Bio

The Crash

Pony Ride

“Pony Ride” is a spanking and sparkling new album by The Crash, ready-made for Party Girls and Disco Boys everywhere. But, if you find yourself falling somewhere between these two classic schools of hedonistic enjoyment, worry not friend, just slip into some groovy make-up and slap on a bowtie or ballgown, and you are good to go!

Described by someone, somewhere (we don’t care who) as “the band that happens when The Jackson 5 meets Duran Duran in Wonderland”, The Crash were not born just yesterday, you know. They are three albums old – that’s 21 in dog years. And they spent their teenage formative years wisely, honing, honing, honing, like a bullet-butted, bronzed Adonisette, learning to dance with Olivia Newton-John (did you also used to call her Olivia Nothing-On?) and playing along with Chic, London Suede, and Van Halen, praying daily at the Altar of Ziggy, just for luck. Until one day, like a butterfly from it’s old skin, or Oprah after a diet, The Crash emerged from it’s shiny, neon leotard and, after a hot shower (of course), snugged itself into it’s bestest clothes of all.

And here it all is now. “Pony Ride”. Fully formed. The real deal. Let’s explain some more….

Prince left his fingerprints somewhere on the title track that kicks off the album, while the band were busy “shagging by the fire”. Listen to it. It’ll make you smile. Then comes “Big Ass Love”. A song about a love that is, like, really big. For the full story, check out the cartoon hamsters that act out the tale in the video. They will make you smile too.

“Star (Solitudinarian)” is an old favourite, taken down off the shelf and polished up to shine like a…star. MTV liked this one.

How would we describe “Lauren Caught My Eye”? Hmm, ok, imagine Catherine Deneuve drinking café au lait with Vanessa Paradis in one of those idyllic, old-skool Parisian cafes (oh my god! Imagine that!). On the TV in the corner, Michel Platini is bending another beautiful free kick into a gaping goal, while Marcel Marceau is pretending to be a TV in the other corner. And if The Crash walked in and set up their gear, then “Lauren” would be the song they would play. And everyone in the café would smile and think it was a really cool thing to do.

But, if by now you are starting to think that these boys are just out for a good time, then now’s the time to think again. “Grace” is the place where they wheel out the Baby Grande, and the singer probably sits on a stool on stage to sing this one. You lot get out the lighters to sway, and we all take a deep breath and feel our hearts beating in glorious colours as this simple love song engulfs us as one. Sometimes it can be dangerous for the heart to be in the audience of The Crash.

We could go on, detail by detail of what to expect, but by now you should have got the picture. “Pony Ride”, like its rider, is here purely to make you feel good. To feel. To laugh and cry all at once. Like Disney sometimes does.

“Stay” should be a Eurovision winner. But a damn good one. “Stalker” is the twisted love song that continues, lyrically, where Sting didn’t dare go with “Every Breath You Take”. “Filthy Flower” sounds like it’s drunk. Happy drunk. Clean drunk. On wine and candy, not beer and fags. “Reasons To Sing” gives lots of reasons..To sing. And then we reach “Backstage”, bringing the curtain down in classic style. A song all about a band learning to write songs that they hope will be played on the radio, which will lead to playing concerts in stadiums, which will bring enough fame for them to finally get to meet their hero backstage. Not the most obvious way to go about meeting your idols but, then again, that’s The Crash for you.

So, from now on be shameless. Embrace unguilty pleasures. Enjoy the joy……

Recorded History

1998

The Crush changes its name to The Crash.
A self financed 4 track demo called “The Black EP” is picked up by Finnish national radio and tracks are play-listed on the main evening show.
Warner Music Finland wins the race to sign the band to a 3 album deal.

1999

January – Single, ‘World Of My Own’ is released and also receives play-list treatment.
May – Another single ‘Sugared’ is released and becomes a huge hit in Finland.
June – Debut album ‘Comfort Deluxe’ is released in Finland to overwhelming critical approval and goes on to reach Gold sales status.

2000

April – The Crash plays its first ever show outside Finland, in Stockholm, Sweden
September – The Crash performs at In The City in Manchester receiving a rave review from Melody Maker as one of the finds of the event.
October – The Crash tours Austria where ‘Sugared’ has become a hit.

2001

August – ‘Lauren Caught My Eye’ is released in Finland as the first single from the follow up album, ‘Wildlife’, and shoots straight to #3 on the charts, staying in the airplay top 50 for 1 year.
September – The album ‘Wildlife’ is released in Finland to huge acclaim and also reaches #3 in the charts, staying in the top 40 for 6 months and again reaching Gold sales status.
October – The video for ‘Lauren Caught My Eye’ becomes the first video ever by a Finnish artist to be given full power play rotation on MTV and becomes a firm favourite with the voting viewers on the MTV Nordic Up North top 10, staying at #1 for 6 weeks.

