Who.

Well, here is the updated version. The original is at the bottom of all this.This was correct as of 25 September 1997.

The band are now a 4 piece, comprising

John Whitby - Vocals

Andy - Guitars

Neil - Drums

Dave - Bass

After a few false starts, it looks like things are begining to pick up again for the band. They're now signed to Viper records, and have backing from people connected with Sanctuary management. A single has been recorded, "Who wants to save the world anyway?", which should be released at the start of October, with tour dates to follow

New contact address is

Anyway, the old version of all this is now below

Gorilla are a five piece band who hail from Derby, England. The current line up is:

John Whitby - Vocals

Andy - Guitars

Neil - Drums

Dave - Bass

Andy Lingard - Electric Violin

At present, the band don't have a record deal, but hopefully they will be signing one in the near future, with plans to release an album by the end of the year.

History

Gorilla themselves have released 2 EP's to date, the cunningly titled Extended Play, and the current Shutdown EP. Extended Play may now be difficult if not impossible to get hold of, as it was only 1000 copies, which I believe has now sold out.

However, there's more. Because before forming as Gorilla, 3 of the band, John, Neil, and guitarist Andy,were in another great British band known as The Beyond. The fourth member of The Beyond, Bassist Jim, left after the recording of the Extended Play EP, disillusioned with the music industry. The Beyond released 2 albums and a number of EP's. If you can lay your hand on any of the records, you are well advised to.

They were signed to the Harvest label, a subsidiary of EMI, but as far as I'm aware, things went sort of pear shaped, and they decided to reform under the new monicker. Check here, for a copy of something they did in their Onion newsletter.

Just recently, the band have been touring the UK with American Noisemongers Hammerhead. They've also played dates in the UK with Napalm Death, Shelter and Joyrider amongst others.

So What do they sound like?

Well, the best way to find out is to go and get one of their EP's. Failing that, pop and have a listen to a sample. Failing that, well, they're heavy, precision kind of music. As the Beyond, they were more progressive and complex, this time round they've reverted to a simpler form of music. John has a unique singing voice, which means that you can pretty much instantly recognise a Beyond or Gorilla song.

They've always had such a tight sound, that bands this tight these days tend to get tagged in with the industrial sort of label, but they're not. They use samples, in a manner that White Zombie do, but they've been using samples since the early days of The Beyond back in about 1990(ish), so they're more like purveyors than band wagon jumpers. Also they had the distinction of being the only band I know to sample and put on an album the sound of an oven in a Pizza Parlour. And, not being one to spread rumours, but I do remember hearing that such luminaries as Pearl Jam had sampled, or tried to sample some of their stuff.

One thing about them, once you get into the music, and it may take a few listens, John has a clever knack of pulling out a really catchy, good vocal melody. It's well worth your time taking a listen. Apart from that, I don't know exactly how to describe it. The best bet really is to take a listen yourself :)

Contact

You can get further information about Gorilla by sending your name on a piece of paper to their address, cunning really when you think about it. Anyway, it's