Fastlane (band)

Fastlane
Origin Guildford, England
Genres rock, pop
Years active 1997–2007
Labels Pyropit Records, Punktastic Recordings

Fastlane were a British rock band, that emerged from the Surrey rock scene in 1997.

History

Formed in 1997, Fastlane was made of 4 school friends with common musical interests. With Benji Phillips, Ian Maynard, Matty O’Grady and Adam Biffen all playing a minimum of 3 instruments each, finding a line-up that worked proved a problem at first, but by 1998 the line-up consisted of both Ian and Ben singing and playing guitar, Biffen playing bass, and Matty on drums. Their first demo ‘Lets Get Amongst It’ was cut, and the band started playing local shows. The band was put on hiatus when three members started university from 1999 to 2002.

In 2002, the band reformed with a slightly different line up: Benji singing, Matty and Biffen playing Guitar, Tom Marsden playing Bass, and Dan Ranson playing drums. During the summer of 2002, Fastlane self-released their debut EP ‘She Loves the Rock’ and was picked up by 20 Deck Records, where they were soon on the road touring and playing to audiences across the country. Another line-up change and an original member return, Ian Maynard picked up the bass as Tom left the band. Fastlane grew as they gained over 20,000 downloads on the former website MP3.com in under 12 months. 2003 found Fastlane making the final line-up change, when Gary Tough joined as the drummer. In reviews, Fastlane's genre has been listed as pop punk, emo, screamo, pop, and metal.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

In March 2004, Fastlane entered the studio to record their first full-length album titled ‘New Start’ with the producer Iain Wetherell (Vanilla Pod, Raging Speedhorn, My Awesome Compilation) at Premier Studios in Corby. They played shows in multiple cities in England promoting their upcoming release, and in the latter part of 2004, the album was finished.[7] ‘New Start’ included the songs, ‘Eyes Closed’, ‘Elevator’, ‘A New Start’, ‘Million Times’ and the single ‘Dreaming’. The album was released on Suckapunch Records in the UK in 2005,[8] and Pyropit Records in Japan later that year.[9] It was distributed in HMV, Tower Records, Virgin Megastores, Tesco, and Amazon.

In 2005, Fastlane commenced their headline national tour even adding dates in Scotland and Wales.[10] In addition to their headline tour, they supported other UK tours including New Found Glory, Silverstein, Gratitude, Avenged Sevenfold, Zebrahead, The Academy Is, Aiden, 4Ft Fingers, Spunge, and My Awesome Compilation.

2006 began with another headline tour for Fastlane and in addition supporting tours of bands such as Aiden, Hidden in Plain View, Funeral for a Friend, and Fightstar. During the summer, Fastlane returned to the studio to record their second full-length album ‘Overdrive’ with producer John Mitchell (Funeral for a Friend, Enter Shikari) at Outhouse Studios in Reading. The album was released by Pyropit Records in Japan during October 2006, and was followed with an international tour when Fastlane flew to Tokyo promoted it.[11] Pyropit Records, an indie record company in Japan joined forces with Kick Rock Music to create a tour for Fastlane and three American bands; The Swellers, The Space Pimps, and Better Luck Next Time.[12] They sold out venues such as The Club Quattro and ACB in Tokyo with a capacity of 500+ people, and conducted in-stores at Tower Records in Shibuya, Tokyo.[13]

Since MP3.com closed, Fastlane have uploaded music on both Purevolume, where they have over 26,000 plays,[14] and Myspace.com where they have over 130,000 plays.[15] ‘Overdrive’ was released on Punktastic Recordings in the UK on 7 May 2007.

Members

Current line-up

Former members

Discography

In media

Venues

National venues played

International venues

References

  1. ↑ http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=225896 access date: 11.05.2007
  2. ↑ http://www.rockfreaks.net/index.php?page=albumreviews&id=604 access date: 11.05.2007
  3. ↑ http://www.roomthirteen.com/cgi-bin/cd_view.cgi?CDID=5443 access date: 11.05.2007
  4. ↑ http://noizemakesenemies.blogspot.com/2007/04/fastlane-overdrive-album-review.html access date: 11.05.2007
  5. ↑ http://www.subba-cultcha.com/article.php?id=5002 access date: 11.05.2007
  6. ↑ http://www.europunk.net/reviews.php?id=1296 access date: 11.05.2007
  7. ↑ Savage, Paul (March 2005). "Focus. Fastlane". Big Chesse Magazine: Issue 61
  8. ↑ Johnston, Emma (April 2005). "Rated Albums: Fastlane". Kerrang: Issue 1053
  9. 1 2 Japanese Magazine (August 2005). "Fastlane". Crossbeat: Issue 50
  10. ↑ Arbroath Herald (15 April 2005). "Multi-instrument and multi-talented Fastlane."
  11. 1 2 3 Japanese Magazine (December 2006). "Fastlane". Crossbeat: Issue 100
  12. 1 2 3 Japanese Magazine (October/November 2006). "Fastlane". GrindHouse: Issue 38
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 http://www.pyropitrecords.com/band_fastlane.html access date:30.01.2007
  14. ↑ http://www.purevolume.com/fastlane access date: 30.01.2007
  15. ↑ http://www.myspace.com/fastlane access date: 30.01.2007
  16. 1 2 Lawrence, Alister (April 2005). "Introducing...Fastlane". Kerrang: Issue 1050
  17. ↑ Japanese Magazine (August 2005). "UK: Fastlane". Rockin' On: Issue 100
  18. ↑ Japanese Magazine (August/September 2005). "Fastlane". GrindHouse: Volume 31

External links

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