Revolution By Night
Encyclopedia
Revolution By Night are an electronic music
band based in London
, UK. They are often referred to as 'RBN'. The only continuous members are founding member Steve Weeks (lead vocal/keyboards/programming) and Bryon Adamson(keyboards/programming), with Phil Eaton (keyboards/programming) joining in 2006
band playing material heavily influenced by Fields of the Nephilim
and The Sisters of Mercy
. The early Revolution By Night recorded the full length album 'Breathe' in 1994, which was released the following year. Playing a completely different style of music to the "RBN" of today, pre-2000 Revolution By Night should be considered an entirely different band. Whilst continuing to play a handful of live dates during the remainder of the 1990s with a number of different guitarists, no further releases followed other than a few tracks on compilation albums, and the group split in 1999.
festivals in 2002, saw the duo further establish their synth-pop credentials. By the end of that year the band had expanded to a three-piece for live shows, enlisting the help of a succession of additional live keyboard players.
In June 2003, the Faithless EP was released. Featuring remixes of the title track by Ronan Harris
of VNV Nation
and Tom Shear
of Assemblage 23
, the EP contained two other new songs, 'Schadenfreude' and 'Higher Ground (voxless)' and two reworked older songs. The EP reached #14 in the DAC
(German Alternative Chart) and #3 in the Belgian Side-line chart, and the band played the Leipzig
Wave-Gotik-Treffen for a second time.
Other than an appearances at Hannover’s Secret Garden Festival in 2004, (the latter with The Crüxshadows
, Mesh
and Deine Lakaien
), they spent most of 2004 and 2005 on hiatus due to personal reasons, with the group close to disbanding at one point. Although some new material was written during this time, all of it was scrapped.
and Pride & Fall
on their Skyshaper UK tour was followed by shows at the Dark City Festival
in Edinburgh and the Summer Darkness
festival in Utrecht
where they played with Faderhead
, Frozen Plasma
, and VNV Nation
, plus Phil Eaton joined the band as a permanent band member on keyboards. The band finished the year’s live dates with a sell-out show supporting Rotersand
at London's Slimelight
club, where Steve has been a resident DJ since 1995.
In 2007, RBN played live shows in London, supporting Assemblage 23
in August, as well as Mesh
and De/vision
at the Electric Ballroom, Camden in November. The end of the year saw the band's remix of the Reaper
track 'X-Junkie' released on Reaper's CD 'The Devil Is Female'. The CD reached number one in the German DAC
chart in January 2008.
In 2008, the band continued writing tracks for the 'City Lights' album, completed a few remixes and played a handful of live shows in the UK. One of these remixes was for the German band Straftanz
and entitled "Straftanz UK (featuring RBN)" which has not yet been commercially released. RBN also performed this version live at some of their London gigs between 2008 and 2009, where they supported acts such as XP8
, Pride & Fall
, Rotersand
, Reaper
and Suicide Commando
. K-X from Straftanz
joined them on stage for their final UK performance of the song in late 2009, and the band gave one final airing of the track at Leipzig's Wave-Gotik-Treffen in May 2010. RBN also played live shows with Covenant
, Mesh
, and Seabound
in 2009, and with Assemblage 23
on their European tour in February 2010.
Pre-production studio work on the "City Lights" album was completed by mid 2010 and handed over to the producer Krischan Wesenberg from Rotersand
, and the band hope to see the finished album released in late 2011 / early 2012.
The band are currently writing new material for a second album for release in 2012 which currently has the working title of "Lunatic Calm", and in November 2010, Steve Weeks remixed Komor Kommando's track "Shrapnel".
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
band based in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, UK. They are often referred to as 'RBN'. The only continuous members are founding member Steve Weeks (lead vocal/keyboards/programming) and Bryon Adamson(keyboards/programming), with Phil Eaton (keyboards/programming) joining in 2006
Revolution By Night Mk 1 - 1994 to 1999
The original Revolution By Night was a 4 piece (a vocalist (Steve), a bassist (Bryon), 2 guitarists, plus a drum machine) gothic rockGothic rock
Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
band playing material heavily influenced by Fields of the Nephilim
Fields of the Nephilim
Fields of the Nephilim are an English gothic rock band formed in Stevenage, Hertfordshire in 1984. The original line-up consisted of vocalist Carl McCoy, saxophonist Gary Whisker, Tony Pettitt on bass, guitarist Paul Wright and drummer Alexander "Nod" Wright...
and The Sisters of Mercy
The Sisters of Mercy
The Sisters of Mercy are an English rock band that formed in 1980. After achieving early underground fame in UK, the band had their commercial breakthrough in mid-1980s and sustained it until the early 1990s, when they stopped releasing new recorded output in protest against their record company...
