Fightstar

Origin	London, UK
Genre(s)	Progressive metal Alternative metal[1][2]
Years active	2003 - present
Label(s)	Institute Records (UK) Trustkill Records (USA)
Website	Official website
Members
Charlie Simpson (Vocals, Guitar) Alex Westaway (Vocals, Guitar) Dan Haigh (Bass) Omar Abidi (Drums)

Fightstar are a four-piece alternative metal band from London, England. Formed in late 2003, Fightstar have since recorded and released two full length LP's Grand Unification and One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours and also an EP called They Liked You Better When You Were Dead. The band are currently signed to Institute records, a division of Gut Records.

Origins (2003 - 2004)

Fightstar formed in late 2003 after an impromptu jam session at a party in Charlie's London home. Impressed by their ability, Simpson asked the members to join a band. After a few songs had been written, the band recruited bassist Dan Haigh, a school friend of guitarist Alex Westaway. Fightstar's first EP was heavily influenced by the author Chuck Palahniuk, with the band naming a song after him (Palahniuk's Laughter) and including a drawing of Edward Norton's character in the film adaptation of the Palahniuk book Fight Club. Rehearsing and playing as often as Simpson's schedule would allow, things soon became more serious and it became apparent that a decision regarding the band's future had to be made. Simpson ultimately made the decision to leave the British pop trio Busted, the band he was previously with, in order to pursue Fightstar full time. The band began recording their debut EP, They Liked You Better When You Were Dead in late 2004. Alex has confirmed the very first song the band wrote was called "Too Close To The Sun", although the song was scrapped as the band did not like it. Other songs from earlier days include "Make Me" and "Too Much Punch", which were also scrapped. Omar has however stated the band may record rewritten or remastered versions of the songs.

They Liked You Better When You Were Dead (2004 - 2005)

Negative press began to change upon release of the debut EP

Fightstar's debut EP, They Liked You Better When You Were Dead, was released on February 28 2005, following a rapid promotional tour of the UK. The release was deliberately constructed to be made ineligible for the British music charts. The release proved popular enough to warrant a reprinting on March 23 2005. The first track, Palahniuk's Laughter, enjoyed heavy rotation on music video channels and spent many weeks in charts based on video and radio requests. The track was originally entitled "Out Swimming in the Flood", but was renamed after the 2004 tsunami. Initially, the band faced criticism from much of the British music press, because of Simpson's past career. Most vocal in the early days was Kerrang! magazine; however, the magazine quickly became one of the band's biggest supporters in the media, giving strongly positive reviews to early gigs and to the EP. The band's first single, "Paint Your Target" was released on June 13, 2005 in the UK, peaking at #9 in the singles chart. Their second single, "Grand Unification Part 1" was released on October 31, 2005, and peaked at #20 in the UK singles chart. A new version of the They Liked You Better When You Were Dead EP was released in early 2006 through Deep Elm Records in America. In March 2006, they were listed by the US rock magazine Alternative Press as one of the 100 bands to watch for.

Grand Unification (2005 - 2006)

The Neon Genesis Evangelion series is very influential on the bands full lengh debut, as displayed on the stunning artwork

A week before the release of their debut album, Fightstar released their third single, "Waste A Moment" which peaked at number 29 on the UK singles chart. It was only in the UK Top 40 for one week. The video for the single was filmed in an abandoned London Underground tunnel, the same one used by The Prodigy for their video for "Firestarter". A week later, Fightstar released their debut full-length album on 13 March 2006 through Island Records, entitled Grand Unification. Produced and mixed by Colin Richardson (Bullet for My Valentine, Machine Head, Funeral for a Friend), the album entered the midweeks at #11 and ended up debuting at #28 in the UK charts. Grand Unification was released in America in March 2007, along with a full US tour. Fourth single "Hazy Eyes", backed by a cover of Funeral for a Friend's "She Drove Me to Daytime TV" was released in the UK on June 5, 2006. The single got to number 47 in the UK singles chart. The band also played a slot at the Download Festival at Donington Park Race Track and also headlined the Sunday of Welsh rock music festival The Full Ponty under Biffy Clyro and Funeral for a Friend. Fightstar toured with Funeral for a Friend for three months in 2006 covering such places as Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Fightstar have also recently covered Metallica's "Leper Messiah" and Deftones' "My Own Summer" for Kerrang! magazine free CD giveaways during 2006. They have covered Deftones' "Minerva" acoustically, which is available on the 7" vinyl version of the Waste A Moment single. The band released their debut album, Grand Unification, in the US and Canada on April 17 2007. The release differs from the British and Japanese versions by including the "Hazy Eyes" B-Side, "Fight For Us" as a 14th track.

One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours (2007 - Present)

Kerrang! magazine reported that Fightstar have set up camp on a farm in Northamptonshire (Al's Barn) to begin work on the follow up to their 2006 debut album Grand Unification. According to Charlie, Fightstar have already written four songs for the next album. He has also said that the band is a fan of Muse and Deftones in the way they push boundaries and aim to do the same.

