Horsell Common are an Australian band from Melbourne, Victoria. They made their live debut in early 2002, following this up with a string of EPs, and released their first full-length album The Rescue on 29 September 2007. The first single off the album - titled "Good From Afar" - was released on 1 September 2007 and received national airplay on the triple j radio station.
Brief history
2002 to 2004
Horsell Common made their live debut in early 2002, and released their debut EP A Who's Who Road Of Living in 2003. The song "Order" won a Kerrang! Magazine competition and "In Theory" was a "Melbourne Unearthed" finalist. "In Theory" was also released with a film clip starring celebrity criminal and Australian folk heroChopper Read, which was later banned by the ABC due to its graphic nature. In 2004 the band also released a limited edition7" vinylsingle of "Order".
2005 to 2006
In 2005, following on from the initial success of their debut recording, the band released their second EP and soon after released a split EP with fellow Melbourne band Trial Kennedy entitled The Birds & the Bees. On that EP each band recorded an acoustic cover version of a song by the other. In September 2006 the band released their fourth EP in as many years with Satellite Wonderland, which debuted at #1 on the Australian Independent Record chart. The song stayed in the top ten for six months and debuted at #14 on the Australian ARIA chart. That year Horsell Common toured with bands such as Less Than Jake, Trial Kennedy and Behind Crimson Eyes, as well as supporting Mxpx on their Australian tour.
2007 to 2008 hiatus
After completing their Satellite Wonderland tour in early 2007 Horsell Common set to work on their debut album The Rescue which was recorded at Sing Sing studios with American producer Bruce Haigler, and Engineered by Richard Stolz, the cd was then mastered at Crystal Mastering and was released on 29 September 2007, debuting at 6 on the Australian Indie Records Label Charts, the band's debut single Good From Afar on 1 September 2007,. The film clip for the single was filmed in the dissused ballroom at Flinders Street station in mid July. The band is following up the release of their debut album with numerous tours including the Breakout Festival 2007 in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with Grinspoon, The Butterfly Effect, Little Birdy, Gyroscope and Youth Group in mid September 2007. During The Rescue tour Horsell Common put a competition on their Myspacepage in which bands could enter their best song and Horsell Common would pick the best band from each state to open for the show closest to them. The bands that won were; Broadway, Day on Fire, Ember Heart, Mad Intentions, LameExcuse, Rex Banner, Returns. The tour was also supported by Melbourne band Trial Kennedy On 21 January 2008, Drummer Leigh Pengelly announced his parting with the band after the completion of their tour; his last appearance was at the Corner Hotel, Richmond on 5 April 2008. The band were auditioning drummers to replace Leigh but were unable to find a permanent replacement after Bodyjar's Shane Wakker filled in on tour during 2008..
On 22 December 2009 Horsell Common announced they were 'getting back together, just so we can break up again' for one final tour over 3 weekends in March 2010, with a gig in Adelaide at the Enigma Bar, Sydney at Spectrum and 2 final gigs at The Arthouse in Melbourne, a venue the band frequented early on in its existence. Horsell Common released one final CD entitled For Laughter, For Drama, only available to people who purchased a ticket online. It is a compilation album containing 24 tracks; all of the bands releases prior to The Rescue and unreleased tracks from the Satellite Wonderland sessions.
