Since the days of the Summer of Love in ’69, it has always appeared uncool for rock bands to support conflict and war. The music industry, in general,have portrayed the image of being anti war and pro peace. Well....Guvnor have never pretended to be cool and, as Stu says, they are too old to worry about image, so here we have a song written about The First World War that hopefully will help the boys and girls serving in Afghanistan. Weedspell are proud to say that 50p from every download of any of the Remembrance Day mixes will be donated to the Combat Stress & Help For Heroes charities (25p each).
Remembrance Day started in 1977 when a very youthful Stu was playing in his first band, Barracuda. They wrote a song called ‘A Soldiers Dream’ and bass guitarist Stu sat and wrote some words to the Freebird style outro. Unfortunately he was too shy to take them to the band and so they remained in his head for the next 20 years or so. Ten years ago, whilst helping his son with school homework about the First World War poets, the words came back to him and the framework of the song followed. When a short time later, Stu teamed up with Zammo as a song writing partnership, Remembrance Day was truly born.
To date the release of Remembrance Dayis Weedspell Records proudest moment. The shivers go down my back from the opening bars of Deans intro to the final tolling bell. As Stu says when he introduces it:
“this is a song inspired the the heroes of the past, and dedicated to the heroes of the present”
Louis
Weedspell Dogsbody
‘Pray They Survive’
9th April 2009 - Local Gig
GuvNor will be playing a gig at The Cleveland Hotel in Redcar tomorrow night (10th April). The band will be on at 9-9.15pm, and will be gigging with both lead guitarists. Its not often that both Dean and Robin are available at the same time; so don't miss out! The band will be doing all the favourites from the Judas CD, which will be available on sale at the gig, as well as a host of new stuff. Of course they're be some covers thrown in, but you'll have never heard them played this way before. 16th February 2009 - GuvNor's new Lead guitarist
Robin Harding; currently of "Wind of Change" & "Iron Gorilla", adds GuvNor to his growing roster of bands. A very busy guy indeed. Anyways, Robin has accepted the offer to join the band, as GuvNor don't gig that often, only do their own stuff, and he knows all the songs, which is a bit of a bonus.
The really good bit...........when our travelling lead, Mr Heslop, is available in the North East, we'll be doing the whole dual lead guitar thing......should be interesting. This all has to happen inbetween, Robin's other band committments and Deans solo stuff. GuvNor will be doing the festival scene this summer, so keep an eye out.
6th July 2008 - GuvNor's new bass guitarist
Simon Daws ex The Maddison Fallout will be replacing Colin Jones, who left GuvNor in early June to focus on his new career. Simon is a fantastic bass guitar player with musical roots in The Maddison Fallout. Lead Guitarist Dean Heslop comments, "I have known him for many years, I know how he works as a musician and as a person."
"I like GuvNor, I think they have amazing stage shows and I like their songs, so when I heard they were looking for a bass guitar player I thought I'd give it a try," says Simon. "Playing with The Maddison Fallout has been an experience in many ways, but I have always liked a little heavier music and have felt at times that this wasn't the right kind of forum for the music I'd most like to play. I've had a break now and It's simply time to move on."
"Replacing Colin is not easy, he has a very characteristic way of playing and is a great bass guitarist," explains singer Stu Armstrong, "but Simon will add a different style than Colin since they are two quite different persons. I'm looking forward to see how we will mesh as a band during the coming months!"
26th April 2008 - Press Release - "Judas" from GUVNOR
Weedspell Records are proud to announce the release of "JUDAS" by Darlington based rockers GuvNor. This, their first studio album for Weedspell. Yeh!! Thats DARLO UK peoples. The lads are a well known on the North East England music scene, and with thousands of miles and nearly a 1000 gigs behind them, most of the original music on this album is tried and tested in front of a live audience.
The album consists of 12 tracks penned by vocalist Stu Armstrong and guitarist zammo. Classic Rock with a larger than normal slice of punk influence would perhaps best describe the genre, although most of the tracks with their intelligent lyrics, driving rhythms and catchy riffs would appeal to a variety of music lovers.
'Judas'includes two tracks inspired by life in the South Durham/Cleveland region;'Vanity'&'Teesside Son.' like many GuvNor tracks they are 'tongue in cheek' and not meant to be taken too seriously. Although the lads agree, they'll probably never be offered jobs by the Teesside Tourist Board; these tracks will undoubtedly raise a rye smile on anybody who is proud to come from Middlesbrough!
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Since the days of the Summer of Love in ’69, it has always appeared uncool for rock bands to support conflict and war. The music industry, in general,