Dead Disco were an English

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

band from

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, formed in 2005. The band consisted of

Victoria Hesketh Victoria Christina Hesketh (born 4 May 1984), known professionally as Little Boots, is an English singer-songwriter and DJ. She was previously a member of the band Dead Disco. Since performing as a solo artist, she has released four albums: '' ...

(vocals, synthesizer), Lucy Catherwood (guitar) and Marie France (bass).

Career

The trio met in August 2005 at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

. Hesketh answered an online advertisement posted by Lucy Catherwood and Marie France looking for a lead singer to start a band. They were influenced by such artists as

the Bangles The Bangles are an American all-female band, all-female pop rock band formed in Los Angeles, in 1981. They are known for hit singles during the 1980s that made them one of the most successful pop rock groups of the decade. The band’s biggest ...

, Blondie,

Siouxsie and the Banshees Siouxsie and the Banshees ( ) were a British Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bass guitarist Steven Severin. Post-punk pioneers, they were widely influential, both over their contemporaries and later ...

Ladytron Ladytron are an electronic band formed in Liverpool in 1999. The group consists of Helen Marnie (lead vocals, synthesizers), Mira Aroyo (vocals, synthesizers), and Daniel Hunt (synthesizers, guitar, vocals). Reuben Wu (synthesizers) was a ...

the Killers The Killers are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2001 by Brandon Flowers (lead vocals, keyboards, bass) and Dave Keuning (lead guitar, backing vocals). After the band went through a number of short-term bas ...

Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Idol achieved fame in the 1970s on the London punk rock scene as the lead singer of Generation X ...

Gang of Four The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes due to th ...

the Slits The Slits were a punk/post-punk band based in London, formed there in 1976 by members of the groups the Flowers of Romance and the Castrators. The group's early line-up consisted of Ari Up (Ariane Forster) and Palmolive (a.k.a. Paloma Rom ...

and the Rapture. The band got their name through randomly picking words from a hat. With only a few songs written, Dead Disco began playing gigs around the north of England; their live gig in the headline slot at the "In the City" event in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

gained them enough recognition to get a recording stint with James Ford. Working with Ford in his London attic studio, the band issued a limited release of their debut single "The Treatment" in April 2006 on the record label High Voltage. Their second release "City Place" was a digital-only release through Playlouder Records. With the success of several sell out gigs and an appearance at the

Leeds Festival The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading, Berkshire, Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend ...

, the band moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

to begin recording their debut album with

Greg Kurstin Gregory Allen Kurstin (born May 14, 1969) is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter. He has won nine Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year, Non-Classical in 2017 and 2018, and contributed to five songs that pe ...

. However, it was around this time that Hesketh herself began to write songs not in keeping with the band's " indie" style. Choosing a new musical direction, Hesketh left Dead Disco; they officially revealed their disbandment on their Myspace blog in December 2008. In an interview with ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', Hesketh spoke about her gradual shift away from the band: "All the time I'd been hiding my own songs and finally I had to make the sort of music I actually wanted to listen to. ..Before I used to always think, 'What would a jazz performer do?' or 'What would the band do?'—Now it's so easy because it's 'What would I do?' It's just me." In a later interview Hesketh noted that the band's label was pressuring the group to have a certain style and that her bandmates lost confidence in her because she wanted to write "cheesy" songs.

Releases

Dead Disco released four singles: #"The Treatment" (2005, High Voltage) #"City Place" (2006, Playlouder) #"Automatic" (2006, Fierce Panda) #"You're Out" (2007, 679) For both "The Treatment" and "Automatic", Dead Disco teamed up with producer James Ford. "Automatic" was the final single to be released by label

Fierce Panda Fierce Panda Records is a London-based independent record label, with its first release in February 1994. It also produced a small number of releases that year by now famous artists such as Ash, The Bluetones, Baby Bird and Supergrass. Fie ...

. "You're Out" was produced by

the Bird and the Bee the bird and the bee is an American indie pop musical duo from Los Angeles, consisting of Inara George ("the bird") and Greg Kurstin ("the bee"). Kurstin is a nine-time Grammy Award–winning producer and multi-instrumentalist who has worked ...

. "City Place" was also included on the 2006

Dance to the Radio Dance To The Radio is a British independent record label, based in Leeds, England. History It was named after the refrain of the Joy Division song "Transmission". The label launched with the release of a compilation album 'Dance To The Radi ...

compilation ''What We All Want''.

Split

Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

post in December 2008 confirmed that the group had come to an end, and that the members were working on new projects: Hesketh as

Little Boots Victoria Christina Hesketh (born 4 May 1984), known professionally as Little Boots, is an English singer-songwriter and DJ. She was previously a member of the band Dead Disco. Since performing as a solo artist, she has released four albums: ''H ...

; and Catherwood and France as Video Villain. Catherwood and France also founded clothing brand Art Disco which started originally whilst on tour with Dead Disco due to the high demand they had for their self designed merchandise.

References

External links

* *
Archive of Dead Disco biography, news and reviews
{{Authority control 2005 establishments in England 2008 disestablishments in England 679 Artists artists All-female punk bands Electropunk musical groups English dance-punk musical groups English electronic rock musical groups Fierce Panda Records artists Musical groups disestablished in 2008 Musical groups established in 2005 Musical groups from Leeds English women in electronic music English all-female bands All-female electronic bands