Sluts of Trust
Encyclopedia
Sluts of Trust are a two-piece rock outfit from Glasgow
, Scotland
, originally comprising John McFarlane (guitar, vocals) and Anthony O'Donnell (drums). O'Donnell was later replaced on drums by Roo Harris.
's Summer Festival in 1995. In the intervening years, both had begun aborted courses at Glasgow University and Cardonald College
respectively, and had enjoyed limited success with separate musical projects. O'Donnell in Crambo, and in a band with fellow SYT graduate and future Harry Potter actor Sean Biggerstaff
, and McFarlane had released a solo recording entitled "Broken Alarm Clock" on the Glasgow Queen Margaret Union
NorthPark label compilation Unplugged, which he also performed on the BBC
television programme The Beat Room. Having recently disbanded his latest group Tungsten Crust, McFarlane had been writing songs for a change of direction. He invited O'Donnell to drum with him and very quickly they blended to create a dynamic new sound. The band had originally been envisaged as a trio, but stayed as a guitar/drums duo after their prospective bass player failed to turn up to their first rehearsal.
After a few months rehearsing and fine-tuning McFarlane's original compositions, the duo were invited to open for up-and-coming Glasgow band Lapsus Linguae, by their friend Iain Campbell, for Lapsus' sold-out New Year's Eve gig at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut
. As a warm-up for this the band played their first ever gig as Sluts of Trust on 17 December 2002 in Starka Bar, Motherwell
. The gig at King Tut's was a huge success and was seen by established Glasgow rockers Aereogramme
, then signed to Chemikal Underground
Records, who brought the duo to the label's attention. More gigs followed, supporting The Hunches at Nice 'N' Sleazy and at Bannerman's in Edinburgh
, where all four members of The Delgados
(the Mercury Prize
-nominated indie band who owned and ran Chemikal Underground Records) arrived. Sluts of Trust were signed to Chemikal the next week having played only four gigs.
Following the band's first UK-wide tour, supporting label-mates Aereogramme, they retreated to Chemikal Underground's recording studios, Chem19 in Hamilton
to begin work on their debut album with Paul Savage of The Delgados as producer. In November however they took a short break from recording to perform at the London Calling
festival at the Paradiso, Amsterdam
alongside Franz Ferdinand
and The Darkness, before returning to the studio.
DJ John Peel
and would feature at #16 in the end of year chart the Festive Fifty
, voted for by listeners to his show. The Evening Times
called the single "an intense, uncompromising, blistering, screaming, passionate, furious sweat-drenched full-frontal aural assault". A low-budget video was made to accompany the release and was conceived and directed by actor Johnny Austin and filmmaker Gregor Mackay, both friends of the band from Scottish Youth Theatre. A pastiche of Brian De Palma
's Carrie, it conveyed much of the theatre of early Sluts of Trust gigs, and alongside other members of the Scottish Youth Theatre it starred Sean Biggerstaff and Paul Kelly of The Martial Arts. The video was premiered at the launch of the single in Glasgow's Barfly, and projected onto McFarlane's own bed-sheet before the band played that night. The video was later screened on MTV
2.
With their debut album nearing completion, in early 2004 Sluts of Trust travelled to the BBC's Maida Vale Studios
in London
to record a live session for John Peel's show on BBC Radio 1. Peel had become a huge fan of the group since hearing their debut single and some early demo recordings for their album and continued to champion the duo until his untimely death later that year. The band chose to record previously unreleased material from their forthcoming album. The session comprised original McFarlane compositions "The Greatest Gift", "That's Right, That Cat's Right" and "Tighter Than The Night". They also recorded a cover version of Talking Heads
' "Psycho-Killer
". The session was broadcast on 17 February 2004.
Sluts of Trust played their first gig on American
soil in March 2004 at the South by Southwest
Festival in Austin
, Texas
, signing a US management deal with Management Music Division while they were there, before embarking on a full-scale US
tour with The Delgados
and Malcolm Middleton
. The band returned to tour the US again within months.