. The early Revolution By Night recorded the full length album 'Breathe' in 1994, which was released the following year. Playing a completely different style of music to the "RBN" of today, pre-2000 Revolution By Night should be considered an entirely different band. Whilst continuing to play a handful of live dates during the remainder of the 1990s with a number of different guitarists, no further releases followed other than a few tracks on compilation albums, and the group split in 1999.
Revolution By Night Mk 2 - 2000 to 2005
In late 1999, having previously unrealised ambitions in this area, Steve Weeks set up a small home studio and began working on new synth-based material and together with Bryon Adamson began to develop a new sound following a full-blooded electronic approach. The first fruits of their labour surfaced at the following year’s Wave-Gotik-Treffen festival in Leipzig, where the band played a synthesiser heavy set debuting the Weeks' penned RBN track 'Faithless'. The following year's support slot to Funker Vogt in London, as well as further appearances at the Dark Jubilee and InFestInfest
Infest may refer to:*Infest can mean to overly populate, much in the same way that cockroaches do. See Overpopulation #Wild animal overpopulation.*Infest , a 2000 hard rock album by Papa Roach*Infest , American hardcore band...
festivals in 2002, saw the duo further establish their synth-pop credentials. By the end of that year the band had expanded to a three-piece for live shows, enlisting the help of a succession of additional live keyboard players.
In June 2003, the Faithless EP was released. Featuring remixes of the title track by Ronan Harris
Ronan Harris
Ronan Harris is a member of the act VNV Nation, along with Mark Jackson. For live shows the band are joined by 2 keyboard players. Ronan is credited with the songwriting, production, lyrical, and vocal aspects of the band's music...
of VNV Nation
VNV Nation
VNV Nation are a British/Irish electronic music band originally from Dublin, Ireland and Essex, United Kingdom and now based in Hamburg, Germany. They combine elements of electro-industrial, trance, synthpop and electronic body music . The members are Ronan Harris and Mark Jackson...
and Tom Shear
Tom Shear
Tom Shear is an American musician and music producer, and is the sole member of the electronic act Assemblage 23.He was born on November 12, 1971 in State College, Pennsylvania, where he lived until he was about age six. After that, he lived in New Jersey for two years and then in New Hampshire for...
of Assemblage 23
Assemblage 23
Assemblage 23 is an electronic act from the United States, currently based in Seattle. It was founded in 1988 by Tom Shear who writes the music and lyrics and does the recording himself.-1980s–1990s :...
, the EP contained two other new songs, 'Schadenfreude' and 'Higher Ground (voxless)' and two reworked older songs. The EP reached #14 in the DAC
Deutsche Alternative Charts
The Deutsche Alternative Charts is the primary record chart for Germany's alternative music scene. The charts cover genres ranging nu metal to Britpop, from rock music to alternative electronic...
(German Alternative Chart) and #3 in the Belgian Side-line chart, and the band played the Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
Wave-Gotik-Treffen for a second time.
Other than an appearances at Hannover’s Secret Garden Festival in 2004, (the latter with The Crüxshadows
The Crüxshadows
The Crüxshadows is an Dark Electro group from Florida. Their sound is made up of a combination of male vocals, electric violin, guitar, and synth...
, Mesh
Mesh (band)
-Background:In 1991, Mark Hockings and Richard Silverthorn met at a gig where Silverthorn's band was playing...
and Deine Lakaien
Deine Lakaien
Deine Lakaien is a German Darkwave group composed of Macedonian vocalist Alexander Veljanov and the classically trained composer, pianist and drummer Ernst Horn.- History :...
), they spent most of 2004 and 2005 on hiatus due to personal reasons, with the group close to disbanding at one point. Although some new material was written during this time, all of it was scrapped.
