Steve Usher | 
10 23rd, 2008| 
Think of some of the greatest things associated with England. Fish and chips, cups of tea, Winston Churchill, and teenage pregnancy are to name but a few. Now, if you collected the worth and impact of all of these icons of the Queens land you’d still be nowhere near the levels of magnificence that were achieved by a band of such untainted musical zest that citrus fruits have been known to call them up for ideas.
Reuben, an English institution to those that knew them, sadly split earlier this year, although officially on ‘hiatus’, it is not expected that they will return in their original capacity, though it is expected that they will return individually under new guises.
The band had spent a decade perfecting their sound, with a small rotation of members, but infinite grasp of their craft. So lets take a look at the history of Reuben, a biography of Reuben if you will:
The Early Reuben Days As ‘Angel’
Sometime in 1998, longtime friends Jamie Lenman and bassist Jon Pearce realised that the tunes rocking out from their garages were unfathomably awesome, and along with the long-departed Jason Wilcock formed the earliest Reuben monster, Angel. They quickly got touring a thriving local music scene and supported, or were supported by, many bands who also came to bare greater fruits, including early formations of bands such as Hundred Reasons, Vex Red, and Garrison. They spent a couple of years producing self-recorded demo’s and releasing these themselves, one of which, Betrayed, was made available on the bands official website, though it has since been taken down.
Getting To The Known And Loved Line-Up
In March 2000, they parted ways with Jason, and Mark Lawton joined as drummer, with whom they wrote and recorded the Pilot EP, which was released in January 2001 on the Badmusic label after they changed their name to Reuben. The group decided to go ahead with recording the EP after they had won a battle of the bands in Bookham, Surrey. The final day of mixing’s £100 fee was paid for entirely in £1 coins. Following the release of Pilot EP, Mark left and was replaced by current drummer Guy Davis. The new line-up toured heavily around the UK and were the subject of a 2 hour special on Zane Lowe’s XFM Radio Show, despite not yet releasing a full-length album.
Racecar Is Racecar Backwards
The long-awaited debut full-length album Racecar Is Racecar Backwards was released in June 2004. Over 10,000 sales since the release of the album sparked off the success that everyone knew was on Reuben’s horizon, spawned the chart-bothering singles “Freddy Kreuger” and “Moving To Blackwater” and led to their nomination for a Kerrang! Award for Best British Newcomer. They have gained a very loyal fanbase with their numerous singles, which were popular on the underground music scene, receiving much airplay on MTV2.
Very Fast Very Dangerous
2005 saw the release of the band’s second album, Very Fast Very Dangerous, spawning a further three singles, including the download-only “Blamethrower”. This album received some doubt from early fans due to a distinct change in sound - replacing the quick twists, turns and time-signatures heard on their first album with a simpler sound. Despite this, the album received reasonable reviews, and many of the songs featured on this album have proven popular at live shows.
In September 2005, the band played a three-song live set on the Zane Lowe show on Radio 1 in support of the then-upcoming album. The set featured a cover of the popular Gorillaz song “Feel Good Inc.” as well as two songs from the second album, “Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em” and then upcoming single “Keep it to Yourself”.
In September 2006 the band toured around the UK and Europe with Canadian punk band Billy Talent. This was the first time Reuben played in Europe.
Los Skeletos - Thier ‘Secret’ Alias
In 2005, a band under the name of Los Skeletos appeared on MySpace featuring alternative recordings of Reuben songs on their music player. Los Skeletos played a string of gigs in the same year, promoted as “Playing the hits of Reuben”. In a recent interview posted on rockmidgets.com, Jon explains the idea behind the mysterious band:
“ We wanted to play some new songs - we had a whole album’s worth, and it’s always rubbish to go and see your favourite band and them not play the hits, so we called ourselves Los Skeletos and played a couple of shows. It meant there were no Reuben fans there waiting to hear Freddy Kreuger or any of the other singles - they got to see a brand new band playing brand new songs.
