release their new and keenly anticipated album "Violent Acts of Beauty" and present it live on stage. You can expect a very emotional, gloomy yet opalescent show which will of course also include the greatest hits of the band. Mastermind Sean Brennan about this tour: "We are very much looking forward to this extraordinary tour and our fans in Europe whom we will present our brand new album. It will be released the night before the tour starts."
Although it admittedly sounds like an exaggeration it is yet true: co-headliner will be another legend- no one less than KIRLIAN CAMERA, a band who looks back to a 25 year old successful band history and yet has always managed to reinvent itself. Furthermore, as fans may know, are live appearances of this exceptional band extremely rare and there has never been something like a complete tour. So one can assume that the band will have something very special in mind to celebrate this extraordinary event.
In summer 2005 the DOPE STARS INC. managed to turn the whole Gothic scene upside down with their fresh and hitherto unique sound. DOPE STARS INC. are past and present, passion and aggression, fire and ice - an unholy alliance of the elemental forces. On stage the band presents a powerful mixture of dark industrial rock and heartbreaking melodies made for eternity.
Last but not least there is LOLA ANGST to complete the line up, the current sweethearts of all regular clubbers: queer electronic music with catchy tunes. Synth Pop, Electro Clash, EBM and a pinch of industrial, randomly put together, make a highly explosive club mix of a different kind. . shaken, not stirred.
Live Dates:27.10.2007 B-Waregem / The Steeple
28.10.2007 F-Paris/ La Locomotive
29.10.2007 D-Nürnberg/ Hirsch
30.10.2007 D-Leipzig/ Anker
31.10.2007 D-Berlin/ Columbia Club
01.11.2007 D-Krefeld/ Kulturfabrik*
02.11.2007 D-Hannover/ Capitol
03.11.2007 D-Magdeburg/ Factory
04.11.2007 D-Ludwigsburg/ Rockfabrik
06.11.2007 I-Mailand/ Rolling Stone
07.11.2007 A-Salzburg/ Rockhaus
08.11.2007 A-Wien/ Arena
09.11.2007 GR- Thessaloniki/ Ydrogeios**
10.11.2007 P- Lissabon/ Cine Teatro Corrois**
11.11.2007 E- Barcelona/ Apolo 2**
**only LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT
* without Lola Angst!
Band Links:
http://www.londonaftermidnight.com
http://www.kirliancamera.com
http://www.dopestarsinc.com
http://www.lola-angst.de
Orkus Link:
http://www.myspace.com/orkusmagazine
www.orkus-online.de
LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT - A BIOGRAPHY
London After Midnight (LAM) is a rock music project formed in the 1990s by singer / songwriter / bandleader and multi-instrumentalist Sean Brennan. LAM has retained and nurtured the political and socially aware element of the punk scene that died in the early 90s, and has developed as a passionate and political dark rock-music entity. LAM has a large worldwide following, with many Gothic Rock fans (LAM outspokenly shuns such labels as "gothic", however).
LAM has gained a large and loyal following all over the world, from the USA to Europe to Latin America (where they have toured extensively), and beyond. LAM has headlined and co-headlined concerts and major festivals with bands like The Cure, Green Day, HIM (HIM has cited LAM a favourite artist), Rammstein, Soft Cell, and many more. LAM has performed to crowds of over 30,000 people as headliner and co-headliner on major music festivals around the world. Still, London After Midnight maintains a strong underground and independent "personality" despite being top sellers (charting in the top 10 European DAC charts with each of 3 CDs released) and a major draw at music festivals year after year.
Songwriter, instrumentalist, producer and founder Sean Brennan is known for his strong stances in favour of animal rights, pro-environmental and human rights issues, anti-corporate control of media, and support for progressive, and liberal politics. Despite these "weighty" sounding interests, the music Sean Brennan writes can range from the intensely personal, to simply emotional and romantic, while also touching the much deeper subjects more reflective of society (listen to the new music!). Whatever the approach or subject matter, the music of London After Midnight is deeply touching, powerful, socially aware, romantic, emotional, disturbing, haunting, danceable, and occasionally exhibiting a morbid wit with its sardonic humour (listen to the tongue-in-cheek "Your Best Nightmare" and try not to think of an Edward Gorey story).
LAM is all this, while at the same time appealing to a wide variety of people. There really is no classification that fits London After Midnight (despite the LAM's "dark" image) because the music is so varied and the lyrical content (and even LAM's personality and causes) are unique and uncommon in today's music scene, often breaking boundaries- much to the outrage of people who live and die by genre labels. LAM shuns all labels (as any artist worth their salt will do) and the music can really only be classified as "London After Midnight". The live band varies but includes Sean Brennan (vocals, guitar), Edward Hawkins (guitar), Joe S (drums) and Tamlyn (live keyboard).