Second single "Leave You Wanting More" was released in April 2004 to great acclaim, with British broadsheet The Independent
making it their Single of the Week, and describing it as "a sexed-up blast of pounding riffs and art-punk breaks with an amazing amount of textures involved considering they're a mere two- piece". It was described in The Scotsman
as "sounding simultaneously crazed and precision controlled". The CD single also included a new McFarlane composition "Crowd Pleaser" along with "Psycho-Killer" from the Peel session. Again an accompanying video was conceived and directed by Johnny Austin and Gregor Mackay. Seen as a companion piece to the "Piece O' You" video, this was filmed with the RAF
veterans of Glasgow's Royal Air Force Association club and at Glasgow's Museum of Transport, and was again shown on MTV2. The single would be placed at #5 in John Peel's posthumous final Festive Fifty
.
Sluts of Trust released their debut album We Are All Sluts of Trust
in Europe on April 26 and the US in May 2004 on Chemikal Underground Records, to positive reviews, but modest sales, selling up to 10,000 copies worldwide. The album was produced by Paul Savage of The Delgados (already known for producing albums by Mogwai and Aereogramme and later for producing Franz Ferdinand
's third album). In addition to the material the band had been playing live, the album contained a new song titled "Pirate Weekend". Something of a departure from the band's sleazy garage rock
, the song featured lush and haunting overdubbed harmonies and would become a fan favourite. To support the album's release the duo quickly embarked on another UK tour.
Following a UK tour, the band returned to the United States to promote the album there. The band had been invited to tour with burlesque dance group Suicide Girls and played to large audiences across the USA. The NME published an extensive feature on the tour along with pictures from an exclusive photo-shoot of the band with members of Suicide Girls. During a break in the tour Sluts of Trust travelled to Los Angeles
to play their own gigs at Amoeba Records, L.A Spaceland, and nightclub The Viper Room.
The new line-up of Sluts of Trust played their first official gig at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas in March 2005. It was here that they were introduced to an up-and-coming new London band called Bloc Party
. Already fans of the Sluts' debut album, Bloc Party would prove to be great allies to the band as their own star began to rise. As well as effusing on their love of Sluts of Trust in many interviews, Bloc Party's Gordon Moakes was seen to wear a Sluts of Trust t-shirt when the band played Glastonbury
, and on the front cover of the NME
. Bloc Party would also invite Sluts of Trust to support them on a European tour later that year.
In the summer of 2005 Sluts of Trust unveiled their new line-up to the UK at a series of festival appearances. The band played at T in the Park
, Musicworks, T on the Fringe and fittingly John Peel Day. Their appearance as part of the Edinburgh Festival
featured the Suicide Girls.
In September 2005 Sluts of Trust went back to the studio to record an EP
of new material under the supervision of producer Rico. At least three tracks were recorded, "Hit The Game", "Overcome By Wonder" and "Luvvin' of Love". An exclusive video for "Hit The Game" was shot by the BBC
for their television programme The Music Show and aired following the year, but plans to release the EP were scrapped by McFarlane who was not happy with the material and there has yet to be an official release.
In November 2005 Sluts of Trust embarked on a European tour in support of Bloc Party, playing large arena venues across Spain and Italy.
In January 2006 Sluts of Trust were invited to record a track featuring the work of Scottish poet Robert Burns for BBC Radio's One World Burns Night Special. McFarlane composed a new track using the Burns poem "Why Should We Idly Waste Our Prime?" The session was broadcast on Burns Night World Supper Special on BBC Radio 1.
In the summer of 2006, BBC1's music television programme The Music Show aired an exclusive video for new Sluts of Trust song "Hit The Game". The video saw McFarlane and Harris perform the song in a bowling alley. The song has never been given an official release.
