Biography

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club formed in 1998, taking its name from Marlon Brando’s motorcycle gang in the 1953 film The Wild One. Been and Hayes met at high school in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Lafayette and quickly formed a band; Hayes having recently left The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Looking for a drummer, they met Nick Jago, from Devon, England, who had moved to California to be with his parents after spending some time at Winchester School of Art, where he was studying fine art. The band was originally called The Elements, but after discovering that another band had the same name, they changed the name to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. The vocals are shared between bassist Robert Levon Been and guitarist Peter Hayes.

The band’s first two records were indebted to classic hard rock influenced by Led Zeppelin and also encompassed slower paced psychedelic rock, space rock, and noise pop influences from bands such as The Verve, Loop, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr and The Jesus and Mary Chain.[citation needed] Their second album Take Them On, On Your Own has several songs such as “Generation” and “US Government” that are critical of the United States government.

Been used the pseudonym ‘Robert Turner’ on the first two records, in an attempt to not be linked to his famous father (Michael Been of The Call). He later dropped this identity when promoting Howl.

In 2003, a concert in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England had to be cancelled half way through the set, after Leeds City Council officials suspected the 150 year old floor of Leeds Town Hall might collapse. This led to the band sometimes being referred to as ‘the band who broke the floor’. Problems with drummer Nick Jago began surfacing publicly at the 2003 NME Awards, when Jago remained on stage for nine minutes, completely silent, while accepting an award.

At the 2004 V Festival, Hayes walked out when asked to sign an inflatable penis. After conflict with their record label, the band was dropped by Virgin Records in 2004. Jago’s conflicts came to a head in Scotland, when Jago and Hayes came to blows after a tense gig. Before long, Jago quit. As such, Jago did not take part in the sessions for the band’s third album, Howl. Instead, he went through various rehab attempts, eventually rejoining the band in time to record one track, the ballad “Promise.”

In 2005 the band signed to Echo in the UK, and RCA in the U.S. Howl was released to mostly favorable reviews. It had a stripped-down folk style, a departure from the earlier B.R.M.C. sound. Several of the songs on Howl are said to have been written long before the idea of B.R.M.C. was conceived. On tour for this album the band also employed a temporary fourth member, guitarist Spike Keating.

By 2007, Nick Jago had rejoined B.R.M.C. The band’s fourth album, Baby 81, was released on April 30, 2007 in the UK and Europe and May 1, 2007 in the U.S. The band has posted several songs from Baby 81 on their MySpace page. With Baby 81, they developed a more concrete sound and style: encompassing blues, folk, and rock, while remaining angst-ridden in theme.

On June 6, 2007, BRMC performed in a concert that was streamed live on the internet via MSN Music.

In June 2008, Jago once again left BRMC’s touring line-up, being replaced by The Raveonettes’ touring drummer Leah Shapiro. Jago stated he “took it as I am fired again and to be honest with you I respect their decision”. However, Hayes and Been issued a statement reading: “Nick won’t be joining us for the upcoming European tour, but it’s not true that he is fired. We just feel Nick needs time to sort out exactly what he wants right now. His heart and all his energy and attention is on his own solo project and he needs to see that through.”

On October 27, 2008, the band announced via a MySpace bulletin that they would release their newest album independently. The album would be their first release through their own Abstract Dragon label. The album, titled, The Effects Of 333 is completely instrumental and was made available as a digital download through their official music store on 3:33 A.M Pacific Time on November 1, 2008.

On November 10, 2009 BRMC released a live DVD through Vagrant Records. It was recorded in Glasgow, Berlin, and Dublin during the Baby 81 world tour.

A song by B.R.M.C., “Done All Wrong”, appeared on the soundtrack to the 2009 film New Moon.

BRMC’s sixth studio album, Beat The Devil’s Tattoo was released March 8, 2010 in the UK & Europe and March 9, 2010 in North America.