Reverend and The Makers

Reverend and The Makers is an English band mixing up in their music traces of indie-rock and dance electronic. This group was assembled in Sheffield in 2005 by the vocalist and song writer Jon McClure who was once an intimate friend to Alex Turner, the leader of another English ensemble, Arctic Monkeys. In the hometown, McClure established himself as a talented performer pretty soon as a member of small time bands like Judan Suki, and 1984. He is also considered to have been a great help to Alex Turner when he was making his first steps on the music stage. That was why, after Arctic Monkeys rose to fame, a number of sound-recording companies approached Jon and offered him large sum contracts for gathering a group playing the same music. However, the artist refused to follow greedy motives and preferred to go his own way. Eventually he created Reverend And The Makers recruiting guitarist Tom Jarvis, keyboardists Joe Moskow and Laura Manuel with drummer Richy Westley and Stuart Doughty as a percussionist.

The just-formed ensemble gave its first show in 2005 and was happy to be invited by Arctic Monkeys in the spring of 2006 to go with them on their tour as an opening act. In a short while, Reverend And The Makers built up a legion of loyal following, which granted them at least one thousand spectators at each gig. During of such performances, they were spotted by the Wall Of Sound label’s manager Mark Jones. Impressed by what he had seen and heard, he proposed to the musicians to enter a partnership with his company, which they gladly did. The first single by Reverend And The Makers was a composition called Heavyweight Champion Of The World, released in May 2007. In September, the band issued the second single, He Said He Loved Me, shortly followed by the arrival of the full-length record entitled The State Of Things. The musician took a great risk offering a material that might have easily run unnoticed in the multitude of analogous works done in the vein of extremely modern indie-rock. But they were lucky to avoid this destiny. This became possible thank to their ability to play rock on the background of dance beats, which produced a light atmosphere loaded, however, with real guitar sounding. It was clear that Reverend And The Makers did not intend to copy Arctic Monkeys in any way and started from the very beginning forming their own style. Critics surely did like such an approach while the listeners discovered a new and interesting group.

In 2008, supporters of Reverend And The Makers were greatly frightened by McClure’s statement about his plans to leave music in the nearest future. It was possibly a word out of heart rather than mind since Westley had quit the band shortly before that. Anyway, the band prepared and released in 2009 their second long player, A French Kiss in the Chaos. This appeared a much more profound and mature work compared to its predecessor. Filled with melancholy and psychedelic mood, this record was devoted to several serious questions and executed at an even higher professional level. Now that Reverend And The Makers have two strong and many-faceted records, it is least desired to see them finish their creative activities at this point.