Later in the summer of 2006 Chemikal Underground Records released a compilation compact disc and DVD of some of the highlights of the label's history entitled CHEM087 CD + DVD. The CD included Sluts of Trust debut single "Piece O' You", alongside tracks from The Delgados, Mogwai, Arab Strap
and Interpol
. The DVD included the videos for singles "Piece O' You" and "Leave You Wanting More" with an audio commentary from McFarlane and co-director Johnny Austin. To launch the release both videos were screened at Glasgow's Centre for Contemporary Arts.
songs at a charity Bowie tribute night alongside Justin Currie of Del Amitri
, and Teenage Fanclub
at King Tut's Wah-Wah Hut. His performance included his own takes on Bowie's "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed", "Let Me Sleep Beside You", "Rock and Roll Suicide" and "Modern Love". In early 2008 at a low-key solo gig where he played a full set of new material he announced his intention to return with a new Sluts of Trust album later in the year.
as "a seedy 1970s porn baron and his silent but violent henchman playing gutter-trawling, kerb-crawling blues punk with skyscraping vocals and a predilection for the occasional Eddie Van Halen guitar 'lick'", also being described as "testosterone-fuelled bluesy punk". Craig McLean of the Daily Telegraph described the band's music as "garagey-blues". The band have been called a "a Scots White Stripes
", but with "much more hidden menace", with songs described as "a mix of Led Zeppelin and 90s American indie", with their style described as "scuzzy experimental rock", a "garage metal cacophony", "aggroglam", and "sleaze-rock" comprising "manic rigging, high-speed drumming and porno lyrics". Andrew Eaton of The Scotsman
described them as a combination of "the rock'n'roll basics of the White Stripes with the showy excess of The Darkness".
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, originally comprising John McFarlane (guitar, vocals) and Anthony O'Donnell (drums). O'Donnell was later replaced on drums by Roo Harris.
Early career
Sluts of Trust were formed in the summer of 2002 by John McFarlane and Anthony O'Donnell, after a wild three-day party, which became known as the Pirate Weekend. McFarlane and O'Donnell had first met as teenagers at Scottish Youth TheatreScottish Youth Theatre
Scottish Youth Theatre is Scotland's national youth theatre company for ages 3–25. It is core funded by the Scottish Arts Council.Scottish Youth Theatre has headquarters in Glasgow but work throughout Scotland...
's Summer Festival in 1995. In the intervening years, both had begun aborted courses at Glasgow University and Cardonald College
Cardonald College
Cardonald College is a medium-sized Further education institute located in Glasgow's South Side, in Scotland. Officially opened in 1972, it has over 12,000 full-time and part-time students. Cardonald college takes both students who have just left school and mature students.The Main Campus is...
respectively, and had enjoyed limited success with separate musical projects. O'Donnell in Crambo, and in a band with fellow SYT graduate and future Harry Potter actor Sean Biggerstaff
Sean Biggerstaff
Sean Biggerstaff is a Scottish actor best known for playing Oliver Wood in the Harry Potter film series.-Life and career:Biggerstaff was born in Glasgow, Scotland, growing up with his parents in Maryhill...
, and McFarlane had released a solo recording entitled "Broken Alarm Clock" on the Glasgow Queen Margaret Union
Queen Margaret Union
The Queen Margaret Union is one of two students' unions at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1890, it caters for the social and cultural needs of its members by providing a range of services including, entertainments, catering, shop facilities, bars and games.-History:The Queen...
NorthPark label compilation Unplugged, which he also performed on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television programme The Beat Room. Having recently disbanded his latest group Tungsten Crust, McFarlane had been writing songs for a change of direction. He invited O'Donnell to drum with him and very quickly they blended to create a dynamic new sound. The band had originally been envisaged as a trio, but stayed as a guitar/drums duo after their prospective bass player failed to turn up to their first rehearsal.
