Official website: www.longtimedead.net
MP3 sample: My Hell
The band began in April ’97, consisting of Paul Priestley, and Stefan Grosvenor, and Simon Clewlow, the original singer who has now left the band. Shortly after the forming, a bass player joined, James Mountford. The band gigged early on, in local pubs, clubs and halls, under the guidance of manager and friend Lawrence Mitchell, forming a large and varied set list that they would not be caught dead playing today. About a year later, after a large fall-out, the band split as a result of the singer, Sime, and each member took his own path, for about two weeks. When they reformed, the band had the original line-up, minus Sime, but plus a new addition, Matt Owen, in to play rhythm guitar. Due to certain obligations Sime was reinstated as the singer on the hope that a fall-out would not occur again. After 5 months, now July ’98, Sime again left and a new band name was adopted. The RISING BUTT HINGES, inspired by a DIY manual. A new sound, new direction and new singer, Matt, took to the stages again in the early part of ’99. The shock quitting of the beloved bass player pea shook the band once more, but a new bassist was not far away, Will Harris joined the band in November ‘99. Will, known through Paul’s college course, and also the guy who controlled the lights, fitted in straight away with the metal attitude.
From there the Hinges took on a form of its own and attacked all local venues with a style of heavy Metal which in this period of time is so unique that nothing could change it in any way no matter what people were listening to at the time and what trends were influencing bands all over the world.
They rocketed through 2000 by playing loads of venues and spreading their name over the county. The Butts went into a local studio and recorded a 6 track Demo Cd called ‘Heads I Win’. The band did a mass send out of the Cd to Record Companies, Radio stations etc. They had a reply from Dave Begg at Holier Than Thou Records and they went down to see him at his base at Stratford. On the 29th March 2001 they signed a Promotion Contract with him in order to turn the heads of the people who should be listening.
Around a month later things started to go wrong for the Hinges and problems arose with the Drummer Stef, Due to commitment failure they had to make the decision to give him a ‘break’ from the band to sort himself out and see where his commitments lay. This was a problem for the band as Dave Begg and the band had been organising a date to go into the studio and record a proper Cd with John Mitchell from the Outhouse Studios in Reading.
The date was still set and the band had to find a drummer who would help them. The search began to find one but with no avail they could not find the guy for them. A good friend from the Music shop where they buy all their gear called Mark Hilton offered to lend a hand for them and they grabbed the offer as they knew how good this guy is. Around a month before their date to record the new material they started practising with Mark and every Practise they had was such a boost for them as it had been around 3 months with no Practise, and now practising in a professional studio was just what they needed to get back in to gear.
After recording the new 2 Track Promo Cd they desperately tried to keep Mark in the band but with the commitment to his full time band Marlo he could not do it although they could tell he wanted to. The band managed to do one local gig with Mark and it was probably the best gig they have ever done.
After that gig they knew that they could not carry on with Stef as what they had been playing with was so much more advanced than he was and they needed to carry on and back up the new cd on stage. It was hard to let Stef go as he had been with the band from the beginning but the band would probably be where they are now if he had stayed. After that was another hard period of looking for the right guy for the band, at the end of 2001 the band hired a drummer who they had known for years after his band of which Will had been playing with for a few months had split up. Adam Sylvester who was in the crowd at many of the previous gigs was jumping around shouting the lyrics was now doing the same thing but behind the Hinges Drum Kit. Seeing this happen was one of the greatest things to happen to the hinges. Adam fitted in really well even though his musical background was not a metal one. After that it was all go for the hinges again as they started playing all the venues again and finally being able to call themselves a band again after a make or break year.
Right now is doing strong and has signed a deal with Psychophonic Records to put some new material on a Compilation Album. Also just a small note to mention the decision to change the band name has come about to lack of serious insight from people in the Industry. The new name is now LONG TIME DEAD, after ages of sifting through our brains coming out with some shocking names (Critical Finger being one of em ‘Good one Paul’). The new plans to date are to go back in the studio, get out of Stoke on Trent, play more gigs, Kick ass on all shitty trend Metal bands and try and make a living of it all
With a 2 new tracks recorded at Framework Studios in Birmingham they put together a 6 track E.P called BRITISH BEEF which they shall be releasing in the summer.