Githead is a musical collaboration that includes

Wire Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm A wire is a flexible strand of metal. Wire is co ...

Colin Newman Colin John Newman (born 16 September 1954) is an English musician, record producer and record label owner. He is best known as the primary vocalist and songwriter for the post-punk band Wire. Early life Newman was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire ...

as well as electronic musician

Robin Rimbaud Robin Rimbaud is an electronic musician who works under the name Scanner due to his use of cell phone and police scanners in live performance. He is also a member of the band Githead with Wire's Colin Newman and Malka Spigel and Max Franken fr ...

( Scanner) alongside

Minimal Compact Minimal Compact is an Israeli rock music, rock band associated with the post-punk and indie rock movement of the 1980s. Biography Between its foundation in 1980 and its dissolution seven years later, Minimal Compact played an important role in ...

members

Malka Spigel Malka Spigel (Hebrew: מלכה שפיגל, born 19 July 1954) is a London-based Israeli musician and artist. She was founding member of the Israeli-Belgian rock band Minimal Compact. She has also worked as a solo musician and as a visual artist, ...

and

Max Franken Max Franken is the drummer of Minimal Compact, a rock band that achieved success in Europe in the 1980s. Born in Amsterdam, he is the only non-Israeli member of the band. He is also a member of Githead along with Colin Newman, Robin Rimbaud ( ...

Biography

The appearance of Githead and the release of their debut EP Headgit in 2004 surprised many, mainly because of the unlikely 'line up' and the fact that they operate in a

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' (G ...

and

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

environment rather than a purely

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

one. The band's genesis was as a 'one-off', as part of the celebrations of the

Swim ~ Swim (styled swim~ the tilde "~" is part of the written name, but is not pronounced) is a record label founded in 1993, and jointly run, by Wire guitarist and singer Colin Newman, and Minimal Compact bass player and singer Malka Spigel. The l ...

label's 10th anniversary at the

ICA ICA or ica may refer to: Places * Ica, Peru, a city in southern Peru ** Ica Province, containing the city *** Ica Region, containing the province ** Ica River, passing through the city * Içá River, Brazil, also known as the Putumayo River, ...

, but it quickly became apparent that the band was more than a mere collection of individuals and that it was able to generate its own style. Initially without a drummer, the band wrote and rehearsed in Swim's studio from the outset. This guaranteed that all outbreaks of creativity could be instantly recorded. This meant that as well as building up a repertoire, the band was also recording towards an end of released material, and was subsequently able fairly rapidly to develop enough finished material to enable selections to be made for release. Thus the debut EP ''Headgit'' was released before the band had played its third gig, and material towards the debut album ''Profile'' was already in the works before the band had even played two gigs. The first three shows were performed without a live drummer, but it had always been the band's intention to be able play with live drums. In the end

from Malka's band

became the band's drummer. Githead made their debut as a live four-piece in Antwerp in March 2005 following on with gigs in Spring and Summer that year. These included the

Queen Elizabeth Hall The Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH) is a music venue on the South Bank in London, England, that hosts classical, jazz, and avant-garde music, talks and dance performances. It was opened in 1967, with a concert conducted by Benjamin Britten. The Q ...

in London,

Cité de la Musique The Cité de la Musique ("City of Music"), also known as Philharmonie 2, is a group of institutions dedicated to music and situated in the Parc de la Villette, 19th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was designed with the nearby Conservatoire de ...

in Paris, The

Paradiso Paradiso (Italian: ''Heaven'', literally: Paradise); may refer to: People * Paradiso (surname) Places * Gran Paradiso, a 4,000 metres mountain in Italy * Paradiso railway station (Luxembourg) * Paradiso, Switzerland, a municipality of the Ital ...

in Amsterdam, Barby in Tel Aviv, The Botanique in Brussels and The Garage in London. In autumn 2005 the band concentrated on writing and recording their 2nd album ''Art Pop''. It was released in May 2007 to general positive reviews.Incendiary review, accessed 12 September 2009
/ref> Their third album, ''Landing'', was released November 2009.

Band lineup

- bass, vocals *

- guitar *

- drums *

- vocals, guitar

Discography

* '' Headgit'' (Nov 2004) * ''

Profile Profile or profiles may refer to: Art, entertainment and media Music * ''Profile'' (Jan Akkerman album), 1973 * ''Profile'' (Githead album), 2005 * ''Profile'' (Pat Donohue album), 2005 * ''Profile'' (Duke Pearson album), 1959 * '' ''Profi ...

'' (June 2005) * ''

Art Pop Art pop (also typeset art-pop or artpop) is a loosely defined style of pop music influenced by art theories as well as ideas from other art mediums, such as fashion, fine art, cinema, and avant-garde literature. The genre draws on pop ar ...

'' (May 2007) * ''

Landing Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called "landing", "touchdown" or ...

'' (November 2009) * '' Waiting For A Sign'' (December 2014)

References

External links

Official Githead website

label website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Githead Swim ~ artists English rock music groups