Danny Connors and the Ladders

Danny Connors & The Ladders
Origin	Northampton, England
Genres	Soul Rock and Roll
Years active	2008–present
Labels	None
Website	http://www.myspace.com/dannyconnorsmusic
Members
Danny Connors Lee Canham Joe Kenny Dan Benton Greg Coulson

Danny Connors and the Ladders is a soul/rock n roll band formed in November 2008 by ex On-Offs frontman, Danny Connors. Their first gig was in November 2008 supporting Paul Weller at Cardiff International Arena. They have been described as "part Stones swagger, part James Brown showmanship, part P-Funk ,& all awesome" and are considered to be "the band to save us all" from the likes of Akon and Flo Rida by the NME magazine.^[1]

Biography

Danny Connors was born in Newport, Wales and lived there for most of his childhood. His parents moved him to Northampton, England during his teenage years and this is when he started to play guitar.

Liverpool

When Connors was 17 he moved to Liverpool to pursue a career in music. Connors wrote and recorded home demos on lo-fi equipment which resulted in him being signed to London Records by Mark Lewis (who later founded B-Unique Records). Connors brought in The La's drummer Neil Mavers, Dave MacDonal and Joel Goldberg to form his band Bullet. Connors then brought in Russell Pritchard and Sean Payne prior to the formation of The Zutons to continue with recording their album; unfortunately Mark Lewis left London Records which resulted in Connors being released from his contract.

London

Connors then moved to London with friend Dariush Ossanlow (now in The Shaiyans) and formed Danny Connors And The Butchers Gate. He released the 'Set Em' Free EP' on Alan Wills' record label Deltasonic, home to The Zutons, The Coral and The Dead 60's. The album was very influenced by Captain Beefheart and the songs were described by the Independent at the time as "quirky without ever being annoying" and "intensely exciting".

Northampton

Connors moved back to Northampton into a practice room he'd set up in Brackmills Industrial Estate to work on solo project 'The Return Of Danny Connors'. He demoed the album on a 4 track tape recorder. Deltasonic then put him into The Lodge Recording studio to re-record the album to achieve a cleaner more polished sound. Troubles between Connors and the Record label regarding sound, financing and priorities within the label meant the album was subsequently shelved.

The On Offs

Still in Northampton, Connors formed trio group The On Offs with Andy Crofts, who went on to play keyboards for Paul Weller and front his own band The Moons. They had a moderate amount of success with performances at big festivals such as Reading, Leeds and Isle of White, an interview with Zane Lowe on MTV2 as well as tours with bands such as The Rakes, The Kooks, The Dead 60s and Ordinary Boys. Their first single “This Town/Grow Your Own” was released as a limited edition of 500 7” vinyl on the impressive Label Fandango and sold out on the day of issue.

Danny Connors Phases 1, 2, 3 of the Mission

This was Danny's most controversial album and was recorded at The Lodge Studio's in Northampton between 2007 and 2008. After The On Off's Danny wanted to do something completely different and started experimenting with fast lyrics over very eclectic music. He was given a free rein in the recording studio and spent the next year writing lyrics and recording. Originally the album had a similar style throughout until pressure from managers and record labels resulted in it being split into 3 sections, a rap influenced section, the next was more melodic with acoustic guitar based songs and finally a Reggae/dub-step section. Danny was then told that this album was too diverse to release and they would not know how to market it.

Danny Connors & The Ladders

Danny's Love of Soul and Motown music inspired this latest project. Still at The lodge recording studio he demo'd a few new tracks that he had been working on, he next needed to put together a band. Lee Canham and Joe Kenny came to The Lodge during the summer of 2008 to train as Recording Engineers but instead ended up joining Danny to form The Ladders. After a couple of weeks of rehearsing and with no intention of performing live for another couple of months, Danny got a call from Ex On Offs member Andy Crofts asking if he wanted a support slot with Paul Weller at Cardiff International Arena for the following evening as The Rifles had pulled out last minute. Danny leapt on this opportunity and began his calls, everyone was up for it except the drummer at the time who was away with another band. It was 11pm and they needed a drummer who could learn all the songs in a few hours and leave for cardiff at 1pm the next day, 'Little Dave' got the call. Dave was an exceptionally talented autistic drummer who had been coming to The Lodge for work experience, we called him and he was up for it. He came over at 1am and together they rehearsed the songs until the early hours of the morning. With only a few hours sleep they set off for Cardiff, going over the set without any instruments in the back of the van. The set went well and 'Little Dave' even got a chant at the end of the set.

In March 2009 Danny Connors & The Ladders were asked back by Paul Weller to support him at 3 venues, Wolverhampton Civic Hall, Swindon Oasis and Plymouth Pavilions. The band underwent several line-up changes and at one point there was 8 members including a brass section and a percussionist/backing vocals. In a bid to have a completely solid band where everyone could make rehearsals and gigs whenever they may be Danny cut the band down to a 5 piece and arranged the songs accordingly. so far they have spent 2009 touring and rehearsing songs for an album, a 5 track EP has been released on a short run which is still available through there myspace website.

Discography

Albums

Most of these are albums that Danny has completed but are not available anymore as they were only ever made as short runs.

• Danny Connors and the Butchers Gate -Set Em' Free - (2002)
• Danny Connors - The Return Of - (2003)
• The On Offs - Self Titled - (2005)
• Danny Connors - Phase 1, 2, 3 - (2008)
• Danny Connors & The Ladders - Self Titled Ep - (2009)

1. ^ Pg. 53, NME Magazine, 29th August 2009