After a few months rehearsing and fine-tuning McFarlane's original compositions, the duo were invited to open for up-and-coming Glasgow band Lapsus Linguae, by their friend Iain Campbell, for Lapsus' sold-out New Year's Eve gig at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut
King Tut's Wah Wah Hut
King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, also known as King Tut's, is a live music venue and bar in on St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, Scotland. It is owned and managed by Glasgow-based gig promoters DF Concerts...
. As a warm-up for this the band played their first ever gig as Sluts of Trust on 17 December 2002 in Starka Bar, Motherwell
Motherwell
Motherwell is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, south east of Glasgow. The name "Moderwelt" appears on a map of Lanarkshire made by Timothy Pont some time between 1583 and 1611 and printed in the Netherlands in around 1652, although the settlement was probably little more...
. The gig at King Tut's was a huge success and was seen by established Glasgow rockers Aereogramme
Aereogramme
Aereogramme were a Scottish alternative/post-rock rock band from Glasgow, consisting of Craig B. , Iain Cook , Campbell McNeil and Martin Scott...
, then signed to Chemikal Underground
Chemikal Underground
Chemikal Underground is an independent record label set up in 1994 by Glasgow, Scotland rock band The Delgados. It was set up to release their first single, "Monica Webster" / "Brand New Car" and went on to break many new Scottish bands in the nineties....
Records, who brought the duo to the label's attention. More gigs followed, supporting The Hunches at Nice 'N' Sleazy and at Bannerman's in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, where all four members of The Delgados
The Delgados
The Delgados were a Scottish indie rock band from Motherwell, North Lanarkshire. The band was composed of Alun Woodward , Stewart Henderson , Paul Savage and Emma Pollock .-Biography:...
(the Mercury Prize
Mercury Prize
The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize and currently known as the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for sponsorship reasons, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album from the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established by the British Phonographic Industry and British...
-nominated indie band who owned and ran Chemikal Underground Records) arrived. Sluts of Trust were signed to Chemikal the next week having played only four gigs.
Following the band's first UK-wide tour, supporting label-mates Aereogramme, they retreated to Chemikal Underground's recording studios, Chem19 in Hamilton
Hamilton, South Lanarkshire
Hamilton is a town in South Lanarkshire, in the west-central Lowlands of Scotland. It serves as the main administrative centre of the South Lanarkshire council area. It is the fifth-biggest town in Scotland after Paisley, East Kilbride, Livingston and Cumbernauld...
to begin work on their debut album with Paul Savage of The Delgados as producer. In November however they took a short break from recording to perform at the London Calling
London Calling (festival)
London Calling is a music festival held twice a year in Paradiso, Amsterdam and focuses on the latest trends and bands in music, with the main focus on the UK. Since the festival started in 1992 it has been acknowledged as the main showcase festival of the Netherlands for British music and is...
festival at the Paradiso, Amsterdam
Paradiso (Amsterdam)
Paradiso is an iconic rock music venue and cultural center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.-History:It is housed in a converted former church building that dates from the nineteenth century and that was used until 1965 as the meeting hall for a liberal Dutch religious group known as the "Vrije...
alongside Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand (band)
Franz Ferdinand are a Scottish post-punk revival band formed in Glasgow in 2002. The band is composed of Alex Kapranos , Bob Hardy , Nick McCarthy , and Paul Thomson .The band first experienced chart success when their second single, "Take Me Out", reached #3 in...
and The Darkness, before returning to the studio.
Singles and debut album
Sluts of Trust released their debut single "Piece O' You" on 21 November 2003, on limited edition 7-inch red vinyl. Llimited to 1000 pressings, the single sold out in a week. The b-side featured live favourite "Meanwhile In Rocksville". The single was championed by BBC Radio 1BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
DJ John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
and would feature at #16 in the end of year chart the Festive Fifty
Festive Fifty
The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's fifty best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show...
