The Loaded celebrate 10 years together
by AndyHoldcroft, 01 Jun 2017
Happy tenth birthday to top local band The Loaded, comprising Paul Quinn on vocals and guitar, Jon Harte who plays lead guitar, Jez Hanley on bass and vocals and lastly but far from least, Dave Emery, the group's drummer.
Fairly implicit in my opening is that the band came together in 2007, being a good example of a local supergroup as Paul & Jon had been playing together for over a decade already in well regarded outfits such as Kinky Love and Jez & Dave likewise in bands such as P.S.O.V: naturally all four originally got to know each other & respect each other's playing while playing on the same bills with their respective bands.
Since then, a strong stream of critically acclaimed EPs such as "No Judge, No Jury, No Appeals, No Deals" and a career-to-date spanning album "That Was Then, This is Now" have been released to complement their very strong live reputation.
Now, to mark this anniversary, the band, currently selected as Coventry & Warwickshire's BBC Introducing Artists of the Month by Hannah Tobin & Brody Swain, gave a Big Lottery funded "Sounding Off" session at Coventry Music Museum, quizzed by the curator Pete Chambers BEM (see pictured with them here). To a packed & enthusiastic audience, they gave a most articulate run through of their careers (both individual & collective), influences and plans. They spoke of their gig history, both in terms of favourite venues (regretting the recent loss of the Albany for example and their pride in playing the Godiva Festival) and working with artists such as The Selecter & Bez, while offering suggestions of local bands for the audience to keep an eye & ear open for.
They also played a number of acoustic songs to demonstrate why they have the reputation they do and why a tenth anniversary is bound to be only part of their eventual full story.
Film of the session & photos can be found on the Coventry Music Museum Facebook page and more on the band at:
https://www.facebook.com/theloadedcov/with tracks at
https://soundcloud.com/the-loaded-cov