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Galliano (band)

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This article is about the jazz group. For other uses, see Galliano (disambiguation).

Galliano, 1991

Galliano are a London-based acid jazz group that were originally active between 1988 and 1997. Galliano was the first record on Eddie Piller and Gilles Peterson's Acid Jazz record label. Then was the first signing to Peterson's newly formed 'Talking Loud Records'. Original member Robert Gallagher (vocals – credited as Roberto Galliano),[1] was joined by Constantine Weir (vocals), and Crispin Robinson (percussion)that would perform Last Poets influenced spoken word pieces. Michael Snaith (The Vibe Controller) joined as the trio became a band in order to tour their first album on Talking Loud 'In Pursuit of the 13th note'.The Album featured Roy Ayers and was awarded an Edison Populair writing award in 1992.

After an early tour of Japan a core band emerged consisting of Valerie Etienne, who participated in the recording of all their forthcoming albums, along with Mick Talbot on keyboards, Crispin Taylor on drums, Ernie McKone on bass guitar, Mark Vandergucht guitar, and Steve Ameedee, otherwise known as Uncle Big Man (dancer).[2]

Ski Oakenfull originally of The K Creative also on Talking Loud, replaced Mick Talbot on keyboards in 1994. The band split in November 1997 after a farewell gig at Camden's Dingwalls club. The band announced a return in 2023, and have completed a uk tour culminating in a sell out show at Shepards Bush Empire in November 2024.

Career

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The group's first single, a reworking of Pucho and the Latin Soul Brothers Curtis Mayfield's Freddie's Dead called Frederick Lies Still, was released in June 1988. In the style of Jalal from 'The Last Poets' who Gallagher had met in London at Peterson's Radio London show 'Mad on jazz', subsequently taking kung Fu and poetry lessons from him.[3] It was also the first release on the Acid Jazz label.[3] Their second release was on Let the Good Times Roll by The Quiet Boys in 1989.[4] The Quiet Boys was an alias used by acid jazz pioneer Chris Bangs who then went on to produce Galliano.

Galliano's first album release was In Pursuit of the 13th Note in 1991, which was produced by Bangs.[5] Their second album A Joyful Noise Unto the Creator was released in 1992.[6]

Galliano released The Plot Thickensin 1994 which peaked at number eight in the UK Albums Chart.[2] Two UK top 40 singles were released from the album Long Time Gone (a cover of a David Crosby song from the self titled first album by Crosby, Stills & Nash) and Twyford Down. The latter was a comment on the road building protests taking place at the time. The album was well received making the NME's list of top 50 albums of the year.[7] Following its release Galliano performed on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival in 1994 and returned to play the NME Stage in 1995.[8][9]

Galliano's fourth and final studio album :4 was released in 1996.[10] This included the track "Slack Hands", which was used in the title sequence of Kevin Reynolds' 1997 film, One Eight Seven, starring Samuel L. Jackson.[11]

Galliano broke up in 1997. Gallagher and Dillip Harris together with Etienne formed Two Banks of Four; 2bo4 produced three albums, and toured in the UK and internationally. Gallagher also performed and produced two albums using the name Earl Zinger.Originally a mix tape of Zinger demo's , requested by Annie Nightingale for her Radio one show , the mix became 'Put your phasers on stun, throw your health food skywards' the first Zinger album. Followed by 'Speaker Stack commandments' both on K7.The band was made up of Ski Oakenfull Shawn Lee and Simon Palmskin.

William Adamson was another project for Arts Council UK formed by Gallagher and Harris. The project took the topography of an area of Suffolk in the eastern UK as it's muse. This resulted in the album 'East Coast Moon' and was performed live either by Gallagher solo on 4 string bottle top guitar, or with Hugh Jones from Crewdson/Fieldtone Instruments on his bespoke made instruments.

In the early 2014 Gallagher and Alex Patchwork formed The Diabolical Liberties and started a regular delivery of music until now. 2015 saw the release of 'The Dancefloors of England' with a poetry book of the same name printed in Berlin with BookBookStudio.In 2020 the band put out 'High Protection and the Sportswear Mystics' with 'On The Corner records'. At the time of writing a Diabolical Liberties produced spin off project 'The Hornsey Space Facility' is about to be released.

