Cast were a band
formed in Liverpool,
England
in 1993 by John
Power, the former bassist of The
La's and Peter Wilkinson,
the former bassist of Shack.
The band released four albums between 1995 and 2001. Liam
Gallagher once described them as one of the few current bands
he actually liked. Though the group continued to release records after
the fall of the Britpop
movement at the end of the 90s their commercial success died with the
movement and they are generally not regarded as Britpop "survivors".
It has been suggested that the name "Cast" was taken from the
final word on The La's eponymous (and only) album. The
song "Looking Glass" ends with the repeated line "The change
is cast". John Power has stated when interviewed that this is
a coincidence.
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Contents
- 1 Career
- 1.1 Formation
- 1.2 Britpop
- 1.3 Decline
- 2 After
the split
- 3 Albums
- 4 Singles
- 5 External
link
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Career
Formation
John Power had previously been the bass player in The La's,
however he left in December 1992 after long being frustrated by Lee
Mavers' overzealous perfectionist approach to the band's
recordings. Drug use and Lee Mavers' refusal to play any of John
Power's songs have also been identified as reasons for his departure.
After leaving the band Power stayed in Bruckley House, the same place and
time where 3 beat records started up.
John Power decided to stop playing bass and started playing rhythm
guitar while residing at Bruckley House, playing with friends and with
an ever changing line up. The first addition to the band was bassist
Peter Wilkinson, who Power had seen about town playing with other bands
and whom he "knew to say hello to." The next addition was Keith
O'Neill, who John Entwistle would later
favourably compare with The Who drummer Keith Moon
(his nickname in the band was "Moonie"), however this may have been due
to his ability to drink large amounts of alcohol and general erratic
behaviour rather than his drumming style. The final addition to the
band was guitarist Liam 'Skin' Tyson who Wilkison
had recommended to Power. When Power met Tyson and asked him to join
the band he initially turned him down as he had sold all of his musical
equipment and was teaching at an outdoor centre in Alston in Cumbria or
"living up a hill" as Power would later describe it. However he soon
changed his mind and this completed the band lineup which was to stay
the same up until the band's eventual disbandment.
After practising for a while the band were to benefit from the
support of Oasis, one of the upcoming
band's of the time. Despite not having a ticket to an Oasis gig at a
Liverpool venue John Power convinced the club owner to let him in to
meet the band. John Power found that Noel
Gallagher was a huge fan of The La's (he has in fact stated
that Oasis' goal as a band was to complete what the La's had started)
and after playing a copy of Cast's demo tape the Gallagher brothers
asked him to support the band on a forthcoming tour along with Shed
Seven. It was during this tour that Polydor showed
their interest in signing the band, which the band duly accepted. Their
first single "Finetime", released at
the height of the Britpop movement in 1995, proved successful debut. This success was
followed up by "Alright"
showcasing a distinctive sound very similar to The La's.
Britpop
The band then released their debut album All
Change which showcased a more diverse range of
music than the two singles: psychedelic rock ("Promised Land", "Two of
a Kind"), guitar-tapping in "History", heavier power-chord based songs
("Back of My Mind", "Reflections" and "Sandstorm") and slow-paced
ballad songs ("Walkaway" and "Four Walls"). This album would produce
two top ten hits for the band in "Sandstorm" and "Walkaway". The band
got further recognition in 1996 when "Alright" was featured in the Mission:
Impossible soundtrack. The album became the
fastest selling in Polydor's history, yet stalled at #7, but going
double platinum.
At this time, the band was busy touring the UK and Europe. They would
tour the United States a couple of times, but their records would never
chart in the US and would never get sold in most record stores. This is
most likely a result of the almost no sales of The
La's, which only charted at #196 in the US, as well
as a general lack of merchandise sales from the La's' 1991 US tour.
A stand-alone single was released in 1996 titled "Flying",
which filled the void between the band's debut All
Change and their follow-up Mother
Nature Calls. "Flying" peaked at #4 on the UK
singles chart.