, voted for by listeners to his show. The Evening Times
Evening Times
The Evening Times is an evening tabloid newspaper published Monday to Saturday in Glasgow, Scotland.-History:The paper, an evening sister paper of The Herald, was established in 1876. The paper's slogan is "Nobody Knows Glasgow Better"....
called the single "an intense, uncompromising, blistering, screaming, passionate, furious sweat-drenched full-frontal aural assault". A low-budget video was made to accompany the release and was conceived and directed by actor Johnny Austin and filmmaker Gregor Mackay, both friends of the band from Scottish Youth Theatre. A pastiche of Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
's Carrie, it conveyed much of the theatre of early Sluts of Trust gigs, and alongside other members of the Scottish Youth Theatre it starred Sean Biggerstaff and Paul Kelly of The Martial Arts. The video was premiered at the launch of the single in Glasgow's Barfly, and projected onto McFarlane's own bed-sheet before the band played that night. The video was later screened on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
2.
With their debut album nearing completion, in early 2004 Sluts of Trust travelled to the BBC's Maida Vale Studios
Maida Vale Studios
Maida Vale Studios is a complex of seven BBC studios on Delaware Road, Maida Vale, London.It has been used to record thousands of classical music, popular music and drama sessions for BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 from 1946 to the present...
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...
to record a live session for John Peel's show on BBC Radio 1. Peel had become a huge fan of the group since hearing their debut single and some early demo recordings for their album and continued to champion the duo until his untimely death later that year. The band chose to record previously unreleased material from their forthcoming album. The session comprised original McFarlane compositions "The Greatest Gift", "That's Right, That Cat's Right" and "Tighter Than The Night". They also recorded a cover version of Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
' "Psycho-Killer
Psycho Killer
"Psycho Killer" is a song by American New Wave band Talking Heads from their 1977 album Talking Heads: 77, written by David Byrne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth. The band's "signature debut hit" features lyrics which seem to represent the thoughts of a serial killer. Allmusic calls it a...
". The session was broadcast on 17 February 2004.
Sluts of Trust played their first gig on American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
soil in March 2004 at the South by Southwest
South by Southwest
South by Southwest is an Austin, Texas based company dedicated to planning conferences, trade shows, festivals and other events. Their current roster of annual events include: SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Interactive, SXSWedu, and SXSWeco and take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States...
Festival in Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, signing a US management deal with Management Music Division while they were there, before embarking on a full-scale US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
tour with The Delgados
The Delgados
The Delgados were a Scottish indie rock band from Motherwell, North Lanarkshire. The band was composed of Alun Woodward , Stewart Henderson , Paul Savage and Emma Pollock .-Biography:...
and Malcolm Middleton
Malcolm Middleton
Malcolm Bruce Middleton is a Scottish musician best known for his work with Aidan Moffat in post-folk indie band Arab Strap as well as his solo career writing and producing...
. The band returned to tour the US again within months.
Second single "Leave You Wanting More" was released in April 2004 to great acclaim, with British broadsheet The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
making it their Single of the Week, and describing it as "a sexed-up blast of pounding riffs and art-punk breaks with an amazing amount of textures involved considering they're a mere two- piece". It was described in The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
as "sounding simultaneously crazed and precision controlled". The CD single also included a new McFarlane composition "Crowd Pleaser" along with "Psycho-Killer" from the Peel session. Again an accompanying video was conceived and directed by Johnny Austin and Gregor Mackay. Seen as a companion piece to the "Piece O' You" video, this was filmed with the RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
veterans of Glasgow's Royal Air Force Association club and at Glasgow's Museum of Transport, and was again shown on MTV2. The single would be placed at #5 in John Peel's posthumous final Festive Fifty
Festive Fifty
The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's fifty best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show...
.
