Last Rough Cause 1984 - 2010

Biography

Last Rough Cause originally formed in the summer of 1983 with Andy Wears on vocals and bass, Max Turnbull on drums and Ste Smith on guitar. After a couple of shows and many months of practice it was decided to add a singer to the band so the band recruited Des Robson. His appointment was short lived but he did record 2 songs with the band "get them back and some mate" which both feature on the album skins and punks volume 1. The band then continued with Andy resuming his original role on vocal...

Last Rough Cause originally formed in the summer of 1983 with Andy Wears on vocals and bass, Max Turnbull on drums and Ste Smith on guitar. After a couple of shows and many months of practice it was decided to add a singer to the band so the band recruited Des Robson. His appointment was short lived but he did record 2 songs with the band "get them back and some mate" which both feature on the album skins and punks volume 1. The band then continued with Andy resuming his original role on vocals due to gig commitments and he continued to front the band in its many guises over the years that followed.
The band went into the studio during October and November 84 to record 4 new songs which would eventually make up the violent few ep. The band were scheduled to release a mini album which would feature the songs recorded with Des and the violent few recordings but the deal fell through due to a fall out with the people involved. This prompted the band to release the single on the bands own LRC label which was released in March 85 .
The band promoted the release of the single by securing support slots with Major Accident and Red London, both bands of which they are still in contact with. They also played with Broken Bones which was their first show in London at the 100 club and their final show with the original line was with 999 in Leeds.
The band did 2 more recording sessions following the violent few release recording 4 more songs in total, 2 of the songs went onto appear on skins and punks whilst the other 2 were scrapped.
During 1986 the band folded due to personal reasons and all remaining recordings were grouped together to form the album skins and punks volume 1 which was released on Roddy “the oppressed” Moreno’s Oi records label.
There was a brief reunion in 1988 with a new line up with only Andy Wears remaining who was joined by Andy Lazenby who is now with Major Accident on Drums and Dave Moore on guitar who has now left this mortal world. This version of the band recorded the album soft lights and loud guitars part 2 after only 5 rehearsals for released emotions records that got released in 1989. Dave was replaced on completion of the album by Richie Smith who took over for the next year for live shows with Red London and their last appearance in London with the UK Subs at the LMS in Hendon. The band officially split up after their final show in their hometown of Darlington.
There was another brief reunion with the original trio in 2003 but nothing happened beyond the recording session that produced 4 new tracks that were never released.
In December 2007 Andy mentioned to Max that it might be fun to do something for what have been the bands 25th anniversary had they still been together and basically one thing led to another with a new line up been created in January 2008.
This line up was Andy Wears vocals and bass, Max Turnbull drums and Vocals, Phil Coates guitar and vocals and Phil Heathwaite guitar and vocals.
In summer 2008 the band went into the Forum recording studio to record some new songs that they had been working on. This session produced 6 songs that would go toward a new album release by the band.
The album was finally complete by November 2009 after recording 4 more songs and It was decided by the band that they would release the album on their own label.
In February 2010 the band’s new album aggrophobia was officially released on CD..
In 2011 the band played their first ever show outside the UK in Stockholm, Sweden with Sweden's Antipati. This association led to a split single release with Antipati that was released in November 2011 on German label Randale records.
In early 2012 work began on a proposed release with fellow North East band Gimp fist. The initial idea was to release a 7" split single but the idea grew from a few songs to a full album which would be released by Sunny Bastards records which were the label gimp fist were signed to. It was decided that each band would cover a song by the other band so Gimp fist chose to record "The violent few" and Last Rough Cause chose to record "common ground"
The finished result was released in August 2012 under the name "Last Orders" with 5 songs by each band and was made available for the first time at Rebellion festival in Blackpool which is a world renowned festival in the UK for skins and punks everywhere.
Following the success of this album Last Rough Cause began the writing and recording of their next album which at this point remained untitled. All of 2013 was set aside to record the album with shows planned around the recording to help fund the recording costs and the writing of songs which continued right up until the albums completion. Highlights of the year was sharing the stage with the boys in Hamburg and the bands first visit to Oberhausen at the Sunny bastards record festival.
On completion of the album the band had recorded 14 songs and with a running time of 59 minutes there was more than enough songs to fill the running time restrictions for a cd but too much running time for a vinyl version. Both the band and Sunny bastards did not want to cut any of the songs from the album as it was proving too difficult to choose exactly what tracks to leave off so it was decided to make the album a double album release.
The album was released in September 2014 with the band playing gigs from Durham to Cumbria and Lancashire to Tyneside finally finishing the year at the 3 Tuns in Gateshead where they shared a stage with gimp fist and In evil hour.
2015 saw the band kick off the year with a show at Hunwick in the UK which was a warm up for their return to Germany with shows in Hamburg and Oberhausen in February.
Since then the band have remained quiet and tight lipped about what the next step is for them.......... Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.