2002

‘Lauren Caught My Eye’ becomes an established hit throughout Scandinavia reaching the top 3 in Denmark and the top 5 in the Swedish airplay chart.
February/March/April – The Crash plays more than 50 shows in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark & Finland opening for Eskobar and Weeping Willows. The audience and media fall in love with the band.
April – ‘Star’ is released as a single and becomes another Scandinavian hit
May – The Crash plays its first headline tour in Sweden, Norway and Denmark
August – ‘New York’ is the 3rd single to be released from ‘Wildlife’.
September – The Crash plays 4 huge shows to over 60,000 people opening for a-ha in the Baltics. The band has to turn down an offer from A-ha to play with them in UK (including Wembley Arena) due to lack of support from the UK record company.
November – The Crash is nominated for the Best Nordic Act Award at the MTV Europe Awards in Barcelona, along with The Hives, Royksopp, Saybia and, eventual winners, Kent.

2003

September – ‘Still Alive’ is the first single to be released from the band’s 3rd album and reaches #2 in the Finnish chart.
October – ‘Melodrama’ is released in Finland and goes straight to #2, quickly becoming the band’s 3rd consecutive Gold selling album in Finland.
December – E-Bay use a 45 second clip of ‘Star’ (from ‘Wildlife’) in an extensive national TV advertising campaign in Germany that lasts for 6 months. This is the biggest Tv campaign in German TV history and leads to Star being released commercially.

2004

January – The Crash plays 10 sold out German arena shows with local band Reamonn
February – ‘Star’ reaches #23 on the German Singles chart and #36 on the airplay chart.
The band do interviews and have their videos played all across central Europe and are covered extensively in the European press including MTV, Viva, Bravo and DW.
April – ‘Still Alive’ wins both critics and viewers awards at Finnish Video Awards for Best Finnish Video.
May/June – The Crash plays 6 more sold out German arena shows with local band Sportfreunde Stiller, including a final show at the Olympic Hall in Munich, plus 7 headline shows – the band’s first headline tour in Germany.
August – The Crash plays several festivals and club dates in Germany, Switzerland and Austria to support ‘Melodrama’.

2005

March – The Crash perform at SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. They are picked out as one of the top bands to see by all the leading music media including Music Week, Billboard, Record of The Day, A&R Worldwide and the Austin American Statesmen. Several US labels express interest in the band.
The band also plays shows in LA at The Viper Room and NYC at CBGB’s
Due to frustration at the lack of penetration through Warner, the band decides not to renew its recording deal with Warner Finland and decide to self finance it’s next album with a view to licensing the master in every territory.
For the rest of 2005 a bidding war breaks out for the band’s publishing rights. They eventually agree a deal with EMI Publishing Germany.
September – Warner Music Finland releases a compilation of the band’s songs in Finland only, called Selected Songs. The limited edition includes a bonus dvd of all the band’s videos to date and becomes an instant collectors item.
December – The band signs a sub-publishing deal with EMI Music Publishing out of Germany.

2006

January – The Crash is one of the headline acts at the opening night of MIDEM’s 40th Anniversary in Cannes. A rush of interest from labels around the world follows the showcase.
March – EMI Music Publishing UK organizes a successful London showcase for the band to perform to a private audicnce of EMI Music Publishing executives from 25 offices around the world.
June – The Crash perform to a host of record labels in UK and USA.
July – The band proceeds to record its 4th studio album which will be called Pony Ride.
September – Pony Ride is released to strong reviews and shoots straight to #2 of the Finnish album charts.
October – The band performs a showcase at Finland’s Music & Media event in front of an invited audience of international delegates from the music industry. This leads to offers for releases and tours in USA, UK and Japan.
November – The band enters into an agreement with Volvo Finland who finance the video for Pony Ride with great success. The video is picked up for maximum exposure on MTV Finland and other music channels.
December – The Crash completes its most successful Finnish tour ever, with 20 shows all sold out in advance.

2007

January – The Crash enters its first ever license deal abroad by signing a deal with Melbourne-based record label, Rubber Records. This guarantees Pony Ride a release in Australia & New Zealand.
February – An exclusive deal is signed with Rykodisc/Warner for USA, Canada, UK and Eire.
March – The Crash perform at the Rykodisc showcase at SXSW.
April – The Crash sign a deal with Tokyo-based label, Treasure Music, to release Pony Ride in Japan.
May – Pony Ride is released in Japan on 23rd May. The Crash perform at the Liquid Room, Tokyo on 25th May and spend 1 week in Japan promoting the album.