Good Shoes were a four-piece English

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band, hailing from

Morden Morden is a district and town in South London, England, now within the London Borough of Merton, in the ceremonial county of Greater London. It adjoins Merton Park and Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon to the north, Mitcham to the east, Sutton, Londo ...

, London.

Biography

Good Shoes was first formed by lead singer Rhys Jones and guitarist Steve Leach who often wrote and played music together as a hobby. Rhys and Steve appeared as a two piece under the Good Shoes name for a friend's charity gig (Tom-Fest) at a venue in

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

called The Peel in early January 2004. Eventually, they decided to formalise their hobby into a fully-fledged band, bringing in Rhys's brother Tom and then later Joel Cox (who was friends with Jones and Leach from secondary school - Raynes Park High School). The band started looking for UK gigs in January 2005, their first gig was put on by a friend at Fitzwilliam College

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

on 1 February. Their second was at a secret party on Eel Pie Island with Mystery Jets and from then on they played as many gigs as possible in and around London. This led to them playing the Artrocker clubnight in August put on by Artrocker Magazine. At this gig, the band were recommended to their current

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product. Labels are most often affixed to packaging and containers using an adhesive, or sewing when affix ...

, Brille Records, by a member of the band FC Kahuna, and after playing In the City music festival 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 ...

they signed with Brille in November 2005. John Kennedy (a DJ at London-based radio station Xfm) started to give the band airtime based on a demo which was recorded in the band's shed, and a new demo, recorded at Southern Studios started to get the band recognition from stations like Radio 1, 6 Music and other mainstream radio stations, with both

Steve Lamacq Stephen Paul Lamacq (born 16 October 1964), sometimes known by his nickname Lammo (given to him by John Peel), is an English disc jockey, currently working with BBC Radio 6 Music. Lamacq was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire ( ...

and

Zane Lowe Alexander Zane Reed Lowe (born 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence through pr ...

playing the demo. The band travelled to

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

, Sweden to record their first album, called ''Think Before You Speak'', with Per Sunding at Tambourine Studios. It was released 26 March 2007. On 28 May 2007, the band performed a secret free gig at Morden Park bandstand. The bandstand and other landmarks from the local area are featured in the video for their single "Morden", which was released on 11 June 2007.On 23 October 2011 this band has performed at

BITS Pilani The Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) is a private deemed university in Pilani, Rajasthan, India. It focuses primarily on higher education and research in engineering and sciences. BITS Pilani was one of the first ...

campus. The band toured during 2007 with

Kaiser Chiefs Kaiser Chiefs are an English indie rock band from Leeds who originally formed in 1996 as Runston Parva, before reforming as Parva in 2000, and releasing one studio album, ''22'', in 2003, before renaming and establishing themselves in their cur ...

and

The Rakes The Rakes were an English post-punk musical ensemble, band formed in London in 2003. Their first album ''Capture/Release'' released in 2005, received a nine out of ten review in the ''NME'' and was rated 13th best album of the year in the same ...

(other support bands included The Pigeon Detectives, Little Ones and

We Are Scientists We Are Scientists is a New York City-based rock music, rock band that formed in Berkeley, California, in 1999. It consists primarily of guitarist and vocalist Keith Murray and bass guitarist Chris Cain, with drummer Keith Carne joining the band ...

). In November 2007, they headlined a tour with support from Lightspeed Champion, also the band supported

Maxïmo Park Maxïmo Park are an English alternative rock band formed in 2000 in Newcastle upon Tyne. The band currently consists of Paul Smith (English singer), Paul Smith (lead vocals), Duncan Lloyd (guitar, bass, keyboards, backing vocals), and Tom Engli ...

at their homecoming arena show on 15 December 2007. The band stayed relatively low during 2008. They appeared for a small number of live shows, including a secret supporting slot to friends The Maccabees. Their main debut of new material was at their only UK festival appearance, Boring by the Sea Festival, which took place in Weymouth. They ended the year with two gigs at The Watershed in Wimbledon on 13 December, followed by an appearance at New Slang in

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames, colloquially known as Kingston, is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, England. It is situated on the River Thames, south-west of Charing Cross. It is an ancient market town, notable as ...

on 18 December 2008. Cox left the band as the band started writing their second album, and formed Lime Headed Dog. For the recording of the next album their friend, Bob Matthews, recorded the bass parts. Matthews is another South West Londoner. Born in Kingston, he played in various bands (Evil Twin, Iris) in local venues including the Peel, before becoming a founder of Right Turn Left while at Exeter University. After the recording sessions finished he went back to playing for Right Turn Left. The band released a free download of "The Way My Heart Beats" on 18 August 2009, as a first taste of the second album due for release in January 2010. On the same weekend they played Dockville Festival in Germany which saw the second appearance of their new bass player Will Church. He toured with the band for the whole second album and will work on all new material from now on. Church originally played in Vincent Vincent and the Villains until they split in 2009, and has been a friend of the band for a number of years.

Discography

Studio albums

*'' Think Before You Speak'' (2007) UK No. 55 *'' No Hope, No Future'' (2010)

EPs

*'' We Are Not the Same'' (2006)

Singles

* "All in My Head" - 14 August 2006, UK No. 77 * "The Photos on My Wall" - 2 January 2007, UK No. 48, UK Indie No. 1 * "Never Meant to Hurt You" - 12 March 2007, UK No. 34, UK Indie No. 1 * "Morden" - 11 June 2007 * "Small Town Girl" - 26 November 2007 * "Under Control" - 11 January 2010 *"City By The Sea" - 2010 *"The Way My Heart Beats" - 2010

Live albums

*''Live at the Astoria'' (Limited Release of 1000, recorded at the Astoria, London 21 November 2007) *''Recorded Live At The Premises Studios''

Members

* Rhys Jones –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

* Steve Leach –

* Will Church –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

* Tom Jones –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Former members

* Joel Cox –

* Bob Matthews –

References

Good Shoes Biography - Billboard.com

''Think Before You Speak'' review at SUPERSWEET

External links

Official websiteGood Shoes biography and videosBBC Collective
Good Shoes video session and interview
Good Shoes Interview 2007 on ilikemusic.comGood Shoes Interview on Music Towers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Good Shoes Indie rock groups from London People from Morden