Recent History
Core to the bands output is the Bond/Rooney partnership which has been together since The Bombshell days and they are now augmented with a solid and formidable rhythm section in Kev Taylor and a soon tbc bassist.
1998 The new revamped Vice Squad release album Get A Life.
1999 Vice Squad undertook a hugely successful European tour visiting 8 countries along the way. The band also agreed to play the UK's largest punk festival,Holidays In The Sun and were well received. Late 1999 saw the band travel to the USA to play on the now legendary Social Chaos tour along with 14 other bands. Also released this year was the Resurrection album.
2000 - This year saw the release of Lo Fi Life for the Canadian and Usa markets. Also released was the Lavender Hill Mob EP. The band was asked to contribute tracks for tribute albums to both Nirvana and Metallica on Cleopatra Records.
The band returned to play both the USA and Canada following the success of the Social Chaos tour, this time round the band covered over 11,000 miles in six weeks. Sell out shows included the legendary Whiskey A Go Go and CBGBs as fans packed venues.
2001 - This year saw the release on EMI of Bang To Rights after the album was mastered at the famous Abbey Road studios. The band again played the USA travelling over 22,000 miles, this time over an eight week tour. At this point, the band were outselling label mate Robbie Williams in the USA. Several European shows were also played this year
and the band was again invited back to play the Holidays In The Sun festival in the UK.
2002 - Most of 2002 was spent writing and recording tracks for a new album due to be released on EMI in 2003.
A very few select UK shows were played by the band to try out new material live.
2003 - This year saw the release of Rich and Famous on EMI. The album received rave reviews .
The year was spent playing gigs in the UK. A spot on Granada TV's Men and Motors managed to showcase the bands raw
energy live to a TV audience. The band was again asked to play the Holidays In The Sun UK festival and were now playing in a higher spot. In fact the band played to a sell out 3000 people at The Market Arena and the band spent the
next 2 days signing autographs.
2004 - The band again decided to concentrate on UK shows and again embarked upon shows up and down the country. These were augmented with yet again a higher billing at the now renamed Wasted festival, again a sold out crowd of 3000 people saw another energetic performance. The band also played prestigious second headline appearances in Norway at Stavanger Rock and Spain at Tintorock, both festivals pulling huge crowds.
Late 2004 saw the band start to think about writing new material for a new album for late 2005 /early 2006.
2005 - The band have undertaken short tours to Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Greece.
The band was again moved up the bill at the Wasted Festival to second headline and again the venue was a sell out.
The band were now involved with writing and pre recording material for a new album and. Also being planned are re-releases for 1998 album Get A Life, Resurrection, and Lo Fi Life.
2006 - The bands new studio album titled DEFIANT will be released on SOS Records on the 22nd of August across the American continent with releases planned for Europe and possibly Japan. Shows preceded and followed the release with shows in Italy,Austria,Slovakia and a West Coast USA tour. Also played were yet another sell out show at the Uks largest punk festival WASTED,and headline festival offers for The Wickerman Festival and The Music For Freedom Festival in Orlando
2007 - New drummer Kev Taylor joins Vice Squad. Kev adds his ferocious drumming style and staunch dedication to the band making it the best line-up ever. Beki says "I decided when we held auditions for a new drummer that the job would go to whoever made 'Spitfire' sound like a fighter plane, in other words the double bass drum work would have to be quite phenomenal. Kev made 'Spitfire' sound like a jet, so he was in!"
The band continued playing gigs in the UK and were pleased to see the scene starting to thrive again.
In June the band started work on a new album at Granary Studios in Kent, which is the first time they have recorded in a commercial studio for years. Lead guitarist Lumpy says " I always thought that Beki and me were good songwriters but it wasn't until I heard the songs with Kev playing drums that I realised our true potential."
In August the band played to a jam packed Arena at the Rebellion festival in Blackpool ( people were queuing to get in but the organisers had to turn people back for fear of over-crowding ).
The rest of 2007 will see the band finish their album and play more UK dates before planning for 2008 tours of the USA and Europe.
Beki says " This is by far the best band I've ever played in, being on stage with these guys is like sitting on top of a speeding train. It's completely exhilarating and extremely loud, which is how it should be."
2008 - A new studio album with the working title of "FAIRGROUND FOR THE DEMENTED" will be released featuring a mix of new tracks and some old band favourites with a much more powerful feel to them.
Shows are being planned as usual in the Uk,with yet another appearance at the now named REBELLION festival in Blackpool,plus a return to the USA West Coast and some shows in Europe including plans to visit some places never visited before and some not visited for many a year.... |
