Southpaw

Biography

There are multiple artists called Southpaw. 1. a Czech band active in 1996-2011, inspired by British guitar bands and especially by the legendary The Smiths. They were a group of high school students started a band in 1996. They borrowed their name from Morrissey's famous record "Southpaw Grammar" and adopted foreign pseudonyms. And so vocalist Gregory Finn, guitarist Rodriguez Finn, bass guitarist Jacquez Tosh, drummer David Kerpow and last but not least flutist Majda appeared on the scene....

There are multiple artists called Southpaw.
1. a Czech band active in 1996-2011, inspired by British guitar bands and especially by the legendary The Smiths.
They were a group of high school students started a band in 1996. They borrowed their name from Morrissey's famous record "Southpaw Grammar" and adopted foreign pseudonyms. And so vocalist Gregory Finn, guitarist Rodriguez Finn, bass guitarist Jacquez Tosh, drummer David Kerpow and last but not least flutist Majda appeared on the scene.

The band threw their first "strictly" guitar gigs at the nowadays legendary clubs 007, Batalion and Belmondo. The mid 90's; however, marked the beginning of the end of psychedelic guitar era. Southpaw came up with destroying computer keyboards during their performances. They became one of the pioneering bands of the scene starting to implement electronic music elements into their tracks .

Tracks such as "Dustman's Dream" (1998) or "Ballet!" (1999) emerged in the previously progressive mp3 format and were released on Indies Records. The band accommodated itself on the waves of Radio 1 after launching "Goodbye Planet" and "Air Somewhere", their gigs gaining attendance of an increasing number of fans who grew up with the dance scene.

In 2001 the story continues as the keyboardist Karzi joined the band and gradually became Gregory Finn's main composing partner. Following the band's contract with EMI, their first debut album Pop Secret was released on the EMI's subsidiary Escape. Merging distinctive melodies with break beat, d'n'b and trance elements, the album was embraced by critics and brought several hits such as "Intellygent Songs" and "Healthy Drug".

Eventually, the guitarist and leading member, Rodriguez, left the band and shortly after the Southpaw's and Escape's ways parted.

Despite of the breakups Southpaw earned a reputation of one of the most promising club scene bands. Owing to the cooperation with D Smack U Promotion agency, Roxy became their resident venue.

The second album Pleasure You Can Measure didn't take long to appear. It was released on U:BAHN Records in 2003. Southpaw went through a compositional transition abandoning dance music in favour of immaculately arranged pop tracks.

Gregory and co. began to appear on club stages outside Prague and launched several shows abroad.

As their drummer David Kerpow had left, the experienced Tomáš Konůpka joined the band. Together, they plunged into preparations for their third, surprisingly straightforward, guitar record Boys Make Noise (I Am Recorded). Again, the album met highly favourable reviews and ranked among the most acknowledged projects of 2004 on the Czech scene.

The band embarked on extensive tour and played at several festivals. At the turn of 2005/2006 the Southpaw together with a new drummer Honza Janečka and under the supervision of a respected producer and sound engineer Ondřej Ježek finish a double-disk set called Heart Disk, which holds the promise of being the most musically diverse album this Prague based band has released so far.

2. A hard rock/heavy metal band from Sweden featuring Mats Leven (Krux/Yngwie Malmsteen/Therion) on vocals, Fredrik Akesson (Talisman/Opeth/Krux) on guitar, John Leven (Europe) on bass and Richard Evensand (Therion/Chimera) on drums. Released one self-titled album in 1998. Some demos are recorded for a second but remain unreleased at present.
3. One is a Danish indie rock band from Copenhagen
4. Southpaw were an alternative/punk band from Norwich, UK. They had multiple releases on Boss Tunage, BYO Records, Mother Stoat, Meantime Records and many more.
http://www.myspace.com/southpawrocks
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