In early 2023, Galliano signed to Brownswood recordings and announced a return, including a new album and a few live gigs that year.[12] The band played twice at Gilles Peterson's We Out Here Festival in August 2023, playing covers of "Harvest for the World"[clarification needed] and "Uptown Top Ranking" alongside their original material.[13]

In May 2024, they released their first single in 28 years, "Circles Going Round The Sun"; in June 2024, they released "Pleasure, Joy & Happiness", a cover of a song by Eddie Chacon.[14] Their fifth album, Halfway Somewhere, their first in 28 years, was released on 30 August 2024.[15] The album was co-produced by Rob Gallagher (lead vocals) and Ski Oakenfull (keyboards), and featured many of the original musicians incuding Valerie Etienne (lead vocals), Ernie McKone (bass guitar), Crispin Taylor (drums), Crispin Robinson (percussion), and Booie Gallagher (percussion).Galliano are currently writing a new album and releasing music and assorted projects at gallianoband.com.

Discography

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Studio albums

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List of albums, with selected chart positions
Title Album details Peak chart
positions
UK
[16][17] 		AUS
[18]
In Pursuit of the 13th Note – 177
A Joyful Noise Unto The Creator
  • Released: 1992
  • Label: Talkin' Loud
 28 152
The Plot Thickens
  • Released: 1994
  • Label: Talkin' Loud
 8 103
:4
  • Released: 1996
  • Label: Talkin' Loud
 – –
Halfway Somewhere – –

Live albums

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  • Until Such Time (Recorded Live In Europe '92) – 1993 – Talkin' Loud
  • Live at Liquid Room (Tokyo) – 1997 – Talkin' Loud

Compilation albums

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  • What Colour Our Flag – 1994 – Talkin' Loud
  • Thicker Plot (Remixes 93–94) – 1994 – Talkin' Loud

Singles

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Year Single Peak positions Album
UK
[19] 		AUS
[18] 		NED
[20]
1988 "Frederic Lies Still" — — — Singles only
1989 "Let the Good Times Roll" (The Quiet Boys feat. Galliano) — — —
1990 "Welcome to the Story" — — — In Pursuit of the 13th Note
1991 "Nothing Has Changed" 88 — 78
"Power and Glory" — — —
"Jus' Reach" — — — A Joyful Noise Unto the Creator
1992 "Skunk Funk" 41 — —
"Prince of Peace" 47 — 74
"Jus' Reach Recycled" 66 — —
1994 "Long Time Gone" 15 126 — The Plot Thickens
"Twyford Down" 37 — —
1996 "Ease Your Mind" 45 — — :4
"Roofing Tiles" 81 — —
2024 "Circles Going Round The Sun" — — — Halfway Somewhere
"Pleasure, Joy & Happiness" — — —
"—" denotes "did not chart or was not released".

References

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  1. ^ "Rob Gallagher Discography at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
  2. ^ a b Colin Larkin, ed. (2000). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Nineties Music (First ed.). Virgin Books. p. 168. ISBN 0-7535-0427-8.
  3. ^ a b Rudland, Dean (2001). The Best of Acid Jazz (booklet). Various artists. London: Metro. METRCD050.
  4. ^ "The Quiet Boys - Let The Good Times Roll". Discogs. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  5. ^ "Galliano - In Pursuit Of The 13th Note". Discogs. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  6. ^ "Galliano - A Joyful Noise Unto The Creator". Discogs. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  7. ^ "NME's best albums and tracks of 1994". NME. 10 October 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  8. ^ Digital, Pretty Good. "Glastonbury Festival - 1994". Glastonbury Festival - 21st-25th June, 2017. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  9. ^ Digital, Pretty Good. "Glastonbury Festival - 1995". Glastonbury Festival - 21st-25th June, 2017. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  10. ^ "Galliano - :4". Discogs. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  11. ^ One Eight Seven (1997) - IMDb, retrieved 20 January 2022
  12. ^ "Galliano (Band)". memim.com. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  13. ^ pedro montenegro (16 August 2023). Galliano: Galliano Unhinged [@ Brawnswood (We Out Here Festival); 11/08/2023]. Retrieved 25 June 2024 – via YouTube.
  14. ^ Galliano (19 June 2024). Galliano - Pleasure, Joy & Happiness (Visualiser). Retrieved 23 June 2024 – via YouTube.
  15. ^ Halfway Somewhere by Galliano on Apple Music, 30 August 2024, retrieved 23 June 2024
  16. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 221. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  17. ^ "Galliano". Discogs. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  18. ^ a b "Galliano (British band) ARIA chart history complete". ARIA. Retrieved 20 July 2024 – via Imgur.com. N.B. The High Point number in the NAT column represents the release's peak on the national chart.
  19. ^ "Official Charts Company: Galliano". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  20. ^ "Galliano - Dutch Chart". dutchcharts.nl. Archived from the original on 12 May 2014. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
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