LAM began performing in Los Angeles in 1990 at the legendary LA club Helter Skelter, which also hosted bands like Nine Inch Nails and many others. LAM immediately began to draw large crowds and always had elaborate stage settings including several TVs playing bizarre video clips and stage props that could have come from the Universal Studios' backlot, all made by Sean Brennan with help from Tamlyn and guitarist Eddie Hawkins. Needless to say the extreme stage settings (some of which included a huge 30 by 40 foot realistic spiders web hung above the stage made by Brennan and Hawkins- not pictured) attracted as much attention as the LAM's music, which soon grew in popularity. So much so that the original 4 song demo cassette tape released in 1991-1992 was the hottest selling item in Hollywood's trendy Melrose Ave indie record stores, even beating out new releases from Duran Duran and other major bands. For 2 years the most sought after item Los Angeles area club kids searched for in record stores was the LAM cassette tape. Signs hung in record store windows proclaiming "yes we have LAM's tape IN STOCK". Stores from as far away as Australia ordered repeated shipments of the tape each month to meet demand.
LAM released "Selected Scenes from the End of the World" in 1992, creating as much mania as the first demo release. LAM began to sell out underground gothic/alternative/deathrock clubs like Helter Skelter and began more frequent performances at The Whisky a Go Go and Roxy club, where the awful Sunset strip "glam rock" scene saw LAM's success and sold-out concerts, and began to try to emulate London After Midnight, helping to turn the mostly rock/glam Sunset Strip scene into a darker and more alternative scene. Several bands which a few months earlier were glam and metal suddenly became LAM clones (if in image only) overnight after seeing LAM's success.
LAM began branching out even more and performed concerts in Mexico City and Guadalajara in 1994 where they discovered a huge following and their first concert drew 5,000 dedicated fans- all of whom had discovered LAM in underground magazines and bootlegs of the LAM's releases. In 1995 "Selected Scenes from the End of the World" was pressed to CD by German indie label Apocalyptic Vision (now the legendary Trisol Records). A special version was also released in Latin America. Soon LAM's strong underground following in Europe became intense as sales of the CD grew steadily with a few headlining appearances at festivals in the UK and Europe.
In 1996 LAM released "Psycho Magnet" with Apocalyptic Vision. The album's title itself is a tongue-in-cheek reflection of the insanity and jealousy LAM's popularity generated in some Los Angeles area club kids, while the subject matter, the lyrics, and music are very personal. "Psycho Magnet" went on to become even more popular than the previous releases and led to LAM being booked for several tours which took them all over Europe and the UK, Mexico and select major cities in the USA performing to tens of thousands of people. LAM also headlined major German festivals like the well known Zillo Magazine Festival which had Siouxsie and the Banshees headlining the previous year. LAM also found itself in all the major European music magazines, on glossy covers in every European newsstand with the likes of Nine Inch Nails and Metallica.
LAM continued to play various festivals and in 1998 they co-headlined the Zillo summer festival with The Cure performing to about 30,000 people. Earlier in the year Sean Brennan signed a licensing deal with American indie label Metropolis Records, releasing both earlier CDs as well as new CD called "Oddities", a collection of live and rare songs along with a 30 minute music video titled "Innocence Lost". Apocalyptic Vision also released "Oddities" and the music video in Europe at the same time. To date LAM has sold well over 150,000 CDs all over the world. All of LAM's releases rated in the top 10 and top 20 of the DAC (German Alternative Charts).
Since 2000, LAM performed several sold out dates in the USA, one of which was filmed by E! Entertainment Television for a special on LA night-life in 2000. This special, which includes a short interview with Sean Brennan, aired in late Autumn 2000 in 120 countries all over the world. The special was actually pretty terrible and only featured about 2 minutes of LAM, but diehard fans were happy to see LAM get major media exposure in the USA and a whole new audience was exposed, briefly, to LAM creating a surge of new fans.
In the summer of 2001, LAM headlined the Wave Festival in Leipzig Germany, playing to about 10,000 people, for the 3rd time. They then toured to South America, Mexico and the USA where they played to tens of thousands of fans and appeared on Via X, the leader of rock music television in South America.
In 2002 LAM co-headlined the M'era Luna Festival with bands like HIM, Oomph, and many others, performing to 25,000 people. In preparation for the brand new LAM CD scheduled for release soon, in March 2003 LAM re-released the CDs "Selected Scenes from the End from the World" and "Psycho Magnet" with Trisol Records in Europe and Iron D Records in Russia, complete with never before released bonus tracks and new recordings of older songs.
From 2003-2004 LAM headlined and co-headlined concerts in Europe and headlined concerts in the USA, selling out the Roxy Theater in Los Angeles three times and performing at the huge Dour and Zillo festivals in Europe. LAM is currently preparing the new CD for release. LAM released a brand new song called "Fear" on the SAW II motion picture soundtrack release on Trisol Records Germany in early 2006, which went straight to number one on the German Alternative Music Charts (DAC). The tremendous response the new music receives when performed at recent concerts shows the new London After Midnight CD will be warmly welcomed by new and old fans alike.
LAM is always evolving, trying something different and new, and never content to be just another music project. Often classified by the press as industrial, deathrock or gothic, LAM break all the "rules" of those scenes and create a unique and strong identity and sound, and reject any label. Songwriter Sean Brennan's influences and musical passions range from big band to Iggy Pop, The Doors, pre 1980s David Bowie, to trance and Drum & Bass, old NY punk (Velvet Underground, etc), composers like Bernard Herrmann and everything in between. He takes pride in the fact that London After Midnight does not fit into any musical category. LAM is not Goth, its not "dark wave", it’s not industrial... LAM is simply London After Midnight, and that seems enough for their very devoted fans.
Source: Press Release
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