Career
The Claytown Troupe were formed in 1984 in Bristol by lead singer Christian Riou, who claimed in an NME interview that a local clairvoyant advised him to form a band called "the Clayton Troop" who would have minor success & see America which is exactly what happened to the band.
By late '87, after various line-up changes, Riou & Williams spent a month writing 10 songs influenced by the tail end of the first goth rock scene & touched into the early passionate sounds of grunge.
After recruiting Bennett & Waterson, during early 1988, the band created an accomplished live show, supporting a variety of acts that included Fields of the Nephelim, Alien Sex Fiend, Chiefs of relief, Salvation etc.. & built up a hardcore following taken from bands such as The Cult, New Model Army & The Mission.
A self-financed video of a demo version of the song 'Prayer' directed by Nathan Richards (who later directed the Emmy nominated EMF 'Unbelievable video), earned them major record label interest.
In late 1988, the band were signed to Island Records by Ron Fair, who produced the debut album, Through the Veil with mixes by Ralph Jezzard). The album was released to critical acclaim ( internationally in October 1989 reaching No. 72 on the UK Albums Chart .
'Through the veil' spawned three top 100 UK singles - 'Prayer' UK 79, 'Hey Lord' UK 86 & 'Real Life' UK 85.
After Claytown Troupe played to sell-out audiences from London's famous Marquee Club and Astoria, they were invited to play as support band for The Cult's Sonic Temple tour, at venues such as Wembley Arena and Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre.
Following this success, and with a reputation as one of the UK's best live acts, the band toured constantly with such acts as Pearl Jam, The Wonder Stuff, The Damned, Julian Cope, Jesus Jones, The Godfathers, and The Mission, as well as playing the Los Angeles Foundations Forum, which also featured Ozzy Osbourne and Soundgarden.
After Island Records sold to Polygram, on Ron Fairs advice, the band switched record labels to EMI Records USA, where the second album Out There (1991), was produced by David Bianco at New York's The Hit Factory.
'Out There' spawned two top 75 UK singles - 'Ways of love' UK No. 57, 'Wanted it all' UK No. 74.
In 1992 as guests of Pearl Jam on their '10' tour (the only UK act to have toured with Pearl Jam) they toured the United Kingdom with Terrorvision as their support act and were transferred to EMI UK after the US label was taken over by Zomba and non-US bands were dropped.
The move back to the UK in 1992 proved to be difficult with rave music & Manchester having taken away a huge swath of their audience, leaving the band in no-mans land between the old goth rock scene and the emerging grunge movement.
At this stage, drummer Andy Holte, guitarist Ben Bennett and bassist Paul Waterson left and the band was dropped by EMI UK.
Riou and Williams continued to stay in touch but decided to go their separate ways, Williams working on various music projects with members of D:Ream & Jamiroquai while Riou went onto to work in film & Television, recently producing films on Sid Vicious (Sid! By those that really knew him) and the cinema released British Superbike documentaries 'I, Superbiker I & II'.
Riou and Williams reformed the band in 2004 and were invited to perform at that year's Whitby Gothic Weekend and were surprised at the positive reaction to the band so decided to keep playing when they could. The band played at The Half Moon music venue in Putney in December 2004. Then did not play until 2008, they were joined by Ben Christo from The Sisters Of Mercy to play as guests for the Mission's last ever tour date at the Shepherds Bush Empire. Later that year, they played as support for Spear of Destiny at the Islington Academy, London.
In 2011 the Claytown with Tim Stephens EMF guitar & Damon Williams (Horse London, The Almighty) Bass, shared a double headline with rock band Balaam & the angel at the Islington Academy, London, but future dates aren't planned at present.
Claytown Troupe are still remembered as a great 'nearly made it big' lost act from the UK alternative & goth rock music scene & helped launch many music careers including manager Stephen 'Abbo' Abbott (Big Cat & V2 Records) & ex. CTT follower Jacqui Rice (Domino Records) amongst others.
Read more about this topic: Claytown Troupe
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“I began my editorial career with the presidency of Mr. Adams, and my principal object was to render his administration all the assistance in my power. I flattered myself with the hope of accompanying him through [his] voyage, and of partaking in a trifling degree, of the glory of the enterprise; but he suddenly tacked about, and I could follow him no longer. I therefore waited for the first opportunity to haul down my sails.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)
“I’ve been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have had their career.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)
“My ambition in life: to become successful enough to resume my career as a neurasthenic.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)