RBN (aka Revolution By Night mk 3) - 2006 to present
In 2006 the band relaunched with their busiest year to date, not only referring to themselves as RBN (to avoid confusion with the early gothic ponderings of Revolution By Night Mk 1), but also with a series of live dates playing mostly brand new material written in the first few months of the year. May’s support to CovenantCovenant (band)
Covenant is a band from Sweden whose music comprises a mixture between electropop and electronic dance music. The band is composed of Eskil Simonsson, Daniel Myer and Joakim Montelius...
and Pride & Fall
Pride & Fall
Pride & Fall is a futurepop act from Stavanger, Norway, formed in 2000 by Sigve Monsen and Svein Joar A. Johnsen.-History:The band came into being when Sigve and Svein wanted to pursue a more electronic and club-oriented sound than what they were doing in their goth/Darkwave project 'An Evening...
on their Skyshaper UK tour was followed by shows at the Dark City Festival
Dark City Festival
Dark City was an annual music festival held in Teviot Row House, a student union run by Edinburgh University Students' Association in Scotland. Its future is currently unclear following an announcement by the organisers that the festival will not be taking place in 2008—though they do not rule out...
in Edinburgh and the Summer Darkness
Summer Darkness
Summer Darkness is the biggest alternative music festival in The Netherlands which is being held annually since 2003 around the second weekend in August in the city of Utrecht...
festival in Utrecht
Utrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
where they played with Faderhead
Faderhead
Faderhead is a German electronic music producer from Hamburg, Germany.-History:After releasing the track "The Protagonist" as a one-off compilation entry on the Advanced Electronics Vol. 3, Faderhead received a deal with Accession Records/Indigo to release his debut album FH1 in 2006...
, Frozen Plasma
Frozen Plasma
Frozen Plasma is a futurepop band consisting of Vasi Valis as a keyboard player and Felix Marc as a vocalist, currently signed to Infacted Recordings.- History :...
, and VNV Nation
VNV Nation
VNV Nation are a British/Irish electronic music band originally from Dublin, Ireland and Essex, United Kingdom and now based in Hamburg, Germany. They combine elements of electro-industrial, trance, synthpop and electronic body music . The members are Ronan Harris and Mark Jackson...
, plus Phil Eaton joined the band as a permanent band member on keyboards. The band finished the year’s live dates with a sell-out show supporting Rotersand
Rotersand
Rotersand is a German electronic music act, formed in September 2002 by musician/producer Gun and singer Rascal with dance music producer/DJ Krischan J.E. Wesenberg joining them shortly after...
at London's Slimelight
Slimelight
The Slimelight club is a goth nightclub.It is an alternative music club which has three dance floors. playing music genres such as darkwave, EBM, trad goth, gothic rock, futurepop, power noise, synthpop, industrial, and noise....
club, where Steve has been a resident DJ since 1995.
In 2007, RBN played live shows in London, supporting Assemblage 23
Assemblage 23
Assemblage 23 is an electronic act from the United States, currently based in Seattle. It was founded in 1988 by Tom Shear who writes the music and lyrics and does the recording himself.-1980s–1990s :...
in August, as well as Mesh
Mesh (band)
-Background:In 1991, Mark Hockings and Richard Silverthorn met at a gig where Silverthorn's band was playing...
and De/vision
De/Vision
De/Vision is a German synthpop musical group. The band started as a quartet consisting of Thomas Adam, Steffen Keth, Stefan Blender, and Markus Ganssert. They formed the band in 1988. The name De/Vision is a play on words. The majority of the band's lyrics are in English, but they have had some...
at the Electric Ballroom, Camden in November. The end of the year saw the band's remix of the Reaper
Reaper (band)
-History:Reaper was formed shortly before the dissolution of his NamNamBulu project and took on greater prominence following the split. The 'Angst EP' was released in July 2005. The project played a number of live shows prior to the release of the full length album 'Hell Starts With An H' in early...
track 'X-Junkie' released on Reaper's CD 'The Devil Is Female'. The CD reached number one in the German DAC
Deutsche Alternative Charts
The Deutsche Alternative Charts is the primary record chart for Germany's alternative music scene. The charts cover genres ranging nu metal to Britpop, from rock music to alternative electronic...
chart in January 2008.
In 2008, the band continued writing tracks for the 'City Lights' album, completed a few remixes and played a handful of live shows in the UK. One of these remixes was for the German band Straftanz
Straftanz
Straftanz is a German electronic dance music project, established in the summer of 2006. Straftanz is formed by a loose group of artists calling themselves the Straftanz ZK. Additional artists involved are Carsten Jacek , Mille Petrozza, and Myk Jung who were involved in the recording of the...
and entitled "Straftanz UK (featuring RBN)" which has not yet been commercially released. RBN also performed this version live at some of their London gigs between 2008 and 2009, where they supported acts such as XP8
XP8
XP8 is an Italian electronic group. The band started in 2001 as a trio, composed of Marco Visconti, Marko Resurreccion, and singer Paul Toohill....
, Pride & Fall
Pride & Fall
Pride & Fall is a futurepop act from Stavanger, Norway, formed in 2000 by Sigve Monsen and Svein Joar A. Johnsen.-History:The band came into being when Sigve and Svein wanted to pursue a more electronic and club-oriented sound than what they were doing in their goth/Darkwave project 'An Evening...
