User:ShaneCavanaugh/My Bloody Valentine

Clockwise from bottom left: Colm O'Ciosoig, Bilinda Butcher, Kevin Shields, Debbie Googe

My Bloody Valentine were an Irish/British shoegazing rock band comprised of singer and guitarist Belinda Butcher, bassist Debbie Googe, drummer Colm O'Ciosoig, and lead songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Kevin Shields. They formed in 1984 in Dublin, Ireland, releasing Isn't Anything, numerous EPs, and, finally, their magnum opus Loveless, before the band members began going their seperate ways and ultimately stopped recording in 1997.

History[edit]

Beginnings[edit]

Kevin Shields and Colm O'Ciosoig met in 1975 when they were 12 and 15, respectively, at a karate tournament in Dublin, Ireland.^[2] When Kevin was 16, he got a guitar for Christmas^[1] and, along with Colm, answered an advertisement for The Complex, a punk band that covered songs by Sex Pistols, The Ramones, and Motörhead, among others. The Complex disbanded within a year, and Colm and Kevin formed a post-punk band, influenced by Joy Division and Siouxie and the Banshees, called A Life In The Day.^[2] That eventually disbanded and Colm and Kevin started making recordings with Dave Conway using a Tascam Portastudio home studio, and then jam over them live. Colm would drum "drone-y sounds, weird sounds" while Kevin would play guitar, and Dave would sing.^[1]

This Is Your My Bloody Valentine[edit]

Dave suggested the name My Bloody Valentine. It's unclear whether Dave knew at the time, but the rest of the band didn't find out that that it was the title of a 1984 Canadian B-grade slasher film until a few years later.^[4] It was a loose grouping, sometimes involving three people, sometimes more. When they decided to move to Europe in 1984, those who didn't want to go were out of the band. That left Dave, Colm, Kevin, and a keyboardist known simply as Tina to move to the Netherlands for a gig in Tilburg, then to Amsterdam, staying in hostels and a house for a few months that was lent to them by a Hells Angel biker and some squatters, then to Berlin where they recorded their first record, This is Your Bloody Valentine, in 1985.^[2]

The Geek, The New Record..., and Sunny Sundae Smile EPs[edit]

Four months later, the band moved back to the Netherlands for another month then went to London.^[2] Bassist Debbie Googe joined the band in 1986. She had met Colm and Kevin in April 1985 when they were living in Berlin and thinking about moving to London. Debbie was living in London, and when they were looking for a bass player, her ex-girlfriend gave them her phone number. When they moved to London, Debbie started practicing with the band, then recorded the Geek EP with them in December 1985.^[3]