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All Music Guide:
The brash, bluesy, female-fronted quintet the Duke Spirit formed when singer/harmonica player Liela Moss met guitarist/keyboardist/singer Luke Ford at art school. Moss was studying photography and Ford painting, but the pair decided to ditch school and move to London to focus on their music. Once they arrived, their friend Toby Butler joined on as bassist/percussionist, and one of their roommates, Dan Higgins, became their guitarist. Once drummer Olly Betts joined their ranks, the lineup was complete. The band recorded their first 7" under the name Solomon, but switched to the Duke Spirit for the release of their first EP, Darling, You're Mean, which was released in 2003 by City Rockers. Later that year, the label released the Roll, Spirit, Roll EP, which won the band critical acclaim from publications such as NME. The band continued to tour and record, with the intention of releasing their debut album in fall 2004; however, City Rockers folded early that year, leaving the Duke Spirit without a home for their music. Loog signed the band soon after and released Cuts Across the Land in the U.K. in spring 2005. Startime International picked up their U.S. distribution and introduced the band to the States by releasing the album in spring 2006 and sending the band off on tour with Ted Leo & the Pharmacists. That year, the band also released the limited-edition EP Covered in Love, which featured their versions of songs by Jesse Mae Hemphill, Arthur Lee and Desmond Dekker. The Duke Spirit also worked on a collaboration with UNKLE, which they recorded with producer Chris Goss in his Joshua Tree, CA studio; the track appeared on UNKLE's 2007 album. The band worked with Goss again on their second album Neptune, which arrived in spring 2008.
Wikipedia:
The Duke Spirit are an English rock band based in London. Their sound has been seen as a melding of influences ranging from alternative guitar bands such as The Jesus and Mary Chain and Spiritualized, the tremulous rock'n'roll of bands such as The Gun Club and The Patti Smith Group, to distinctive rhythmic 'Atlantic soul' and Motown influences.
Line-up
Liela Moss - vocals, harmonica, piano, auxiliary percussionLuke Ford - guitar, backing vocals, Farfisa, piano, AutoharpToby Butler - guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals, organs, pianoOlly 'The Kid' Betts - drums, glockenspiel, percussion, piano, backing vocalsMarc Sallis - bass guitarHistory
The band was formed in London in 2003 by Luke Ford (guitar), Liela Moss (vocals) and Toby Butler (bass). Ford and Moss met at art college in Cheltenham where he was studying photography and Moss was taking a Fine Arts Foundation course. Butler and Ford also met at the same college at around the same time and briefly played in an unrelated band together. Together, they created The Duke Spirit and set about writing, recording and self-producing a group of songs that formed the basis of their first single and EP.
The band released their first single "Darling You're Mean/Bottom of the Sea" in May on the City Rockers label, without having performed live. The line-up was completed by guitarist Dan Higgins (who also created the woodcuts that served as the band's early artwork) and drummer Olly "The Kid" Betts, and the band played their first show at the Brixton Windmill later that year. They released the "Roll, Spirit, Roll" EP toward the end of 2003, which won the band critical acclaim from publications such as NME.
The band's debut album was due to be released in September 2004 until their record label, City Rockers, ran out of financial steam. They moved over to Loog Records/Polydor and released the album in the UK on 16 May 2005. The album's producers were Simon Raymonde (formerly the bass player in Cocteau Twins, and now Bella Union Label boss) and Flood, best known for his work with Nick Cave, NIN and U2. After headlining tours of the UK, the album was released in the U.S. and the band found themselves traveling through America for much of 2006, including a highly praised performance at the Coachella 2006 festival, California.
The only release of 2006 was a downloadable EP and limited 7" single entitled, "Covered In Love", (released through Velo Recordings). This was a collection of songs, recorded to 8-track by the band, written by the recently deceased (Arthur Lee, Desmond Dekker and Jessie Mae Hemphill). In early 2007 the band signed to You Are Here a new independent Anglo-Canadian label. The track "Mayday", a collaboration between UNKLE and The Duke Spirit was released on the latest UNKLE album, War Stories, in the UK on 9 July 2007. The track was recorded with Chris Goss at the Rancho De La Luna studio in Joshua Tree, California where they returned in April 2007 to record their own second album, also with Goss. Neptune was released in February 2008. Shortly afterward, Higgins left the band to concentrate on his family, which prompted a personnel shuffle: Toby Butler switched to guitar, with longtime friend Marc Sallis replacing him on bass.
In February 2009, the band released a 10-track compilation CD featuring three songs never released in the US ("Masca", "Souvenir", "Do What You Love") as well as a cover of Alex Chilton's "Baby Doll". The CD was sold alongside a McQ Alexander McQueen collection, one of the shirts of which featured the face of singer Liela Moss.
The band's third album, "Bruiser" (produced by Andrew Scheps and Rich File), was released in September 2011 through Fiction in the UK, Shangrila music in the U.S. and Co-Operative Music throughout the rest of the world. Scheps had previously done a bombastic one off mix for the track 'You Really Wake Up the Love In Me' on the Neptune album which had impressed the band greatly and meant they were keen to work on further projects with him. Rich File had previously been one half of UNKLE and had worked with the Duke Spirit on the Mayday track where a kinship had developed and a desire for further collaboration.
The album was proceeded by the Kusama EP in early 2011, named in tribute to the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama whose work had become an inspiration to the band during the writing of the 3rd album. Yayoi Kusama was also the main inspiration and lyrical focus for the song 'Sweet Bitter Sweet' on the Bruiser album.
Success
The Duke Spirit have received acclaim and increasing success despite relatively little advertising based promotion on television and radio. Initially a 'word of mouth' band, their touring schedules have helped them to spread their music across the country and eventually into America and the rest of Europe. They have played a number of high-profile support slots for Queens of the Stone Age, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, R.E.M., BRMC, Supergrass, and Eagles Of Death Metal. The Duke Spirit will be opening for Jane's Addiction on The Great Escapist Tour in 2012. Since 2008 the band have performed on American TV more than six times - appearing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Last Call with Carson Daly, It's On with Alexa Chung, The Henry Rollins Show, and the Late Show with David Letterman. Their song "Send a Little Love Token" was also included in the fifth title in the Guitar Hero video game series. Released in September 2009, it had sold nearly 1 million copies worldwide by the end of the year.
