User:Mixythegreat/Ely Guns

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Biography/History
(The) Ely Guns are a rock and roll / Experimental music duo consisting of 2 brothers hailing from Newcastle upon Tyne UK. They started out in 2007 when lead singer / guitarist Michael Ely was 15 and Drummer and brother Owen Ely was 13. They originally started off as a band called The Handgun Shotguns that had no confirmed line up. This was when Owen would play Bass guitar, however after a while of unsuccessful attempts at rehearsal they decided to make the band a duo effort. They went through a small choice of names but both were happy as Ely Guns.

Their first ever live gig was in North Shields at a pub called The Magnesia Bank. They were more on the rock side of music at this stage. Soon after the first gig they recorded at a studio located at the YMCA in North Shields for a local online radio station. They recorded 3 songs and 1 of their songs was their current "single" The Modern. After the recording session they soon played an outdoor festival at The Sage Gateshead in the summer, along with some more local gigs at pubs/clubs etc. With difficulty at trying to get gigs while being underage, rehearsals at their own home became fluent and new material struck after listening to Indie band I Was a Cub Scout. Michael decided he wanted bass in the band but could not find any dedicated bassists, therefore he bought a Boss RC-2 loop station and would take after I Was A Cub Scout and sequence some bass. The band were very excited to get gigging with this new material and soon booked a gig in Durham but on arrival were told they were too young to play the gig, therefore they got offered a free recording session with the promoters at the gig. After recording 2 tracks with the looped bass they got really good feedback from users on social sites such as Myspace and with positive attitude they booked a gig with a local band at The Bridge Hotel. This was the first time playing with the looped bass and all went accordingly to plan.

However it still seemed impossible to find gigs at their age, the Newcastle scene for underage gigs was not promoted and getting gigs was a failed attempt. Yet again the band went through more changes as they rehearsed, this time they decided to scrap the loop station and make it just guitar and drums yet again. Michael introduced a fuzz box into the band to give their sound an edge, after playing more Blues related tracks.

Coming up to the end of 2010 the band recorded their first 8 track album "From The Past To The Modern" at Blank Studio's. After hearing the finished product the band decided to try and gig as much as possible in early 2011 to promote the CD and with the brothers getting older it became easier.

Ely Guns are still gigging and writing new material for a possible 2nd album.