Sluts of Trust released their debut album We Are All Sluts of Trust
We Are All Sluts of Trust
We Are All Sluts of Trust is the debut album from Scottish rock duo Sluts of Trust. It was released in Europe on April 26 on Chemikal Underground Records and the US in May 2004 via the New York-based Megaforce Records. The album was recorded between 2003 and 2004 at the Chem19 studio in Hamilton...
in Europe on April 26 and the US in May 2004 on Chemikal Underground Records, to positive reviews, but modest sales, selling up to 10,000 copies worldwide. The album was produced by Paul Savage of The Delgados (already known for producing albums by Mogwai and Aereogramme and later for producing Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand (band)
Franz Ferdinand are a Scottish post-punk revival band formed in Glasgow in 2002. The band is composed of Alex Kapranos , Bob Hardy , Nick McCarthy , and Paul Thomson .The band first experienced chart success when their second single, "Take Me Out", reached #3 in...
's third album). In addition to the material the band had been playing live, the album contained a new song titled "Pirate Weekend". Something of a departure from the band's sleazy garage rock
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
, the song featured lush and haunting overdubbed harmonies and would become a fan favourite. To support the album's release the duo quickly embarked on another UK tour.
Following a UK tour, the band returned to the United States to promote the album there. The band had been invited to tour with burlesque dance group Suicide Girls and played to large audiences across the USA. The NME published an extensive feature on the tour along with pictures from an exclusive photo-shoot of the band with members of Suicide Girls. During a break in the tour Sluts of Trust travelled to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to play their own gigs at Amoeba Records, L.A Spaceland, and nightclub The Viper Room.
Second line-up
On the duo's return to the UK they immediately began touring the country once again, however in November 2004, tired of the relentless touring, drummer Anthony O'Donnell left the band to concentrate on his writing career in theatre and television. McFarlane moved swiftly to recruit Roo Harris as his replacement. The pair began rehearsing the material from the band's debut album, along with some new McFarlane originals in early 2005.The new line-up of Sluts of Trust played their first official gig at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas in March 2005. It was here that they were introduced to an up-and-coming new London band called Bloc Party
Bloc Party
Bloc Party are a British Indie rock band, composed of Kele Okereke , Russell Lissack , Gordon Moakes , and Matt Tong...
. Already fans of the Sluts' debut album, Bloc Party would prove to be great allies to the band as their own star began to rise. As well as effusing on their love of Sluts of Trust in many interviews, Bloc Party's Gordon Moakes was seen to wear a Sluts of Trust t-shirt when the band played Glastonbury
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
, and on the front cover of the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
. Bloc Party would also invite Sluts of Trust to support them on a European tour later that year.
In the summer of 2005 Sluts of Trust unveiled their new line-up to the UK at a series of festival appearances. The band played at T in the Park
T in the Park
T in the Park is a major British music festival that has been held annually since 1994. It is named after its main sponsor, the brewing company Tennents. It was originally held at Strathclyde Park, Lanarkshire but since 1997 has been held at a disused airfield in Balado, Kinross-shire...
, Musicworks, T on the Fringe and fittingly John Peel Day. Their appearance as part of the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
featured the Suicide Girls.
In September 2005 Sluts of Trust went back to the studio to record an EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
of new material under the supervision of producer Rico. At least three tracks were recorded, "Hit The Game", "Overcome By Wonder" and "Luvvin' of Love". An exclusive video for "Hit The Game" was shot by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
for their television programme The Music Show and aired following the year, but plans to release the EP were scrapped by McFarlane who was not happy with the material and there has yet to be an official release.
In November 2005 Sluts of Trust embarked on a European tour in support of Bloc Party, playing large arena venues across Spain and Italy.
In January 2006 Sluts of Trust were invited to record a track featuring the work of Scottish poet Robert Burns for BBC Radio's One World Burns Night Special. McFarlane composed a new track using the Burns poem "Why Should We Idly Waste Our Prime?" The session was broadcast on Burns Night World Supper Special on BBC Radio 1.
In the summer of 2006, BBC1's music television programme The Music Show aired an exclusive video for new Sluts of Trust song "Hit The Game". The video saw McFarlane and Harris perform the song in a bowling alley. The song has never been given an official release.
