The story of Reuben goes way way back into the murky depths of time and started more or less when Jamie and Jon, who had been playing songs together for a few years, asked Jason Wilcock to play drums for them and formed Angel in 1998. They all knew each other from school, and after a year or so of tireless rehearsing, they started to play shows around their local area, most of which were at their nearest music venue, The Tumbledown Dick in Farnborough. They released a few demos and played as much as they could, sometimes twice in one week in the same venue, sharing the stage with bands like Dreyfus, Vex Red and Floor, who later became Hundred Reasons, all of whom were part of a thriving community of local bands that more or less centred around the place.
When Jason left in March 2000, Jon and Jamie asked Mark Lawton, another friend from school, to play drums in their band. The three of them formed a quick bond and began writing the songs that would eventually end up on the Pilot EP, which they recorded in September of that year and released the following January, shortly after changing their name from Angel to Reuben. Their popularity and reputation as a live act grew and they played several shows under both names with bands like Fungus, Earthtone 9, and of course Hundred Reasons.
Shortly after the release of Pilot, Mark left to live in Canada for six months as a chalet boy, so the remaining two auditioned several drummers to fill in for him until they settled on Guy Davis, whom they met through Backline studios, where they rehearsed. They continued to play as many shows as possible, eventually branching out into London, where they were spotted by top industry bloke Andy Ross, head of Food Records, then home to acts like Idlewild and Blur. Reuben got themselves an agent and a press company and even found a place of their own to practice, renting out a shed on a farm in Farnham that had belonged to Vex Red before they were snapped up by America. They were put in touch with Paul Tipler of Idlewild and 80s Matchbox fame, and when Mark returned from Canada in the summer they recorded some demos with him at EMI studios. These later turned up as b-sides.
Mark then decided to go to university, so Jon and Jamie called up Guy and asked if he'd like to join permanently which, thankfully, he did. They recorded with Tipler again in December, and released the resultant single 'Scared of The Police' on Andy Ross's Bossmusic label in March 2002. It was a limited release, but the promo video they had made with director Tim Mattia, more for fun than anything else, was picked up by MTV2 and received a lot of play, eventually reaching No.2 in the most wanted chart and whacking them in the face of the nation. They released one more single on the label, 'Stux (Tell Me It's Alright)', and then, not wanting to give the impression to any interested parties that they were signed to Bossmusic, they opted to release their third single, 'Let's Stop Hanging Out' on another label. Talks with Eastwest and Fierce Panda fell through, so the single, recorded and mixed in one day by Tipler, was released on the Badmusic label. The accompanying video, made with director Dan Fernbach, was to be the band's second video on MTV2's top spot after a Christmas tour with Hell Is for Heroes pushed the video for 'Stux' to Number One in the video charts the previous month. They were invited to appear on gonzo with Zane Lowe, and recorded their first BBC session for Steve Lamacq.
The record companies continued to talk and talk while this was all going on, but no deal materialised, so in August 2003 the band entered the studio and recorded their self-financed debut album, 'Racecar is Racecar Backwards', with a view to releasing it on indie label Integrity, who had already released Million Dead's first album. The idea was that the band would buy professional microphones and other equipment for their friend's home-made studio with the advance money from the label, but the money took so long to come through that the band eventually borrowed the money for the gear from friends and started the record on their own. During the recording of the album the talks with Integrity fell apart and the only thing to be released on the label was the single 'Stuck In My Throat', recorded with the studio's the old mics in the first week or so of waiting for the advance money. The recording process was long and arduous, and the delays caused by lack of funds at the start of the album meant that Reuben had to leave for a month-long tour to support the 'Stuck' single when they should have been mixing the album.
When the band returned, the delays and complications in completing the record snowballed, so that it was only in February of the following year that the band got to hear it, and then take it the same day to the offices of their press agency Press Counsel in Notting Hill. After the deal with Integrity fell through Press Counsel had begun negotiating a deal with SINE, the independent arm of SONY, that would see SONY sign Reuben through Xtra Mile, an imprint set up and run by Press Counsel. The arrival of the album sealed the deal, and the band signed for four albums.
'Racecar' was eventually released in July 2004, almost a year after production had started, preceded a fortnight earlier by the release of 'Freddy Kreuger', the band's most popular single yet. They had decided to include every track recorded in the session onto the album, and as a result it was massive at 16 tracks, and even came under criticism for such length. Nevertheless it was a success with the fans and the press, was made Radio One's album of the week, hit the top spot in the Chain With No Name Charts and went on to sell well over 12,000 copies in its first year.
The band spent the rest of 2004 touring headline shows and support slots with bands like The Bled, Biffy Clyro and Hundred Reasons, in support of the album and summer single 'Moving To Blackwater'. They recorded another BBC session and appeared on the MTV2's Gonzo again, and were asked to appear at the Virgin Megastore's 'Day Of Rock' in the wake of a well-deserved (but some might say slightly late) nomination for Kerrang's 'Best New British Band' award.
