Hurricane#1

Batten down the hatches – there’s a storm coming. Former Creation Records act Hurricane #1 are back!

After battling cancer, front man Alex Lowe has emerged triumphant (well, they do say 'only the strongest will survive') and resurrected his old band and now Hurricane #1 are about to release their first album in 16 years.

The original line up included ex-Ride guitarist/vocalist Andy Bell, Alex Lowe (vocals & guitar), bassist Will Pepper and drummer Gareth Farmer. The band split up in 1999 after releasing two full-length albums and several singles on Creation Records. Their anthemic sound was influenced by classic 60s Rock & Roll, Soul and Country Rock, but with a contemporary edge. Superstar DJ Paul Oakenfold remixed their debut single, and UNKLE’s James Lavelle revamped “Only The Strongest Will Survive”.

After the demise of Hurricane#1, Lowe concentrated on his solo career – his most recent album was recorded under the name Gun Club Cemetery and came out last year on Alan McGee’s new label 359 Music. McGee has been the driving force behind bringing Hurricane#1 back from the dead. This time around, former boxer Lowe has been joined by Brazilian brothers Carlo and Lucas Mariani on guitar and bass, and Chris Campbell on drums. Says Lowe: “I’m really excited about the new line up – there is a real buzz about it and I can’t wait to get back on the road in 2015. It’s going to be fun. It’s great to be back with such a gifted band. It’s been a tough couple of years, but I’ve never been more convinced that this is the time for Hurricane#1. Bring it on!”

The new album came about when Alex was in hospital undergoing cancer treatments. Alex says: “I would sit there on the bed for hours just thinking, staring out the window, then I thought if I’m spending my time in here doing nothing, I may as well try and keep busy, so I wrote most of the album in hospital.” At the time of writing it Alex wanted to write something happy and not too dark to get him out of the horrible state he was in at the time. “When you are wired up to chemo and radio therapy, the last thing you want to do is wallow in it and feel sorry for yourself so I had the idea that the album should be happy and not too dark. I knew I wanted it to be a very organic album, back to basics type of sound, nothing fancy, just good tunes played in a good Rock ‘n’ Roll manner.” The album was recorded in Turriff Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where Steve Ransome, an old friend of Alex, runs a studio. During the recording sessions Andy Bell contributed the backwards guitar sounds on “Think Of The Sunshine”. For the artwork the band hunted down loads of ideas, but couldn’t find anything they liked, so Alex painted it. “It's all original artwork I did for this album, a bit what like John Squire did for the Roses, I think it works great.”

Hurricane#1 will be touring in 2016 and Lowe promises that the band will sound bigger and better than ever. Prepare to be blown away.

“Just enjoy this album, feel happy and listen. At the end of the day it's only music and critics, and people get so caught up in it all and they try to analyse songs. Please, don’t do it with this album! Think happiness when you listen to it!” Alex Lowe