Later in the summer of 2006 Chemikal Underground Records released a compilation compact disc and DVD of some of the highlights of the label's history entitled CHEM087 CD + DVD. The CD included Sluts of Trust debut single "Piece O' You", alongside tracks from The Delgados, Mogwai, Arab Strap
Arab Strap (band)
Arab Strap were an indie rock band from Scotland that consisted of core members Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton. The band were signed to independent record label Chemikal Underground, and split in 2006...
and Interpol
Interpol (band)
Interpol is an American indie rock and post-punk revival band from New York City. Formed in 1997, the band's original line-up consisted of Paul Banks , Daniel Kessler , Carlos Dengler and Greg Drudy . Drudy left the band in 2000 and was replaced by Sam Fogarino...
. The DVD included the videos for singles "Piece O' You" and "Leave You Wanting More" with an audio commentary from McFarlane and co-director Johnny Austin. To launch the release both videos were screened at Glasgow's Centre for Contemporary Arts.
Recent Appearances
Since 2007 Sluts of Trust have been seen little. John McFarlane has made a few low-key solo acoustic appearances, performing only entirely new material and is said to be working on a new album. He also played a set of David BowieDavid Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
songs at a charity Bowie tribute night alongside Justin Currie of Del Amitri
Del Amitri
Del Amitri were a Scottish pop-rock guitar band, formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1983. The band grew out of Justin Currie's Jordanhill College School band and came together after teenager Currie placed an advertisement in the window of a music store asking for people who could play to contact him...
, and Teenage Fanclub
Teenage Fanclub
Teenage Fanclub are an alternative rock band from Bellshill, Scotland. The band is composed of Norman Blake , Raymond McGinley , Gerard Love and Francis MacDonald , with songwriting duties shared equally among Blake, McGinley and Love...
at King Tut's Wah-Wah Hut. His performance included his own takes on Bowie's "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed", "Let Me Sleep Beside You", "Rock and Roll Suicide" and "Modern Love". In early 2008 at a low-key solo gig where he played a full set of new material he announced his intention to return with a new Sluts of Trust album later in the year.
Musical style
The band were described by The ScotsmanThe Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
as "a seedy 1970s porn baron and his silent but violent henchman playing gutter-trawling, kerb-crawling blues punk with skyscraping vocals and a predilection for the occasional Eddie Van Halen guitar 'lick'", also being described as "testosterone-fuelled bluesy punk". Craig McLean of the Daily Telegraph described the band's music as "garagey-blues". The band have been called a "a Scots White Stripes
The White Stripes
The White Stripes was an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White and drummer Meg White . Jack and Meg White were previously married to each other, but are now divorced...
", but with "much more hidden menace", with songs described as "a mix of Led Zeppelin and 90s American indie", with their style described as "scuzzy experimental rock", a "garage metal cacophony", "aggroglam", and "sleaze-rock" comprising "manic rigging, high-speed drumming and porno lyrics". Andrew Eaton of The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
described them as a combination of "the rock'n'roll basics of the White Stripes with the showy excess of The Darkness".
Discography
- "Piece O' You" / "Meanwhile In Rocksville" (double A-side single), 21 November 2003, Chemikal UndergroundChemikal UndergroundChemikal Underground is an independent record label set up in 1994 by Glasgow, Scotland rock band The Delgados. It was set up to release their first single, "Monica Webster" / "Brand New Car" and went on to break many new Scottish bands in the nineties....
- "Leave You Wanting More" (single), 5 April 2004, Chemikal Underground
- We Are All Sluts of TrustWe Are All Sluts of TrustWe Are All Sluts of Trust is the debut album from Scottish rock duo Sluts of Trust. It was released in Europe on April 26 on Chemikal Underground Records and the US in May 2004 via the New York-based Megaforce Records. The album was recorded between 2003 and 2004 at the Chem19 studio in Hamilton...
(album), 26 April 2004, Chemikal Underground