Brit guitar-rockers The Godfathers have begun work on what will be the recently reunited band’s first new album in 15 years when it arrives as planned sometime in 2010.
Earlier this summer, frontman Peter Coyne confirmed on the band’s Web site that the group — working with new guitarist Del Bartle, who replaced the recently fired Kris Dollimore — has begun writing songs for the follow-up to 1995’s Afterlife.
Coyne writes: “There have indeed been many distractions along the way since we reformed last year, but right now I’m tingling with excitement at the prospect of our creative sparks rubbing together and what we are going to come up with next.” The band members hope to pen 20-25 songs, then cull the material down to 12-14 tracks, Coyne writes.
“What ‘direction’ or ‘shape’ or ‘form’ this new material will eventually take is down to us as individuals & as a group – but I’d personally want to hear plenty of freaky rock & roll music, ultra-melodic stuff that gets stuck in your brain & won’t let go, something shockingly different to the majority of crap that masquerades as modern music these days…you know, The Godfathers – but NOW!!”
The band — best known on these shores for its surging late-’80s college radio hits “Birth School Worth Death” and “She Gives Me Love” — last year reunited its original lineup of vocalist Coyne, his brother Chris Coyne on bass, guitarists Dollimore and Mike Gibson, and drummer George Mazur. Since then, the Godfathers have played throughout the UK and Europe, but ended up mostly aborting a short U.S. trek earlier this year in favor of a single Valentine’s Day show in Chicago. At the time, the band attributed the scaled-down U.S. tour to the global financial crisis, but, in recent postings to the message board on the Godfathers’ official site, Peter Coyne squarely blames Dollimore, saying the guitarist “was a pain in the arse from the moment we started discussing reforming the band.”
As Coyne writes:
“The last straw for me with him was America. ALL the band agreed to do a 12 date tour of the States, but as soon as the dates were announced & tickets had gone on sale he decided that he did not want to do it (again never mind the fans or agents or clubs) & had to be ‘sweet-talked’ into doing JUST the Chicago Valentine’s Day Massacre. Then he demanded a seperate HOTEL from the rest of the group, totally blanked any fans in America & refused to communicate properly with myself, Mike or George.”
Upon the band’s return, Coyne writes, he sacked Dollimore. The guitarist quickly was replaced by a familiar face: Bartle, who played with the Coyne brothers in their pre-Godfathers band, The Sid Presley Experience. For his part, Dollimore does not appear to have spoken publicly about his second split from the Godfathers (he first left the band following 1989’s More Songs About Love and Hate). As a solo artist, Dollimore plays the blues, and has a new album, Now Was the Time, due out Oct. 27.
As for the Godfathers, the band doesn’t have any shows booked at the moment, although on the message board, Mazur notes “a strong possibility” of some French dates in September or October, and Peter Coyne writes, “We will be doing our utmost to tour the States once we have sorted out a couple of visa issues that (are) stopping us at present.”
See live video of the Godfathers after the jump…
Video: The Godfathers, “Birth School Work Death,” live at the Garage, London, 7/24/09
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