Given lines to read that are not our own, half of them cut before opening night, most of us live Thoreau’s lives of quiet desperation. Some of us try to raise our voices, only to be drowned out by witless drunken heckles from the crowd…

And some of us have amplifiers. Loud ones.

Some of us never quite recovered from that intoxicating rush we got the first time we heard Little Richard speaking in tongues, or Hendrix tearing into that infernal tritone, or The Clash demanding a riot of their own. Some of us find meagre relief in dank practice spaces and stale backrooms, moments of clarity amid the squeal of a too-loud half-stack, and the reverb-drip of a club PA…

Let's face the music and dance...

STEVE MALONEY vocals, guitar

Former singer/guitarist with Johnny Zhivago, Steve decided - for reasons best known to himself, and probably entirely irrational - to hurl himself into the fray of the "entertainment" business once again with a band that would fully articulate his contempt for just about everyone and everything in the entire world. You think he's joking...

JACK FOWLER bass, vocals

After a few abortive attempts, Vicious Cabaret finally started to pick up momentum when Jack took on the four-string duties. Having thought themselves unshockable, the rest of the band were quite horrified by his lack of moral restraint, and respect was grudgingly forthcoming...

PETE DEVINE drums, percussion, vocals

As dependable as his sledgehammer beats is Mr. Devine's contempt for anyone who does not share his love for nauseau-inducingly loud rock music. Don't be fooled by his affable exterior - the man is a sociopath and he means to do you harm...

Vicious Cabaret came together in Leeds, England in 2004. After a few personnel changes, the line-up of Steve Maloney, Jack Fowler, Pete Devine, and guitarist Phil Laycock was settled upon.

They inflicted a self-financed, debut EP - 'Twilight Of The Idols' - on an unsuspecting (yet highly suspect) public in early 2005. Mainstream press proved elusive, but underground organs such as Trakmarx and Unpeeled joined the cause.

A squalid UK tour followed, at the end of which the band found themselves slimmed down to a trio. By the end of the year, they were out on tour again, with fellow Leeds wasters The Playmates. This time, all of them made it back in one piece; physically if not psychologically...

Borderline Records caught the band in mid-2006 supporting Jim Reid (Jesus & Mary Chain) and offered to release a second EP, to have been entitled 'The Devil Looks After His Own'. However, distribution problems meant this failed to materialise. Undaunted, the band started work on an album, which was completed in early 2007.

'The Next Utopia Will Be Better' was released in late 2007 on Borderline/Imprint Records, with distribution via Cargo and State 51...

Band photographs © John Flynn 2007. Used with permission.