, Rotersand
Rotersand
Rotersand is a German electronic music act, formed in September 2002 by musician/producer Gun and singer Rascal with dance music producer/DJ Krischan J.E. Wesenberg joining them shortly after...
, Reaper
Reaper
A reaper is a person or machine that reaps crops at harvest, when they are ripe.-Hand reaping:Hand reaping is done by various means, including plucking the ears of grains directly by hand, cutting the grain stalks with a sickle, cutting them with a scythe, or with a later type of scythe called a...
and Suicide Commando
Suicide Commando
Suicide Commando is a Belgian electro-industrial act created by Johan van Roy in 1986.- History :Johan van Roy, Suicide Commando's only member, began experimenting with electronic music in 1986. Three years later he released his first tape under the moniker Suicide Commando, and made an appearance...
. K-X from Straftanz
Straftanz
Straftanz is a German electronic dance music project, established in the summer of 2006. Straftanz is formed by a loose group of artists calling themselves the Straftanz ZK. Additional artists involved are Carsten Jacek , Mille Petrozza, and Myk Jung who were involved in the recording of the...
joined them on stage for their final UK performance of the song in late 2009, and the band gave one final airing of the track at Leipzig's Wave-Gotik-Treffen in May 2010. RBN also played live shows with Covenant
Covenant (band)
Covenant is a band from Sweden whose music comprises a mixture between electropop and electronic dance music. The band is composed of Eskil Simonsson, Daniel Myer and Joakim Montelius...
, Mesh
Mesh (band)
-Background:In 1991, Mark Hockings and Richard Silverthorn met at a gig where Silverthorn's band was playing...
, and Seabound
Seabound
Seabound is a synthpop/futurepop duo from Germany. Their lyrics are in English and for the most part explore the human psyche and the way that everyday events can affect a person psychologically. Hence the band's slogan; "Seabound: Journey Into Your Mind."...
in 2009, and with Assemblage 23
Assemblage 23
Assemblage 23 is an electronic act from the United States, currently based in Seattle. It was founded in 1988 by Tom Shear who writes the music and lyrics and does the recording himself.-1980s–1990s :...
on their European tour in February 2010.
Pre-production studio work on the "City Lights" album was completed by mid 2010 and handed over to the producer Krischan Wesenberg from Rotersand
Rotersand
Rotersand is a German electronic music act, formed in September 2002 by musician/producer Gun and singer Rascal with dance music producer/DJ Krischan J.E. Wesenberg joining them shortly after...
, and the band hope to see the finished album released in late 2011 / early 2012.
The band are currently writing new material for a second album for release in 2012 which currently has the working title of "Lunatic Calm", and in November 2010, Steve Weeks remixed Komor Kommando's track "Shrapnel".
RBN (Revolution By Night Mk II and III)
- Faithless EP (2003, Sonic-X).
- Zillo Club Hits 9 (2004, Zillo) - contains the track "Faithless (Ronan Harris remix)".
- Into The Darkness Vol. 1 DVD (2004, CrazyClips) - includes the video to "Schadenfreude".
- Machine Code (2006, 5-track Limited Edition Tour CD) - originally only available at RBN concerts.
- City Lights (late 2011/early 2012, release tbc) - full length album
- Lunatic Calm (working title, late 2012 release tbc) - full length album
Remixes for other artists
- Reaper - 'The Devil Is Female' CD contains 'X-Junkie (Revolution By Night remix)' (2007, release date Dec 2007/Infacted)
- System:FX - 'High:Definition:Violence' (2008) CD contains 'Turn to Rust (RBN "No Matter" remix)'
- StraftanzStraftanzStraftanz is a German electronic dance music project, established in the summer of 2006. Straftanz is formed by a loose group of artists calling themselves the Straftanz ZK. Additional artists involved are Carsten Jacek , Mille Petrozza, and Myk Jung who were involved in the recording of the...
- Straftanz UK (featuring RBN) - (2009, release tbc) - Nachtmahr - 'Maedchen in Uniform' CD contains 'Tanz Diktator (RBN remix) - (2009, release date Jan 2010/Trisol)
- Komor Kommando - 'Oil, Steel and Rhythm' 2 CD version contains 'Shrapnel (RBN Mood Music mix)' - (2010, release date Feb 2011/Alfa Matrix)
External links
- http://www.rbn-uk.com/– Official Site
- http://www.myspace.com/revolutionbynight – RBN's MySpace Page