Good Shoes
are a four-piece English indie pop band, hailing from Morden, London.
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GOOD SHOES TICKETS
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Biography
Good Shoes was formed by lead singer Rhys Jones and guitarist Steve Leach who often wrote and played music together as a hobby. Rhys and Steve appeared as a two piece under the Good Shoes name for a friend's charity gig (Tom-Fest) at a venue in
Kingston called The Peel in early January 2004. Eventually, they decided to formalise their hobby into a fully-fledged
band, bringing in Rhys's brother Tom and then later Joel Cox (who was friends with Rhys and Steve from secondary school -
Raynes Park High School).
The band started looking for gigs in January 2005, their first gig was put on by a friend at Fitzwilliam College
Cambridge University on
1 February. Their second was at a secret party on
Eel Pie Island with
Mystery Jets and from then on they played as many gigs as possible in and around London. This led to them playing the
Artrocker clubnight in August put on by
Artrocker Magazine. At this gig, the band were recommended to their current
label,
Brille Records, by a member of the band
FC Kahuna, and after playing
In The City music festival in
Manchester they signed with Brille in November 2005.
John Kennedy (a DJ at
London-based
radio station Xfm) started to give the band airtime based on a demo which was recorded in the band's shed, and a new demo, recorded at
Southern Studios started to get the band recognition from stations like
Radio 1,
6 Music and other mainstream radio stations, with both
Steve Lamacq and
Zane Lowe playing the demo.
The band travelled to
Malmö,
Sweden to record their first album, called
Think Before You Speak
, with Per Sunding at
Tambourine Studios. It was released
26 March 2007.
On
28 May 2007, the band performed a secret free gig at Morden Park bandstand. The bandstand and other landmarks from the local area are featured in the video for their single "Morden", which was released on
11 June 2007.
The band toured during 2007 with
Kaiser Chiefs and
The Rakes (other support bands included
The Pigeon Detectives,
Little Ones and
We Are Scientists). In November 2007 they headlined a tour with support from
Lightspeed Champion, also the band supported
Maxïmo Park at their homecoming arena show on the 15th of December 2007.
The band stayed relatively low during 2008. They appeared for a small number of live shows, including a secret supporting slot to friends
The Maccabees. Their main debut of new material was at their only UK festival appearance,
Boring by the Sea Festival, which took place in Weymouth. They ended the year with two gigs at The Watershed in Wimbledon on 13 December, followed by an appearance at New Slang in
Kingston Upon Thames on December 18 2008.
Joel Cox left the band as the band started writing their second album and for the recording of the album their friend Bob Matthews recorded the bass parts on the album.
Bob Matthews is another South West Londoner. Born in Kingston, he played in various bands (Evil Twin, Iris) in local venues including the Peel, before becoming a founder of
Right Turn Left while at Exeter University. After the recording sessions finished Bob went back to playing for Right Turn Left.
The band released a free download of 'The Way My Heart Beats' on the 18th August 2009, as a first taste of the second album due for release in January 2010.
[1] On the same weekend they played
Dockville Festival in Germany which saw the second appearance of their new bass player Will Church. He will tour with the band for the whole second album and work on all new material from now on. Will originally played in
Vincent Vincent and the Villians until they split last year and has been a friend of the band for a number of years.
Discography
Albums
- 2007 Think Before You Speak
- 2007 Live at the Astoria
(Limited Release of 1000, recorded at the Astoria, London 21 November 2007)
Singles
- 2007 "Small Town Girl" Released 26 November 2007
- 2007 "Morden"
- 2007 "Never Meant to Hurt You" UK #34, UK Indie #1
- 2006 "The Photos on My Wall" UK Indie #1
- 2006 "All in My Head"
EPs
Members
- Rhys Jones – vocals, guitar
- Steve Leach – guitar
- Will Church – bass guitar
- Tom Jones – drums
Former Members
- Joel Cox – bass guitar
- Bob Matthews – bass guitar
References
- Good Shoes - The Way My Heart Beats - Music-News.com