(c’88-date) James Johnston (vocals/guitar/keyboards), Mike Delanian (bass) and Nick Combe (drums).
Formed in ’88 by ex-COW members Johnston and Delanian they self-released a single in November that year. The double A-sided Snakepit [GAL 003] with Please Give Me Something on the flipside, co-written by Guildfordian forming members Johnston and Delanian, was only distributed at gigs, the band pressing 400 copies.
By ’90 Combe, who had played and recorded with The Scientists, was recruited and debut single Snakepit had led to signing to Clawfist. They covered The Silver Apples Ruby for their next single in late ’90 with Joe Byfield on maracas. Three singles followed in ’91, with Some Fool’s Mess named ‘Single of the Week’ by the NME and a review in Big Muff called it a ‘piece of genius’. Combe was replaced by Max Decharne before the single was also placed 13th in John Peel’s Festive Fifty that year. The band recorded one Peel Session on 14 July ’91 which was broadcast on 1 September ’91 and repeated on 17 November and 21 December as part on Peel’s pick of the year programmes, calling their cover of Dick Dale’s Miserlou, “just stupefying” and “surfing for the suicidal.”
The band also supported Lush, who were on their Black Spring tour, at three venues in early October ’91:Municipal Hall, Colne (7 Oct), along with Nature Things; the Irish Centre, Northampton (8 Oct), and The Tabernacle on Powys Square, London (9 Oct) where they were joined by Stereolab, of which, the now editor of Record Collector magazine, Paul Lester’s review for Melody Maker wasn’t kind on Stereolab or Gallon Drunk. After a short break from Lush’s tour, Gallon Drunk rejoined for nine consecutive dates:Bradford University, Queensbury (21 Oct); Mayfair, Glasgow (22 Oct); UMIST, Manchester (23 Oct); Sheffield University, Sheffield (24 Oct); Essex University, Colchester (25 Oct); the Junction, Cambridge (26 Oct); Bierkeller, Bristol (27 Oct); Fox’s, Wolverhampton (28 Oct), and finally on 29 October ’91, the band were supporting Lush, with Passing Clouds, at Portsmouth’s Pyramids Centre.
Their debut album release, You, the Night…and the Music in ’92, with also a US release on Rykodisc. Stereolab opened for the band at the Venue, London on 7 March ’92. A year later, on 28 March ’93, the band headlined the Pavilion Theater, Brighton with Cornershop and Dog Hunch in support; and Cornershop supported them again the following night, 29 March ’93, at The Joiners, Southampton. ’93 also saw the release on their second LP, From The Heart of Town, which was Mercury Prize-nominated resulting in the band signing to Sire Records. Their growing profile resulted in them playing as a guest of Morrisey at the Hollywood Bowl and Madison Square Garden, New York. Saxophonist and keyboard player, Terry Edwards, who’d worked as a session player on the LP, joined the band while they toured the UK for The Heart of Town. The band’s next tour was of Europe and the US, this time as headliner and supporting PJ Harvey saw Decharne (who later fronted to The Flaming Lips) leave. He was replaced by Ian White in ’93.
In ’94, Robert Hanks described the band’s sound for The Independent as “dark, bluesy, grinding noise characterised by dense textures, low, mumbling bass guitar and keyboards, and liberal applications of whammy bar to the electric guitar, the whole thing oddly underpinned by maracas”. The band released The Traitor’s Gate EP in ’95 and played the Phoenix Stage at the Pheonix Festival on 15 July ’95 coming onto the Stratford-Upon-Avon festival’s stage ahead of Faith No More, Public Enemy, Terrorvision, Paradise Lost, Body Count, Ice-T, and EMF, but not bottom of the bill which was reserved for Shootyz, Groove, and Pitchshifter. On 29 October ’96, Gallon Drunk headlined at Dingwalls, Camden. It was on their new label, City Slang, that The Long Still Night LP was released in ’96 and the single To Love Somebody in March ’97. This was the band’s last release before dissolving.de projects
The band reformed in ’99, and you’ll find the band’s members credited as part of the music department on the Nik Triandafyllidis directed movie Black Milk; although with Jeremy Cottingham having replaced Mike Delanian on bass. They issued the Blood Is Red EP, in 2000; and the band’s soundtrack to Black Milk followed in March. In 2002 they released the album Fire Music.
What followed was a seven-year break, during which Johnston toured and recorded as a full-time member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, who he had joined for a Lollapalooza tour in ’94. The Rotten Mile, with bassist Simon Wring instead of Cottingham, marked their return in 2007. This was also marked by a tour that included an appearance at Klub 007 Strahov, Prague which was recorded and released on Sartorial Records in 2008 as Live at Klub 007.
Following the death of Wring in 2011, the band entered Clouds Hill, Hamburg and recorded The Road Gets Darker from Here, which they released in 2012; with the subsequent tour featuring Leo Kurunis on bass. They returned to Clouds Hill and laid down the tracks that would become The Soul of the Hour, which was released in March 2014 on Clouds Hill Recordings. This same label also issued Johnston’s solo album The Starless Room in November 2016, which featured Gallon Drunk drummer White.
Founder, frontman and sole consistent member Johnston was also member of Faust from 2006 to 2012. He and White are also currently members of Big Sexy Noise with Lydia Lunch and Edwards who had previously worked Lunch’s live shows. Combe passed in 2015, the same year that Edwards and Johnston were recording at Somerset House, London with PJ Harvey, for her The Hope Sex Demolition Project LP, which was released the following year. They then toured with Harvey as part of the touring 10-piece band in 2027. Then, more recently, founding bassist Delanian died in February 2025 in London.
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