The Armoury Show was a New Wave band formed in 1983 by Richard Jobson on vocals, Russell Webb on bass guitar, John McGeoch on guitar and John Doyle on drums. Each member was known for being in a previously acclaimed band, as Jobson and Webb were in The Skids and McGeoch and Doyle in Magazine. The band was named after the Armory Show, a famous 1913 modern art exhibition in New York. They released only one album, Waiting for the Floods, in their brief existence.
Previously, Richard Jobson and Russell Webb were both members of the band The Skids, while John McGeoch and John Doyle had both been in Magazine. The latter band dissolved in 1981 and the first in 1982, both after their last and unsuccessful albums (Joy and Magic, Murder And The Weather, respectively). But McGeoch departed from Magazine in 1980, before the recording of the last album, joining Siouxsie and the Banshees. By the time, he replaced Stuart Adamson in The Skids for a Peel Session in 1981, being that probably their first contact with Richard Jobson and Russell Webb.
In 1986, after the releasing of the album and the next tour, McGeoch and Doyle left, with the first joining Public Image Ltd. and the latter beginning to work with the Buzzcocks singer/guitarist Pete Shelley. Jobson returned from China, where he was working as model, and reunited with Webb, calling Dave Lockwood on guitar and Ray Weston on drums for the next projects.
In 1988, after some releases in 1987, they announced the band had split up. Webb pursued a solo career (according to the band's fansite) and in 1992 followed McGeoch to Public Image Ltd. Jobson returned to a solo career and became a television presenter.
And here's the one single I have:-
mp3 : The Armoury Show - We Can Be Brave Again
mp3 : The Armoury Show - A Feeling
Next up.....Associates
1 comment:
Waiting For The Floods is one of those albums that I expected to really enjoy or would have a great impact once it was released. Instead for the past almost 30 years, I have been trying to get into it and am still not really sold on it be a successful endeavor.
I always use The Armoury Show as an example of how Punk and Post-Punk didn't produce successful super groups. Everything I love about McGeoch's guitar is either not evident or mixed so deep into the mix it's indistinguishable. Jobson's vocals are so bombastic and self-satisfied that they just annoy me. Finally, the whole 'anthem' quality of the tracks just loose me. This would be the case with Big Country as well and the post 'Don't You (Forget About Me) era Simple Minds.
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