The band hit the road for an extensive tour beginning at Glasgow Barrowlands on October 8 2006 with a supporting cast that they personally hand picked, including Mancunian prog-rockers Oceansize, rising US post-hardcore stars The Receiving End Of Sirens and Arizona rockers Scary Kids Scaring Kids. On 8 September 2006 it was reported that Charlie Simpson had "torn up his contract" with his label Island Records, after the music bosses tried to force him into returning to a pop sound for his next Fightstar album. The former Busted star has struggled to be taken seriously as a rocker and he has no intention of turning back now; Simpson is even considering a complete new start in America with the band, where he hopes he can tap into the ever-growing alt. rock market. He says, "Earlier this week we decided to tear up the contract. "They wanted a pop album and we didn't. I've put so much into this band I don't want to start compromising now. "We're thinking about going to America. The market for our stuff is much bigger over there."^[3] On 19 September 2006, Charlie confirmed on Fightstar's official forum that they had left Island Records. Apparently seven songs have been demoed and he expects Fightstar's second album to be released late in 2007 after finding a new label. As of 2007, the official website and forum is currently down. Island Records are currently re-doing many of their artist's websites and considering Fightstar have left Island Records, it is unlikely they will continue to keep the site up for the band. The band are now signed to Institute Records, a brand new imprint of Gut Records. They will be recording the next album in LA with producer Matt Wallace who has also produced the likes of Faith No More, Satchel, Deftones and Sugarcult. The album is set to be released around July/August 2007. On 4 April 2007, Kerrang! Radio debuted a new Fightstar song called "99", which is scheduled to be released as a free download-only single on the 23 April 2007. The music video for "99" can currently be seen on Scuzz TV. After circling Kerrang and Scuzz TV for 2 weeks, the video for "99" was finally playlisted on Kerrang TV on 4th May 2007. Fightstar have also launched a microsite for the download-only single, "99", on which you can download the single and the video for free, on 11th May 2007. [1] In the 23 May 2007 release of Kerrang! Magazine, the band confirmed the title of their second record to be "One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours". The release date for the album is set for the 24 September and will include a bonus dvd with a documentry on the making of the album and also the making of the video for "99". The first single to be taken from the album is "We Apologise for Nothing".' The video for this song was shot on location in London's West End Apollo Theatre.

"Deathcar" was the first ever commercial release in the UK on the new VinylDisc format

"We Apologise for Nothing" was received well enough for it to reach number 1 in the UK independent chart.[2]

The music video for the second single, "Deathcar" was made available on the bands myspace on the 22nd November 2007. Although appearing to be a low budget video, it is important to note that the version on myspace is an edited, "clean" version. After the release of the "uncut" version of the video on 28th November 2007, Charlie Simpson confirmed via a live forum chat on the band's official website that due to the last minute planning to release Deathcar a budget of only £500 was available. The band however confirmed they are "100% happy" with the shoot and enjoyed the change of making a lo-fi video. Al also confirmed on the live forum chat, that the band will be performing at Download 2008. "Deathcar" went on to debut at #2 on both the UK Indie and Rock Charts.

Kerrang! Tour 2008

Fightstar have been chosen to take part in Kerrang!'s 2008 tour, along with bands such as; Coheed and Cambria, Madina Lake and Circa Survive. Charlie said in Kerrang! Magazine (Issue 1182); "It's awesome. I think it's going to be really good fun. I am a big fan of Coheed, Madina Lake are awesome and I bought Circa Survive's record - I am really pleased with the line-up! Hopefully these shows will open us up to an audience too - and we get to play Brixton - that's a massive thing for me because I have always wanted to play there! I'm so excited about it!"

Members

• Charlie Simpson - Lead Vocals / Guitar
• Alex Westaway - Vocals / Lead Guitar
• Dan Haigh - Bass
• Omar Abidi - Drums and Percussion

Record labels

UK

• Island Records|Sandwich/Butty Leg: 2003 - September 2006
• Institute Records via Gut Records: February 2007 - present

US

• Deep Elm Records: January 2006 - March 2007
• Trustkill Records: March 2007 - present

Discography

Albums

Cover	Date of Release	Title	Label	UK Album Chart Position	UK Indie Album Chart Position	UK sales
	13 March 2006	Grand Unification	Island Records	28	n/a	45,000
	24 September 2007	One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours	Institute Records	27	3	-

EPs

Cover	Date Of Release	Title	Label	UK Album Chart Position	UK sales
	28 February 2005	They Liked You Better When You Were Dead	Sandwich Leg Records	CD - Not Chart Eligible Vinyl - #12 In Indie Charts	7500 CD Limited Release 1000 Vinyl Limited Release

Singles

Cover	Date	Song	UK Singles Chart	UK Independent Chart	Album/EP
	2005	"Paint Your Target"	9	N/A	Grand Unification
	2005	"Grand Unification Part 1"	20	N/A	Grand Unification
	2006	"Waste A Moment"	29	N/A	Grand Unification
	2006	"Hazy Eyes"	47	N/A	Grand Unification
	2007	"99"	N/A	N/A	One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours
	2007	"We Apologise for Nothing"	63	1	One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours
	2007	"Deathcar"	92	2	One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours

Videography

• Palahniuk's Laughter - They Liked You Better When You Were Dead
• Paint Your Target - Grand Unification
• Grand Unification Pt. I - Grand Unification
• Waste A Moment - Grand Unification
• Hazy Eyes - Grand Unification
• 99 - One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours
• We Apologise For Nothing - One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours
• Deathcar - One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours

References

• Fightstar to tour with You Me at Six September 07 at musicscoop.net

External links

• Official Website
• Official MySpace
• French Fansite
• Portugese Fansite
• English Fansite
• One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours album review on Rocklouder Music Website