[NOTE: I’m glad to say that since putting this post up here, I’ve made with Ed Box of the band who I obviously checked with regarding reposting the old music. I quote, “That’s fine with me.” Thanks, Ed!]
Most of you reading this won’t have heard of this band before, but following them around Newcastle for a couple of years was a major part of my late childhood.
XLR8R were a 4/5-piece hard rock band who played the game the way it’s means to be played – hard work, slog, gigging, self-promotion, some fortunate radio play, “battle of the bands” competitions… and ultimately, sadly, broke up without getting signed.
They did leave behind three excellent demos (well, two demos and a “here’s all the other shit we never released” tape) and a full album. And I’m ing them here for you lot. Don’t worry, I do this with the blessing of frontman Mark Savage who I last exchanged words with many years ago. At one point, he was offering me the studio tapes for everything to do with as I wished, but I never got the chance to get them off him.
Instead, I’m ripping my cassette copies and ing them here. SoundCloud would be great, but you only get 120 minutes of “space” for free. I was toying with YouTube, but the whole point is to allow you to these for yourselves.
The first of the demos is up now, and linked below. The quality is pretty good, but being ripped from tape I’ve not bothered to make the mp3s stupidly high quality. It’s certainly decent enough through my headphones.
Mechanics of the Mind is, in my opinion, their best release. Four tracks, each one very different from the others. It includes “Mountain”, a track that Mark always said was about something personal, but he would never actually say what. I’m sure I someone asking him if it was about his grandfather, but he denied this.
I hope the speeds are fast enough – and please let me know if you like the music. I’ll be ing The Ultimate Sensation (not as good quality, unfortunately) and XLR8R over the next day or so.
Oh, and if anyone is in touch with any of the band please on my details! It would be good to hear from them again after so long!
Links
All tracks copyright XLR8R 1992 and released with permission
Thank you for posting this, and to XLR8R lads for giving you their
permission.
I’ve been looking for a digital copy of this for years. I bought the
tape at an XLR8R gig in Newcastle one Saturday afternoon, whilst
visiting a mate (possibly before a Queensryche gig?).
I was blown away by the band at the gig and played the tape to
destruction. I later bought the Inner Oceans CD which added a real
professional edge to their sound.
Can’t believe they didn’t make it big :(
I had to put that comment in for Chris as my spam filter (for some reason) decided he was naughty. Appreciate you emailing it to me, fella! XLR8R just happened upon a fallow time for rock music, when labels were deciding to settle on easy, mainstream rubbish and known factors. It wasn’t long after they gave up that the likes of Iron Maiden downsized from selling out arenas to struggling to fill 1500-2000 capacity venues. I talking to Mark (singer) after a gig once and the band were really excited as they’d been talking to labels after their Radio… Read more »
So great to find people still talking about XLR8R, I knew Mark and the boys really well back in the day, hanging out at the 244 Rock Club. Was very very happy times. Always thought I’d see them getting massive one day as they really were incredible musicians. I saw Martin playing drums with the Baghdaddies a few years ago and it was lovely to catch up.
In case you didn’t spot it, they’ve also re-issued all (well most of) the old stuff. Remastered and everything: /news/2016/01/xlr8r-official-reissues/
A shame they never made it huge. I genuinely thought they had it in them, but the 1990’s just sucked for real music and killed a lot of great bands off.
So glad you posted this, it totally takes me back to the early 90’s seeing the band in Fat Sams & The Irish Center. I even seeing them at the North Shields Fish Quay Festival.
Very welcome, Paul! I was a huge fan at the time (as is probably obvious) and saw them several times at Fat Sams and some place on Westgate Road (I think), plus through in Hexham. Which was the same night they were in the Radio 1 Rock War thing.
Do note that a lot of their material is now available on Bandcamp!
https://xlr8r.bandcamp.com/
Loved them. Used to write to fan club regularly and attended gigs including for Thuuder ( who I saw this year). Wore my tapes out years ago. Happy days
Have a dig on this site for some more XLR8R stuff. Ed Box released a lot of their material on Bandcamp a while ago as well. Great for replacing those tapes!
I saw this band in the old Air Balloon in Portsmouth 1993ish. They were great and it’s a shame that the musical climate didn’t suit their kind of music at the time.
Thanks for sharing the Mp3 files because I’ve been wanting to digitise my cassette copy for years.
You’re welcome, Dale! Note that much of the band’s music can be streamed / bought on CD via Ed Box (one of the ). Remixed, remastered and all that jazz.
/news/2016/01/xlr8r-official-reissues/