Reverend and the Makers Tickets

Reverend And The Makers
Based in Sheffield, England and signed to Wall of Sound, Reverend and the Makers are an Indie Funk Electro band. They are the brainchild of Sheffield's Reverend, AKA Jon McClure.

Story
Born in Grenocide in 1982, Jon Mc Clure grew up there with his parents and brother Chris. . He studied History & Politics at the University of Sheffield, where he met many musical friends and colleagues although he has known Ed Cosens since childhood and in Notre Dame High School - Sheffield

PREVIOUS PROJECTS
Judan Suki was Mc Clure's first band, featuring Ed Cosens and Laura Manuel from the Makers. The Japanese word Judan Suki means 'being kicked in the weak spot' which McClure believed related directly to the music. Judan Suki was basically a trial and experiment by Mc Cure, which he took quite lightly and in good fun. It had approximately 20 members throughout its lifetime, which included Alex Turner and Matt Helders who later went-on to form Arctic Monkeys with some friends from their school. The band downsized from eight members, to five in 2004, with Karl Kelly on bass, Mat Holt and Laura Manuel on backing vocals, as well as McClure and Ed Cosens. It was at this time that Judan Suki were playing for decent sized record companies, although he felt that the band were not good enough to be signed, a sentiment he kept to Reverend and The Makers as his perfectionist attitude forced songs from the album to be re-recorded delaying the bands releases.

1984 was McClure's second project, named after George Orwell's novel 1984, which was also one of McClure's favorite books. The band shared a short life from 2004 to 2005, with Ed Cosens again sticking to Jon and co-writing many of 1984's songs as well as all of Reverend and the Makers. The band also included Judan Suki bassist Karl Kelly and drummer David Chalky White. McClure's strong views against the Iraq War re apparent in the angry edge in many of Jon's lyrics, vocals and outlook.

There are clear links and continuations with the lyrics and ideas of 1984 to those of Reverend & the Makers and 'God Is In The TV' which is one of the b-sides on the forth-coming single, was originally a 1984 song. Not wanting to be just another guitar band, or part of a Yorkshire Music Scene categorized by the NME, McClure decided it was time to get serious. Shortly afterwards, the band split.

REVEREND AND THE MAKERS
2005 again saw McClure putting together musicians for the new project: Reverend and The Makers. The original Makers, like previous bands included co-songwriter Ed Cosens, this time playing to (bass). The rest of the makers consisted of Dave Sanderson (guitars), Joe Moskow (keyboards), Richy Westley (drums, ex- Hoggboy) and Laura Manuel (vocals), and occasionally Simon Stafford on trombone. Sanderson was dismissed in July 2006 after the band completed their first headline UK tour and replaced by Gledhill guitarist Tom Jarvis, who continues to play with both bands. At this time a percussionist, Stuart, was also added to the band's line-up, Stuart being the cousin of Eddie the Kid.

Reverend and The Makers released Ten Songs, a 9-trac demo, in 2006. It was an artwork including ten songs, Track 10 being Paris at Night. This song, however, was not made available for download; it only surfaced on the Internet in August 2007. The demos were recorded at 2Fly Studios, and produced by Alan Smyth. McClure acknowledges the work Smyth put into the Demos by accrediting the debut single; Heavyweight Champion of The World as McClure/Cosens/Smyth. Their music is a mix of indie guitar pop, electronica and a touch of Madchester-esque funk.

Notable members of other Sheffield bands such as Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys), Tim Hampton (Bromheads Jacket) and Mike Hughes (Little Ze) also feature in some demos on the Internet. Manchester performance poet John Cooper Clarke offers great inspiration to Reverend and in between songs during his live sets. The Reverend often performs his own poems, of a similar style.

When the Arctic Monkeys released their debut single, Major record labels hounded McClure to make an album like the Arctic Monkeys, enticing him with huge amounts of money. Not well off at this time, McClure nevertheless resisted the temptation and decided to do everything his own way. He managed to sell out the 1,000 capacity Plug in Sheffield twice, while still unsigned. It was not until the following year that McClure met Mark Jones in a club in London when he asked him for a lighter.

For their long-awaited first release, Reverend and the Makers undertook a nationwide tour and dates. The tour included dates in Wakefield, Leeds, Nottingham, Liverpool, Sunderland, Birmingham, Bristol, London, Brighton, Middlesbrough, Stockton, Leicester, Sheffield, Hull, Manchester, Newcastle, Barnsley and a second date in London respectively. They will also tour more during the summer period.