| Funeral For A Friend |
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For the Elton John song, see Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding . Funeral for a Friend (Commonly abbriviated to '''FFAF''') are a Welsh Post-Hardcore band, signed to Atlantic Records . Formation and EPs (2001-2003) Originally called January Thirst, however when one of the original vocalists Michael Davies (Chaos 107) quit in December 2001, Matthew Evans (vocals) and Johnny Phillips (drums) invited Matt Davies to try out for the vacant singer position. Soon after Davies joined, the band changed the name to '''Funeral for a Friend''', taken from a song by the band Planes Mistaken For Stars . During the start of the New Year they parted ways with second guitarist Kerry Roberts ( Kris Coombs-Roberts 's brother) and found a suitable replacement in Darran Smith (ex-Tripcage). The band recorded four tracks at Mighty Atom Studios for a proposed self financed EP with another Welsh band ''From This Moment On''. Upon hearing the tracks, Mighty Atom Records approached the band and offered a two album deal, resulting in their debut EP , '' Between Order & Model '' ( 2002 ). In 2003, Funeral for a Friend recorded their second EP, '' Four Ways To Scream Your Name '', which was produced and mixed by Colin Richardson . Both EPs are currently out of print and highly sought after by fans of the band. In mid-2003, the band secured their first '' Kerrang! '' award, winning the award for "Best UK Newcomer," beating The Darkness , who won in all other nominated categories. Funeral for a Friend's win was largely attributed to their fervent fan base, as the awards winner was decided by public vote online at the official ''Kerrang!'' Web site. ''Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation'' (2003-2005) On October 20 , 2003, after recording for the duration of the summer, Funeral for a Friend's full-length debut album was released. '' Casually Dressed & Deep In Conversation '', produced and mixed by Colin Richardson , was released to critical acclaim in the UK. The album did not see a concurrent release in the US (eventually released there on July 13 , 2004 ); instead, a seven-track "mini-album," entitled '' Seven Ways To Scream Your Name '', was released, and featured songs from the band's ''Between Order & Model'' and ''Four Ways to Scream Your Name'' EPs. ''Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation'' saw three Top-twenty Singles including " Juneau " (#19), "She Drove Me to Daytime Television" (#20) and "Escape Artists Never Die" (#19). Funeral for a Friend toured feverishly to promote ''Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation'', including a series of European dates in which they opened for their idols, Iron Maiden . This was met with a mixed reception, however, as their style and fan base bore little resemblance to the heavy metal background of Iron Maiden. In 2004, the band headlined the second stage of the Reading And Leeds Festivals . ''Hours'' (2005-2006) ']] On June 14 , 2005 , the band released their second album '' Hours '' through Atlantic Records . The album was produced by Terry Date and was recorded in two studios owned by the Grunge band Pearl Jam . The album featured unusual methods of recording, for example Matt Davies' vocals were recorded whilst in a moving car and on a crowded Seattle, WA street, for the song 'Drive'. In August of the same year, the band won a Kerrang! Award for "Best British Band". Funeral for a Friend performed several low-profile shows in Wales, including Bangor University and Bridgend Recreation Centre, prior to the release of ''Hours''. This contrasted against their subsequent shows, which included playing alongside bands such as Atreyu , Saosin , Hawthorne Heights and Thrice on the 2005 Vans Warped Tour . The band also performed on the main stage of the Reading and Leeds Festivals, having to leave the Warped Tour early to do so. They also headlined the UK version of the Taste Of Chaos tour with Killswitch Engage , Story Of The Year and The Used . The band also played on the main stage of the Taste of Chaos tour in the US in 2006 , alongside bands such as Story of the Year, the Deftones and Thrice. Funeral For a Friend closed the promotional jaunt for ''Hours'' in the Summer of 2006, with a series of UK shows rescheduled from February. Most of the original dates had been cancelled due to the fact that Matt Davies had suffered from a bout of laryngitis. Several other shows were scheduled in the UK to complement these rescheduled dates, and the tour culminated in a slot below headliners Guns N' Roses at the Download Festival at Donington Racetrack. The rest of 2006 was spent writing and recording the band's third album, '' Tales Don't Tell Themselves '' released in May 2007. ''Tales Don't Tell Themselves'' (2007-) ']] Funeral for a Friend mentioned the writing of this album during their UK shows in summer 2006 and they started writing and recording at the end of the tour. The album was released on 14th May 2007 in the UK, having been leaked to the internet on 10th May 2007. The band have released video diary updates of the recording on their MySpace page, of which there have been 7 to date. This album is the first on which Matt plays guitar, and he has recorded some guitar lines for around 5 songs so far. According to Ryan there will be less double bass pedal and no aggressive vocals, suggesting that the album may still be softer than Casually Dressed. Funeral for a Friend plan to do their first tour for the new album in venues similar to the ones of the last Hours tour, however they may move up to larger venues depending on the success of the album. On March 19th, " Into Oblivion (Reunion) ", the first single from the Tales Don't Tell Themselves album, was premiered on the Zane Lowe Show on Radio One. It was given a May 7th physical release, and the video can be seen and the song heard on their MySpace site . It reached number 39 in its' first week of release on downloads and reached number 16 in the Official UK chart on 13th May 2007. A selection of intimate shows to promote the album were played on 12th, 13th and 14th of April in intimate coastal venues in the south of England. Only 200 tickets were available for each show and these had to be applied for via an e-mail sent to members of the FFAF mailing list. Names were then picked out of a hat and the selected people were offered the opportunity to buy a pair of tickets to the gig, exclusive t-shirts were given to anyone paying using paypal mobile. They also toured this year at the 2007 Warped Tour in America, from June 28th until August 3rd, 2007. On May 8th, 2007 the band released Tales Don't Tell Themselves in its entirety for fans to preview via their MySpace page. On May 10th, 2007 the band played another intimate gig for Kerrang! 105.2 at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall Bar, in which they played "Walk Away" for the very first time The album was their highest charting one yet, reaching Number 3 in the UK Album Charts. Track 9, Walk Away, was released on July 16th and reach number 40 in the UK singles charts. They are touring the UK again in December 2007, and on August 16th will play a special Kerrang-sponsored show at the London Barfly. It was announced in one of their latest newsletters that The Great Wide Open would be the next single and would hit stores on October 1st 2007. MEMBERS Current members
Previous members
DISCOGRAPHY See Also: Funeral for a Friend Discography Albums/EPs VIDEOGRAPHY
TRIVIA
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