In Nothing We Trust
In Nothing We Trust, released 20th November 2006, was produced by Sean Genockey with Jack Rushton (who have previously produced albums by Engerica and Smother) in Livingstone Studios, London. The album features three confirmed guest vocalists, Frank Turner, Hannah Clark (Singer from Hampshire Band Arthur and Paul Townsend (formerly of Hundred Reasons). Throughout recording the band uploaded short videos on YouTube for each day in the studio. The album was released on 25 June 2007 via Hideous Records.
Reuben were also featured on the Print Is Dead Vol. 1 project by the UK band Yourcodenameis:milo on the track “Captain of Lies”.
The band released their first DVD, a double-disc offering named What Happens in Aldershot Stays in Aldershot, on 19 March 2007, with advance copies available on the February 2007 tour. The DVD features both a documentary of life in the band and a full recording of the band’s show at London’s Mean Fiddler on April 27, 2006 (including an audio commentary) and contains all the album 3 diaries currently on YouTube plus a number of other extras and short films.
On 13 January 2007, Reuben announced that they would be running their own label, Hideous Records in order to have more control over future releases… and although lack of backing and mainstream support could have held them back, they are instead experiencing the most attention from fans and media outlets alike, of all their burgeoning career.
The video for the first single from their next album, “Blood, Bunny, Larkhall” was posted on their website on 7 May 2007. It was released on 18 June 2007, in digital format and as a limited pressing of 1000 CDs.
Their third album, In Nothing We Trust was released to critical acclaim, receiving 9/10 from Rocksound, 4/5 from Kerrang! and Q magazine and 8/10 from Hotpress.
The second single from the album, “Deadly Lethal Ninja Assassin” (featuring Frank Turner of Million Dead fame) was released on the 24th of September.
The band released a new track Christmas Is Awesome for download on December 17th in an attempt to make Christmas #1 but due to an error the wrong song was registered for chart inclusion and therefore the song was disqualified from chart entry.
The third and final song to be released from the album, “Cities On Fire” was released in March 2008 as a part of the TwoByThree EP. The EP also featured the bands Baddies and The Ghost of a Thousand both of whom accompanied Reuben on a nationwide tour in support of the EP. 500 copies were made available to purchase via record shops and the internet and a further 1000 copies were available for purchase on the accompanying tour. This was Reuben’s first release on their Hideous Records label to feature other bands.
The Unwelcome And Unexpected Reuben Hiatus
On 4th June 2008, this email was issued by Barney, the band’s manager, to all mailing list members:
“I regret to announce that Reuben are unable to play their slot on the 2000 Trees Festival in July, but they would still urge people to go anyway - it should be a great weekend. They are very sorry to disappoint fans who have already bought tickets, as you can imagine Reuben hate cancelling shows. The band are all in good health but the culmination of several pressures just makes it impossible for Jamie to go ahead with it. The band are not planning any more gigs or releases for the foreseeable future - I should make it clear that the band members are all on amicable terms and are supportive of the need to call a halt. This seems like a good time to thank everyone who has helped and encouraged Reuben along the way; some of you have been there from the start, others from last week, some are within the music industry, others are simply fans - it doesn’t matter which, you are all important and have given great strength to all concerned. Thank you so much, Barney Geronimo! Management”
So where does this all leave us? It leaves us with a chasm that will unlikely be filled by any of the current crop of band, English or otherwise. Reuben provided the music scene with a sincere and much-needed punch in the balls, reacting to the stale indisposition that tit had found itself in with the deluge of mediocre-at-best ‘emo’ bands that had swamped not just the underground scene, but had found themselves bothering charts and kids bedrooms everywhere.
In much the same way Nirvana kicked their way in to recognition on a global scale, Reuben excelled at being every fans mate, an average-joe band that might build your garden fence by day, and rip your face off with blistering riffs by night.
I, and many others, will mourn the loss of this great British band, so let’s hope that this hiatus doesn’t turn in to a permanent exile, because without them, it could be our kids that end up listening to the next Hawthorne Heights, instead of picking up a guitar and learning Blamethrower by Reuben, in a damp cold garage, somewhere in a council estate, with a bunch of good friends, the very English way.