Goldrush have spent the past few years dipping in and out of the Oxford, England countryside: building a studio, starting a record label, running a festival, touring the world; along with the small matter of writing a set of songs with inspiration far from the current climate: Legends like Neil Young, Nick Drake and The Band, and more recent American innovators like Grandaddy and Mercury Rev.
Here’s their story:
January 2000: Brothers Robin and Joe Bennett are in a band with the unlikely name of Whispering Bob, after the famed presenter of The Old Grey Whistle Test. Jef Clayton had joined the band because he owned a fine analogue synthesizer, which gave the mainly acoustic songs a strange, futuristic edge. An endless procession of guitarists and drummers has finally led to the discovery of Garo and G, who bring a new musical skill and depth to the band. A year of rehearsal in G’s living room follows. By November, the band is playing around the country to enthusiastic audiences and a new name is required after Whispering Bob begins playing the band on his radio programme!
January 2001: Goldrush play their first show. Within a couple of months their debut single “Same Picture” is being played every night on Radio 1 and major record labels are packing out every show. The song is recorded at Truck Studios and released on Truck Records and sells out within a week, the band existing in a self-sufficient world of their own making.
September 2001: This DIY spirit is temporarily ignored as the band sign to Virgin/EMI and in December record their debut “Don’t Bring Me Down” in the immortal surrounds of Abbey Road Studio 2. Meanwhile, George Harrison’s passing is marked by crowds and TV news cameras outside the building while the band record inside.
Summer 2002: The singles from the album colonised British airwaves, especially “Wide Open Sky”, record of the week on both Radio 1 and Radio 2, but by the time of the album’s release many of the staff who had signed Goldrush had been sacked in a worldwide clearout. Even as the album was receiving widespread acclaim in the press, Goldrush left their Virgin contract and began working on new tracks with Dave Fridmann (by post). The original “Same Picture” single had reached American ears leading to this as well as a tour with The Flaming Lips.
January 2003: The new version of “Let You Down” mixed by Fridmann is the band’s best recording yet and is played to death on London’s Xfm, and the band are happy back in the Truck fold, ambitious on their own terms. A certain Mark Gardener (once of Ride) comes to a show, leading to the idea of Goldrush backing him on some future dates.
September 2003: Hamish joins the band on bass to replace Jef, who has left to work in a record store, and brings a new rock & roll edge to the band. After a UK tour and a joint EP release, Goldrush tour the US with Mark Gardener, playing their own set before joining Gardener as his backing group, like their heroes The Band. In the midst of the tour they spend a couple of weeks in Fredonia, NY recording at Dave Fridmann’s Tarbox Road studio. They are so skint that they have to travel by train and be picked up from Buffalo at 2am in Dave’s station wagon. The recordings are their best yet. The west coast dates on the tour give fresh inspiration to the band as they play great shows in LA and San Francisco and meet many new friends.
April 2004: Goldrush record further material in London as well as returning to the west coast to record with Rob Campanella (Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Tyde). The finished material, along with the Fridmann recordings, will see the light of day in the form of the "Ozona" full-length.
As for the title: Ozona is a small town quite literally right in the middle of fuck all. It's in the desert, there's a gas station, a bar and a population of about 80. It was outside Ozona that Goldrush broke down en route for last year's South by Southwest festival. After hailing down a random truck, the band spent a Bourbon sodden night in a one bar town shooting firearms with inebriated racist rednecks. Goldrush and guns... Come on!
GOLDRUSH ON MYSPACE
