Swindon's own virtuosos Charred Hearts, have dedicated their debut album to the memory of their friend Mick Love, who was murdered last year.

Music lover Mick was stabbed to death in Swindon's Cannon Street on September 27th 2004.

The opening track Always Beside Me  was written by Dermot Fuller, Past Luszcz and David Marx.

''A couple of songs such as that one are personal, those who know about me know it's about Mick but most of the songs are open ended so people can find their own hope or inspiration from them,'' said Dermot, the lead singer.  ''We have all lost people who have been close to us.  This is a testament to all their memories.''

Charred Hearts are having a change of heart with their CD The Triumph And The Tragedy.  The 11-track CD is on release this week.  It moves away from the purist, in-your-face, hardcore punk to a more melodic and softer rock style.

''The track Changing Into Something is about change in direction musically and showing progress,'' said Dermot.  It is an eclectic mix of an album with 11 songs that have never been played live, mixed with some old favourites:  Everybody was written 24 years ago but still sounds fresh and the lead singer's favourite track You're Bringing Me Down has a more rocky, Stooges style.

Other members of Charred Hearts are Dave Simpson on drums and Eamonn Treannor on bass.  ''The rhythm section is back-up for all,'' said Dermot.  The guys met at St. Joseph's School in Swindon and have remained pals ever since.  The first incarnation was called The Corpses and set up in 1981 when the musicians were 14 or 15 years old.  In 1983 they became Charred Hearts and split up in 1986.

''We felt the band had run its course,''said Dermot, who works for the Post Office as a lorry driver and full-time Union representative.  ''We were all getting on with life, getting married and having babies.''  Fifteen years later the guys were fed up with the 'nice' sounds of Coldplay and Travis ruling the roost, so they got back together to bring a bit of attitude to the music scene.

''We felt we had something to offer,'' said Dermot.  

The musicians have always been huge punk fans: ''We were at the tail end of punk with The Clash and The Pistols, but I was always into the more rockier Stooges and The Who.''

David Marx produced the album and also jumped in at the last minute to play guitar.  He contributed a couple of his own catchy songs, Beggar On The Underground and Louisiana Calling, which were given the Charred Hearts treatment.  ''We've laughed, we've cried, we've fought together - these experiences have helped us achieve this production and I am very proud of it,'' said the singer.

Dermot doesn't come from an artistic family, but he has a 15-year old son called Sam who plays the drums.  ''Sadly he is not a guitarist, which is what we want now to notch up some gigs and promotoe the album.  We want someone flamboyand and dynamic,'' he said.

Flicky Harrison
The Evening Advertiser
(December 8th 2005)

Just read Adver - wot a fitting tribute 2 a friend who loved music! I miss him a lot and can’t get ‘Always Beside Me’ out of my head....... I love it!

Just Played it. Well impressed. Nice change in direction on some tracks.

Good CD mate. Played at 9:00am today, made me late for work. Who gives a fuck?

Fucking Outstanding!

Great production work on all your stuff by the way. The Charred hearts sound really fucking kicking. A great cross between Grohl and Slaughter and the Dogs.

Al Gregg

Revolver

The road taken by Charred Hearts to get to the point where an album saw the light of day is a meandering one, as is often the way. A bunch of young punks in the early eighties called The Corpses had evolved into Charred Hearts and just as things were on the up for them for whatever reasons took, in their own words “ a prolonged tea break of about 15 years.”

Returning to the scene older and hopefully wiser just as the time came to enter the studio to capture their music on record for the first time, guitarist Pat Luszcz decided to quit the band. Most bands would have been devastated by this event, but it is a testament to their professionalism that they just rang up an old friend to step into his shoes and allow the studio sessions to go ahead. The result is The Triumph and The Tragedy.

Before punk music evolved into a style over substance, identikit, uniformed fashion cult, it was a brash yet melodic soundtrack to the trials and tribulations of peoples lives. Before it became about vague statements of saving the planet and smashing the system, it had something to say that most people could relate to and take solace in, and there is a lot in singer Dermot’s lyrical statements that seems personal to the listener. This is the era of punk that Charred Hearts alludes to and connects with. More about melodic aggression than the wall of noise that the genre seemed to evolve into in its later years.

What I like about this album is that, although there are some straight down the line punk songs to be found here, openers Always Beside Me and Amnesia are classic examples of this, the band are clever enough not to restrict themselves by the format. Changing Into Something, for example, shows that they are not afraid to move into more groove laden territory and You’re Bringing Me Down is happy to sit in more straight rock territory, but not in some sort of unfocused or compromising sort of way, these are still great songs. The influence of David Marx, the man roped in at the eleventh hour to complete the line up and oversee production, is clearly seen on the two songs he brought to the album. That said, whilst Beggar On The Underground does sound like Charred Hearts playing someone else’s song, and lets face it, they are, Louisiana Calling is a song that they make totally their own. The album bows out with Crash, a song that I loved immediately not least because it sounded as if it had just fallen off of an Iggy and the Stooges album and you can’t get better than that really.

It’s an album that steers away from some of the clichéd pitfalls that younger bands fall into, oozes melody, yet makes no compromise with its boisterousness and drive. In fact, it ticks all the boxes, punk and otherwise and makes you wonder, if they hadn’t of taken that decade and a half hiatus, where they would be now in terms of a musical career path. Either way, you have an album of classy, punchy songs that are the combination of youthful exuberance and more experienced delivery, possibly an album all the better for its long time coming.

Album released through Revolver catalogue number is RR3303CD,

By Dave Franklin