At the start of 2005 they went into Raezor studios in Wandsworth to record their second album with Chris Sheldon, a 'big name' producer and a favourite of the band's, who had previously worked on albums by Foo Fighters, Feeder and friends Biffy Clyro. The month-long session was a far more relaxed affair for the band, with the security of a label behind them and a growing friendship with their producer Chris. The band’s first download only single, ‘Blamethrower’, was released in April while the record was still being mixed. An aggressive, heavy track, it was made Radio One’s single of the week, and the band were once again invited to appear on MTV2’s Gonzo and record another session at Radio One. The single was followed in June by ‘A Kick In The Mouth’, followed by third single ‘Keep It To Yourself’ in September, and the album, entitled, ‘Very Fast, Very Dangerous’ followed two weeks later.
Although the paper press gave the album strong reviews, its arrival heralded the start of a backlash from the same web-based fanzines that had vehemently supported the band only a year previously, taking the simpler song structures and more ‘rock and roll’ elements of the album to be an attempt at ‘selling out’. Similarly, many fans were confused by the loss of the overtly complicated song structures and time signatures that had come to be associated with the band and many of their peers, in particular Biffy Clyro and Yourcodenameis: milo. Nevertheless, most fans of the band recognised the need to evolve and experiment and hailed the album as a triumph.
Reuben supported the album release by touring again with good friends Engerica and then later with Fighting With Wire and The Mascara Story, finally making it over to Ireland at long last.
Although the album sold well, around 10,000 units in its first year, Sony had not recouped their investment on the record (considerably more than the first album, recorded for only £6,000) and made the decision not to allocate any more money to Xtra Mile, disabling them from further promoting the second album or meeting the budgetary requirements for a third one.
As such, the band left Xtra Mile after one last single, ‘Every Time a Teenager Listens To Drum And Bass A Rock Star Dies’, which appeared only on vinyl, backed with ‘The Real Damage’ by Frank Turner, another Xtra Mile artist recently turned solo after the demise of Million Dead.
Unsigned, the band pondered their next move, with much material for a new album on the way but uncompleted. They decided to make a film about themselves, about life in an underground UK rock band, and release it on DVD through a label which they would create.
They accepted an offer to tour the UK with Fightstar and filmed the DVD on the road, at rehearsals, and at the band member’s day jobs over the first four or so months of 2006. Soon after they returned from the Fightstar tour, and with most of the footage for the film having been shot, Reuben played a short tour of the UK in support of Canadian rockers Billy Talent, an outfit already greatly admired by the band. The dates went so well and the bands liked each other so much that Reuben were asked to join Billy Talent for more UK dates and then a three-week stint in Europe in the autumn.
The tour was greatly enjoyed by all involved, and it should be noted that Billy Talent took various measures to ensure that Reuben would be able to come along, playing huge venues across Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Switzerland, whereas other wise they might not have had the opportunity.
Returning from tour in October, and aware that most of the year had been spent on the road and filming the DVD without much media presence, the band booked themselves into the studio with producer Sean Genockey for four weeks in December so as to give themselves a deadline for working out the new material. They had met Genockey through Engerica, whose b-sides had impressed the band so much that they had recorded some demos with him during the summer. The demos of two new tracks, ‘Cities On Fire’ and ‘Agony/Agatha’ were initially meant for furthering various conversations with labels but ended up being used on the third album, with some slight re-recording. This session was filmed and appears on the DVD.
As the third album session commenced, the decision was made to film the recording process, as has been discussed for both previous albums but never realised. For every day of recording, a short ‘studio diary’ film between thirty seconds and two minutes in length was posted on the band’s myspace page, keeping the fans abreast of what was going on, something which is practiced by many bands in this position. It was the first time that Reuben had done this, however, and the films also appeared on the DVD, which was still in progress at the time.
As the album entered the mixing stages at the end of 2006 and the start of 2007, the band found themselves torn between the studio and the editing suite, trying to mix the album and edit their film at the same time. Most of the editing had been performed by production company The Leftside whilst the album was being recorded, but the finishing touches to both projects were completed at roughly the end of January.
The DVD, now entitled ‘What Happens In Aldershot Stays In Aldershot’, after proposed title ‘What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas’ was judged to be too similar to various copyrighted slogans, was completed in time to be sold on the band’s February tour. It had originally been conceived as a stop-gap for fans of the band between albums, to be released long before the third record, but upon arriving home after all the tours and realising that the next few months would be spent solidly rehearsing and recording the new material, the band decided it would be best to release both these projects as soon as possible, even though the gap that the DVD was intended to fill was now not very big.
After selling the two-disc set, which featured a live show as well as the documentary film and a host of extras on the road, the band went about setting up the mooted record label, signing a distribution deal with Vital, who had distributed all of their previous releases bar those released through Badmusic.
The label, Hideous Records, run by the band, started selling the DVDs and copies of the Pilot EP by mail order via their website after the DVD’s ‘official’ release date of March 19th. Sales in shops nationwide started with the band’s own local record store ‘The Rock Box’ and was scaled up to include HMV and Virgin throughout the following months.
The DVD received much critical acclaim, mostly for its frank portrayal of the less-than-glamorous side of band life, notably the day jobs that each member of the band still keeps, but also for its professional execution, its value for money, and even its packaging.
As this is being written in June 2007, Reuben have commenced the campaign of releases and live shows in promotion of their third album, ‘In Nothing We Trust,’ paid for with their own money and released on their own label. Watch this space!
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