Guy Chadwick - post The
House Of Love
In August 1994 fan
club members received a letter from Guy and Suzi giving details of Guy's new
band. The band were called The Madonnas and consisted of Guy Chadwick on vocals
and guitar, Bob Bradley on guitar, Marcus Williams on bass guitar, both of whom
had played with The Blue Aeroplanes, and David Ruffy, formerly of The Ruts, on
Drums.
Guy had spent the first half of 1994 writing and demoing material
interspersed with some, mainly American, radio interviews and acoustic sessions.
However, several of the new songs had previously been written whilst Guy was a
member of The House Of Love, these included "What's My Line" and
"Slaughterhouses Friend".
The Madonnas
held rehearsals during early August and made their first live performance at The
Splash Club in London's Kings Cross on September 1st. This was followed by a
short tour opening for the Cranberries, ironic as the Cranberries had once
opened for House Of Love!! This was to be a short UK tour but many dates were
scrapped. The band then made a further live appearance in November at The Splash
Club playing mainly new material for just over an hour. All the songs performed
were written by Guy himself.
The band were still under Guy's management
contract with Merck Mercuradis but didn't have a record deal. Despite this they
demoed a number of songs and recorded and mixed several masters which were
intended to form part of an EP for release in early 1995.
Time came and
went and as such so did the Madonnas. During early 1995 Guy disbanded the band,
he refuses to talk further on the subject, and moved with his family to Belgium.
It was there that he formed a new band at the behest of Bang Records supremo
Renault. The band were called Eyedreams and consisted of Guy, again on vocals
and guitars, Kurt on guitars, Didier and Marc. Throughout 1995 the band
rehearsed and entered a studio to work on their debut album. The album was duly
completed and consisted of twelve new tracks which were mixed in
November/December in London.
It was at this point that Guy decided to
break his silence and unleash his new band to the world. A one off concert was
performed on 13th December in Brussels. It was preceeded by a short interview
for local radio along with a short acoustic session. This session featured three
live tracks, "Eyedreams", "What's My Line" and the old favourite
"Shine On".
The gig itself consisted of mainly new material,
though much had been written during Guy's time with the House Of Love -
including the title track itself!!, but culminated in a short encore of three
House Of Love songs, "Shine On", "Girl With The Loneliest Eyes" and
"Cruel". The gig was pronounced a success and the band announced their
intention to release the fully completed album in early 1996. During the radio
interview Guy spoke of how pleased he was with the completed album and that he
hoped to release and tour with it in early 1996.
Sometime in early 1996
Guy changed his plans once again and scrapped both band and album and instead
chose to return to England where he currently resides in London. It's been four
years since any of Guy's songs have been released and it's frustrating to know
that both Madonnas and Eyedreams have completed tracks, and an entire album in
the case of Eyedreams, that will never see the light of day. We can but keep our
fingers crossed.
Guy Chadwick, 1997: "It was only after a long break
from music that I became inspired enough to approach the idea of writing a
collection of songs in a different vein from before. The first song I wrote was
"Crystal Lovesong" and this became the catalyst for everthing."
In
the spring of 1997, persuaded by Keith Cullen, Guy signed a new record deal with
Setanta Records. There was no real game plan in sight with Keith suggesting that
Guy "just try writing pop songs". With a new deal Guy begin to record in London
and in November 1997 released his first EP, "This Strength", as a solo
artist. Says Guy, "It's really hard, after being in a band for seven years, to
know how to present yourself alone, as a solo artist. 'Lazy, Soft & Slow'
is the first rung on that ladder".
Guy previewed his new material at
a special showcase gig at London's Borderline before releasing his debut solo
single, "This Strength", and performing as special guest during a
prestigous Paris concert organised by Les Inrockuptibles.
February 1998 saw the release of
Guy's debut solo album, described as "unashamedly and essentially an album of
love songs...this is an album of melodies to let into you heart, into the places
only a song can reach.". The album received highly favourable reviews througout
Europe and was promoted by a UK and short European tour in March and April 1998
as well as the release of another single, "You Really Got A Hold On
Me".
Shortly after the European tour Guy lost another
guitarist, David Felce. In time for a couple of Japanese dates Guy drafted in
Simon Walker to join the band.
Guy Chadwick - 1997
Guy performed his first solo acoustic shows
in the summer of 1998 before the band began to demo new material. In early 1999
it was revealed that Guy had left Setanta Records but had almost completed
enough material for his next album. Sadly nothing more was heard from Guy until
early 2001 when he released one song, "Wraparounds" which was originally titled
"Kit's Song", through his web-site.
At the time of writing it is summer 2002 and Guy has yet to release his follow
up album. However, despite all that's been said he is currently considering working with
Terry Bickers once again. Fingers crossed!
Written by Dave Roberts.