Rock Regeneration

Next Wednesday, 24th, The Blackout are playing The Old Firestation in Bournemouth (doors at 19:00), and it is looking like a cracking evening! They are getting the party started with a pre-party tour, ahead of their new album release.

The Blackout an alternative rock band from Merthyr Tydfil (Wales) inspired by the likes of Lostprophets. The band consists of 6 members:

Sean Smith (Vocals)
Gavin Butler (Vocals)
Matthew Davies (Guitar)
James Davies (Guitar)
Rhys Lewis (Bass)
Gareth Lawrence (Drummer)

The band formed in 2006 (as we know it now) and have since released an EP (The Blackout! The Blackout! The Blackout!) 2 albums (We Are the Dynamite! and The Best In Town). The Blackout are currently in the process of recording their third album which should be released early 2011.

Why the name “The Blackout” ??? The band originally formed in 2003 and were called “Ten Minute Preview”. In 2006 James joined the band and “The Blackout” as we know it now was born.

The name was taken from a t-shirt that read “I survived the blackout” – referring to the New York City blackouts in 1977.

In the summer of 2006, The Blackout were invited to play along their nearby neighbours Lostprophets. The band played night after night to thousands of people, supporting Lostprophets.

On 23rd October 2006 their debut EP “The Blackout! The Blackout! The Blackout!” was released. They were soon nominated by Kerrang! as the Best Newcomers.

Less than 12 months later the band released their first album (We Are the Dynamite!) To coincide with the release of their first album, The Blackout announced a 14-date UK tour followed by a European tour in Novermber 2007 as part of “Taste of Chaos”.

In April 2008 The Blackout played a short tour of midwest USA ending at the Bamboozle Festival in New Jersey. A month later was the “Give it A Name” festival (for the second time) and played on the main stage with entertainment team “The Fuel Girls”.

In September 2008 the band flew to Japan and played 4 night with Alesana. On their return from Japan they played in Europe with Attack! Attack!

Did you know?

The Blackout were the third unsigned band to sell out the London Astoria (seats up to 2000 people!) – The previous bands to sell out the Astoria are The Darkness and Enter Shikari.

In February 2009 the band signed with Epitaph Records (current), the band began recording their second album and in March 2009 jetted over to LA to film the music video for “Children Of The Night” and “Saves Our Selves”.

The first single from the album (“Children Of The Night”) was released on the 18th of May 2009 followed by a tour with Hollywood Undead and Silverstein. They then went on to play at Download Festival 2009.