Sweaty
ThE OtHeR rAmOnE
Official Website
2006 Rise
2009 Everyday Demons
2011 Revival
2013 New Horizon
2015 Raise a Little Hell
2016 Solas
2023 Sundowners
The Answer are a Northern Irish hard rock and blues-rock band from Newcastle and Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland. They have achieved success with their debut album Rise selling in excess of 30,000 copies in the UK & Europe, 10,000 on day one in Japan and 100,000 worldwide.
The Answer were formed in 2000 by guitarist Paul Mahon, whose father was a jazz trumpeter and member of seminal Irish showband The Freshmen, who released three albums on CBS and toured with the likes of the Beach Boys. Aged 18, Paul knew he wanted to put together a rock band and mentioned it to bassist Micky Waters, an old school friend who had been in numerous cover bands around Belfast.
James Heatley, who had played as Ash’s stand-in live drummer in 1993, was recruited to be the drummer for The Answer. Paul called him up only to find that he was about to take his finals at University, so the trio waited whilst James completed his degree in Psychology.
In late June 2000, the four of them got together for their debut rehearsal. 2001 was spent writing, rehearsing, gigging locally and building up a set The Answer. By 2002, the band had attracted the attention of MCD promotions in Ireland, (the company who recently bought out the Mean Fiddler Group, alongside Clear Channel), who put them on as openers at the Witnness Festival that year.
Eamonn Keyes, owner of Doghouse Studios recorded them before they were signed.
In 2005, 'Classic rock' magazine voted The Answer as 'Best New Band 2005', which brought them even more exposure. Shortly after, in November 2005, came their second official release - the single Never Too Late. They supported Deep Purple at an intimate show at the London Astoria on 17 January, 2006.
Afterwards came Into The Gutter which was released on 29 May 2006 via 7" vinyl and download only, shortly followed by debut album Rise released on 26 June 2006. The album received rave reviews from Kerrang! and The Sun[citation needed] amongst others, and was nominated for Classic Rock magazine's 'Album Of The Year' and "Best British Newcomer" in the 2006 Kerrang! awards.
The Answer played several festivals over the summer months, as well as a support slot with Whitesnake throughout their UK tour. The band also managed to secure themselves another support slot with Paul Rodgers at the Royal Albert Hall in early October 2006. This was followed by a co-headlining tour with fellow Rockers Roadstar on a tour across the UK and Europe, with further support coming from American blues-rock band Rose Hill Drive. The band was once again touring, with dates in Australia and across Europe before eventually returning for dates in Ireland and to start work on their follow-up to Rise. The band were an opening act for Aerosmith on 24 June 2007 at Hyde Park Calling.
The single Be What You Want was released on 19 March 2007, and is currently available via download-only.
The Answer have decided to re-issue the Rise album as a promotion for their summer shows and because there have been so many people complaining about download only singles. A second disc adds to the original Rise, featuring all the relevant b-sides that have not been released physically and some tracks that were recorded for the album but left off. The second disc has 15 unreleased songs on it and was released 18 June 2007. They also covered the Aerosmith song "Sweet Emotion" for a free Kerrang! CD. This was included on the second disc of the Special Edition of the Rise album.
The summer of 2007 also saw the band support The Rolling Stones at huge open-air gigs in Belgrade (Serbia), and Düsseldorf (Germany), and The Who in Dublin (Ireland).
They played a live set at the Planet Rock Radio Christmas Party, on 11 December 2007 at the Islington Academy, London, during which they were joined on stage by Free and Bad Company vocalist Paul Rodgers. Recordings of this concert were released as Live at Planet Rock Xmas Party. The band played at a Phil Lynott memorial benefit gig in Dublin, when bass player Micky Waters played Phil Lynott's black bass, becoming the first person to do so since Lynott’s death. The same instrument is used by Waters in the music video for Keep Believin'. Def Leppard's lead singer Joe Elliott is a fan of the band and during an interview with AOL has cited them as a possible influence to the way their forthcoming album will sound. Former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page is also a fan and has attended several of the band's gigs and stated so at the 2005 Classic rock magazine Roll of Honour Awards.
The band finally began to establish some inroads with American audiences when they signed with the indie label The End Records for U.S. distribution. As part of the agreement, the Answer released an EP in 2008 called Never Too Late, which contained a track from Rise as well as a song, Highwater or Hell, that would appear on their forthcoming full-length album Everyday Demons. Also aiding their visibility, the group were named as the opening act for the North American leg as well as the European leg of AC/DC’s Black Ice World Tour which began 28 October 2008.
In June 2008 they played a short set at the Isle Of Wight Festival. A few days later they went to L.A. to record their second album with John Travis. Everyday Demons is now commercially available worldwide. Sharing mixing duties are Tim Palmer and Mike Fraser.
The Answer performed as an opening act for AC/DC's Black Ice World Tour throughout North America and Europe.
What a great band, I have seen them a few times, they are worth a look, great vocals, listen to these two beauties, make sure you here the whole tracks mind
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