The Duke Spirit

The Duke Spirit
Origin	London, England
Genres	Alternative rock
Years active	2003–present
Labels	You Are Here[1]
Website	Official site
Members
Liela Moss Luke Ford Toby Butler Oliver Betts Marc Sallis
Past members
Dan Higgins

The Duke Spirit are an English rock band based in London. Their sound has been seen as a melding of many influences ranging from the alternative noise of 1980s/90s guitar bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth and Spacemen 3, the tremulous rock n roll of bands such as The Gun Club and The Cramps, early R&B, garage and psychedelia, through to a distinctive rhythmic 'Atlantic soul' and Motown influence.

Line-up

• Liela Moss - vocals, harmonica, piano, auxiliary percussion
• Luke Ford - guitar, backing vocals, Farfisa, piano, Autoharp
• Toby Butler - guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals, organs, piano
• Olly 'The Kid' Betts - drums, glockenspiel, percussion, piano, backing vocals
• Marc Sallis - bass guitar

History

The band was formed in London in 2003 by Luke Ford (guitar), Liela Moss (vocals) and Toby Butler (bass). Ford and Moss met at art college in Cheltenham where he was studying Photography and Moss was studying a Fine Art Foundation Course. Butler and Ford also met at the same college at around the same time and briefly played in a band together. Creating The Duke Spirit they set about writing, recording and self-producing a bunch of songs that formed the basis of their first single and EP.

The band released their first single "Darling You're Mean/Bottom of the Sea" in May on the City Rockers label, without having performed live. The line-up was completed by guitarist Dan Higgins (who also created the woodcuts that served as the band's early artwork) and drummer Olly "The Kid" Betts, and the band played their first show at the Brixton Windmill later that year. They released the "Roll, Spirit, Roll" EP toward the end of 2003, which won the band critical acclaim from publications such as NME.^[2]

The band's debut album was due to be released in September 2004 until their record label, City Rockers, ran out of financial steam.^[2] They moved over to Loog Records/Polydor and released the album in the UK on 16 May 2005. The album's producers were Simon Raymonde (formerly the bass player in Cocteau Twins, and now Bella Union Label boss) and Flood, best known for his work with Nick Cave, NIN and U2.^[2] After headlining tours of the UK, the album was released in the U.S. and the band found themselves travelling through America for much of 2006, including a highly praised^{[citation needed]} performance at the Coachella 2006 festival, California.

The only release of 2006 was a downloadable EP and limited 7" single entitled, "Covered In Love", (released through Velo Recordings). This was a collection of songs, recorded to 8-track by the band, written by the recently deceased (Arthur Lee, Desmond Dekker and Jessie Mae Hemphill).^[2] In early 2007 the band signed to You Are Here a new independent Anglo-Canadian label. The track "Mayday", a collaboration between UNKLE and The Duke Spirit was released on the latest UNKLE album, War Stories, in the UK on 9 July 2007.^[2] The track was recorded with Chris Goss at the Rancho De La Luna studio in Joshua Tree, California ^[2] where they returned in April 2007 to record their own second album,also with Goss. Neptune was released in February 2008.^[2] Shortly afterward, Higgins left the band to concentrate on his family, which prompted a personnel shuffle: Toby Butler switched to guitar, with longtime friend Marc Sallis replacing him on bass.

In February 2009, the band released a 10-track compilation CD featuring three songs never released in the US ("Masca", "Souvenir", "Do What You Love") as well as a cover of Alex Chilton's "Baby Doll". The CD was sold alongside a McQ Alexander McQueen collection, one of the shirts of which featured the face of singer Liela Moss.

The band's 3rd album, "Bruiser" (produced by Andrew Scheps and Rich File) was released in September 2011.

Success

The Duke Spirit have received acclaim and increasing success despite relatively little advertising based promotion on television and radio.^{[citation needed]} Initially a 'word of mouth' band, their touring schedules have helped them to spread their music across the country and eventually into America and the rest of Europe.^{[citation needed]} They have played a number of high-profile support slots for Queens of the Stone Age, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, R.E.M., BRMC, Supergrass, and Eagles Of Death Metal. Since 2008 the band have performed on American TV more than six times - appearing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Last Call with Carson Daly, It's On with Alexa Chung, The Henry Rollins Show, and the Late Show with David Letterman. Their song "Send a Little Love Token" was also included in the fifth title in the Guitar Hero video game series. Released in September 2009, it had sold nearly 1 million copies worldwide by the end of the year.^[3]

Discography

Main article: The Duke Spirit discography

Albums

• Cuts Across the Land (May 2005) UK #40
• Neptune (February 2008) UK #63^[4]
• Bruiser (September 2011) UK #80

References

1. ^ Shangri La Music
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} "Biography by Heather Phares". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p701285. Retrieved 9 January 2009. 
3. ^ Itzkoff, Dave (2010-01-16). "Beatles Video Game: Sales Not So Fab". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/arts/television/16arts-SALESNOTSOFA_BRF.html. Retrieved 2010-01-16. 
4. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. pp. 172. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 

External links

• Official website
• BBC Collective, editor's review
• Interview with Toby Butler & Liela Moss October 2007 The Line Of Best Fit
• 'Neptune' album review The Line Of Best Fit
• The Step and The Walk Review
• Live In-Studio Performance on WOXY.com
• Live in-studio performance on KCRW
• Review of Duke Spirit - Live At The Manchester Academy 3. March 2008.
• Session tracks and interview on Rare FM
• Interview with Liela Moss PlugInMusic.com
• Interview with SomaFM
• Interview with Liela, Toby and Luke, January 2008
• Cuts Across The Land and Neptune Acoustic Session, 2008