For their second album, 1997s Mother
Nature Calls, the fast paced guitar songs were
replaced with a a more contemplative sound. The band continued to
release radio-friendly
material such as "Free Me". According to Power the title of the album
was supposed to be tongue in cheek because Mother Nature
is always calling (because of man's mortality), but also because he was
on the toilet at the time he came up with the name. The band decided to
once again use John Leckie to help record the album and
the production was much more well-developed on this album, with the
band using much more than the simple guitar-bass-drums mix as they had
done on the previous album. John Power has blamed the initial poor
reception on the album on the fact that it is a "grower" requiring much
more patience than the more pop-based style of All Change
and has claimed that a number of critics later told him that they felt
they had changed their perceptions of the album. Despite this the album
spawned another two top ten hits with "Live the Dream" and "Guiding
Star" and one top twenty hit with "I'm So Lonely". The album peaked at
#3, going platinum
(according to the BPI), but many believe the album went at least double
platinum,
if not more, considering its chart peak.
Decline
By the time that the band started to record their third album,
Magic
Hour Britpop movement was faltering and a
number of Cast's contemporaries had disbanded (e.g. Kula
Shaker, Dodgy, Smaller
and The Seahorses.) The band
tried to further distance themselves from the Britpop movement by
referring to the third album as "21st Century Rock'n'Roll". John Leckie
was replaced by Gil Norton who had previously produced The Pixies
and the band moved towards a heavier power-chord based sound, with the
jangly rhythm sounds of the previous albums being replaced by a more
distorted "metallic" sound. The album received average reviews by most
music magazines, with the band still criticised for a lack of
originality.
The first release was "Beat Mama", with the band using samples
and synthesisers
on the record to give it a more modern feel, moving away from the 60's
sound created by simply using only guitars, bass and drums. This song
was another top ten hit for the band, but the follow up, "Magic Hour",
which was a very slow-moving song, with simple, almost childish lyrics,
sold poorly and no more singles were released from the album. The album
did climb to #6, going gold,
though it is uncertain as to how much the record sold.
Seeing the sales of Magic Hour as a clear
sign that the band needed to change direction the band produced the
album Beetroot.
Using Latin beat sounds for the only single released from this album
and largely abandoning the ethos of producing simple yet catchy three
minute pop songs the album was not groundbreaking enough to give the
band the critical approval which they were hoping for nor attract the
interest of the general public. The only single release from the album,
"Desert Drought," failed to make even the UK Top 40, stalling at #45 on
the charts. The sales of the album were more of a drastic change even
from those of Magic Hour.The
album fell to #78 on the charts. After the drastic change in direction
and the subsequent commercial failure of this final studio album in
2001, Cast split in 2002. Following the split, John
Power released a solo album entitled Happening For
Love which featured Paul Maguire formerly of
fellow Liverpool
band The
Stairs. In 2005, John Power played a series of
gigs with the newly reformed The La's. The gigs yielded no new
material and nothing has been heard from the band since the series of
gigs which took place in Ireland, England and Japan.
After the split
Since 2002 Peter Wilkinson has recorded and toured with a
number of artists including Ian McCulloch and
McCulloch's reformed band, Echo & The Bunnymen.
Wilkinson left Echo & the Bunnymen
in mid 2005 and has now rejoined the Liverpool band Shack
who are currently signed to Sour Mash, Noel
Gallagher's record label. Shack released their new
album On the Corner of Miles and Gil in March 2006.
Skin is currently in Robert Plant's band, "Strange
Sensation".
John Power released a second album called Willow She Weeps. It
has been received quite well by critics, and John Power has now taken
on an elder statesman role as he is one of the few Britpop survivors.
As of now, there are no plans for a Cast reunion and will probably
never happen, considering Power's new role in The La's; he claims that
he will "never not be in The La's" and that they are a "breathing
entity." Many La's and Cast fans are anxiously awaiting word on the
rumored second album, started in 1992.
Albums
Singles
- "Fine Time" - UK #17
- "Alright" - #13
- "Sandstorm" - #8
- "Walkaway" - #9
- "Flying" - #4
- "Free Me" - #7
- "Guiding Star" - #9
- "Live the Dream" - #7
- "I'm So Lonely" - #14
- "Beat Mama" - #9
- "Magic Hour" - #28
- "Desert Drought" - #45
External link
- Cast: History - Fansite filled with
information on the band, and John's new projects.
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