Blue Syndrome
| Blue Syndrome | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Dublin, Ireland |
| Genres | Rock |
| Years active | 2005 – 2011 |
| Labels | Blast Beat Records (2008-2009) Awkward Turtle Records (2009-2011) |
| Past members | Colm O'Loughlin - Vocals/Guitar Stephen O'Loughlin - Lead Guitar/Vocals Tom Lamude - Drums Adam Kennedy - Bass Bobby O'Malley (2008) - Bass Daniel Cummins (2010)-Bass |
Blue Syndrome was a four-piece popular rock group hailing from Dublin, Ireland. The band had a wide range of influences to include but not limited to Mark Geary, The Frames, Foo Fighters and Muse.
Introduction
The band formed in 2004 after collaborating on a school transition year project. They then were known as Crimson Forge.
The band was put together by Thomas Newman and the original lineup included Tommy himself on guitar, Tom Lamude on drums, Colm O’Loughlin providing guitar and vocals and Phillip Clearly filling in on bass for the short term. The band played their first gig in the summer of 2004 at a local concert. Other bands playing on the night were The LSDs, 21 Demands and Home Star Runner.
Crimson Forge entered the school Battle of the Bands in April 2005 but could not compete against the older more experienced bands.
After this, they recruited Bobby O’Malley to substitute Phillip on bass. 2 weeks after he joined the band he played his first gig.
In the summer of 2005 Tommy left the band after learning that Colm and Tom weren’t happy with the direction in which he wanted to go. Colm’s brother, Stephen O’Loughlin replaced him on lead guitar and the band changed their name to Fallen.
The band were asked to play at their friends triple 18th in October 2005 [PEG] and from there they established a real connection and began writing more and more of their own material.[1]
Fallen
They changed their name to Fallen and recorded their first EP at home on a cheap mixing desk in December of that year. "Engineer" for the recordings was future bass player and friend Adam Kennedy. They sold copies of the EP on hand written disks at local shows for €2 to help fund more professional recordings.
In May 2006, the band won their school Battle of the Bands. The money from this allowed them to record tracks in studio for their 6th year graduation year book. These two tracks were "Good Times (The Biggest Days Have Yet to Come" and "New Chapter".
During the summer of 2006 they recorded tracks to go along with the two previous. These included : Blue Syndrome, I Try and Murphy’s Law. Shortly after this they changed their name again to Blue Syndrome. This EP was given away for free at gigs and the band returned to their old school to perform some of the songs to coincide with this.
The band also appeared briefly in the audition stages of the 'You're A Star' competition on RTE. They were advised not to go through to the competition without guitar player Stephen as he was too young for the competition.[2]
Later this year they were approached by producers and management company Sonic iMedia to record a 2 track demo for them to bring to music festival Medim in France. The band were excited about this and thought it would be silly miss an opportunity like this. They paid the company for their services but nothing every came of it. The band cut ties with this organisation and in February 2007 released their first single "Just Another Day". This made the Top 40 of the Irish Download Charts, which at the time was not counted towards the real chart.
In 2007, Blue Syndrome entered the Coca Cola Blast Beat competition and were put through to the Regional Finals as a wildcard by label boss and founder Robert Stephenson. They then went on to win the Regional Finals and came runner up in the whole competition. Although they did not win the entire competition and the record deal that came with it, they signed a four-year record deal with the indie label Blast Beat Records as a result of their success and popularity in the competition and ability to impress label boss Robert Stephenson. It took a while to sort out the ins and out of the contract, but the deal was finally sealed in May 2008, 2 days before they began recording their debut album, later entitled ‘Over and Out’.[3][4][5][6]
The recording of the album put a lot of pressure on members of the band and cracks started appearing. Blue Syndrome stuck together and realised this was all part of being in a band in the situation they were in. Working alongside producers Stuart Gray and Tonino Speciale, the band really opened their eyes to reality of the music industry and grew as songwriters and players.
During this summer, the band’s song ‘Tomorrow I’ll Be Gone’ received 40% of the downloads as part of the CocaCola iTunes promotion and received a lot of retail airplay because of this. However things were getting in the way of the bands creativity and stopping them from progressing as a unit. As a result of this, Tom, Colm and Stephen thought it would be best to part ways with bass player Bobby O’Malley in December of that year – two days before having to play support to Republic of Loose on their Eve of Christmas Eve show in The Academy, Dublin. Stuart Gray filled in on bass for this.[7][8]
Not too long after record label, Blast Beat Records went into Liquidation and the band lost their contract and in turn got left with an album of songs ready to release, they couldn’t afford to release. This didn’t stop the momentum of the band.
They took on Daniel Cummins as their new bass player and in February 2009 released second single, ‘Kiss The Girl’. A fan favorite, the track sold a lot of physical copies at gigs but this was never really mirrored on downloads and sales that counted towards the charts.
Colm and Ste started up an independent label/promotions company called "Awkward Turtle Records" to run gigs for the band and other local bands. They launched with a rather unusual show labelled "Pay What You Like" and included Blue Syndrome, Fox Avenue and Ciaran Parnell on the bill. The event was a success and was a great way to lift the spirits of the Blue Syndrome band members. As time went on, Awkward Turtle Records (ATR!) was used really just to manage Blue Syndrome, booking shows with some rather big bands, catalogue albums and contact distribution agencies.
The band toured Ireland to coincide with this and soon found themselves supporting the likes of The Coronas, Delorentos, Director, Dirty Epics, The Kinetics, Home Star Runner and more popular Irish favorites, as well as making a quick trip to London to play alongside some really good bands like Spectrum 7.
In October 2009 they released the album ‘Over and Out’ and a tour followed this. The launch took place at an almost sold out venue at The Village on Wexford St. The band opted for a guest listed approach to the night inviting industry people to the show as well as friends and family all getting in a recession fighting rates. It proved successful!
In February 2010, Daniel left the band due to college commitments and Adam Kennedy replaced him. Things started to slow down for Blue Syndrome. They recruited a manager, Mick Sheehan who was Tom’s uncle to help get them back on their feet but the direction in which they were heading was not one Stephen and Colm wanted to take. They left the band in February 2011 and the band broke up.
Colm and Stephen are back working on a new project now with Tom called We Were Giants.
Discography
Singles
| Year | Title | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "Just Another Day" | ||
| 2008 | "Tomorrow I'll Be Gone" | Over and Out | |
| 2009 | "Kiss The Girl" | Over and Out | |
| 2009 | "Over and Out" | Over and Out |
Albums
| Year | Album |
|---|---|
| 2009 | Over and Out |
References
External links
| Website Links |
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