William play their final ever gig on Saturday 31st July at their spiritual home, The Fox in Lewisham. You can view more details of the night on the Facebook event here.
We’ve put together a Soundcloud tribute to the band, collecting together some of our favourite songs of theirs. Feel free to share the Soundcloud link as you deem appropriate.
We’ll be choking back the tears on Saturday, while raising one final triumphant fist with the spirit they always channeled. Come join us.
Sad news arrived yesterday with the announcement that Tough Love mainstays William have decided to call it a day, splitting up after 6 years of being awesome.
We’ve been working with the guys since our fifth release, so it feels a little like an end of an era .But they’re left behind three great singles and two albums that can go on forever in their absence. And that’s not to mention all the fantastic shows and great times just hanging out. Thanks for the memories, boys!
But that might not be the end of the good times, as Gavin has a side project that’s now increasingly looking like a main project. Check it out here.
As a celebration of the great music they made, we’ve put both their records on sale (£5 and £3.50 respectively). You can pick them up from here, if you don’t already have them
I’ve copied in below the following message from the band, which they posted from their Facebook page yesterday (note the final farewell show in June):
“Hello Everyone!
After much discussion we (William) have decided to ‘call it a day’, as they say. We’ve come to this decision and decided we just want to do other things with our lives. It’s been an amazing six years (yes, I said six years) of writing, recording and playing live shows and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed every minute of meeting new people, playing with amazing bands and being able to release records with a brilliant and understanding label such as Tough Love.
It won’t completely be the end though as Gavin is continuing with his solo project, Sicamore, for which he is also forming a band. It will be excellent, so keep an eye out for that!
So, what do bands do when they decide to split up? They hold a massive booze up of a last show!!! This will be held at The Fox in Lewisham, SE London. For those of you who know us, you’ll know that it’s our local and a place that has also been extra special to us over the years. All I can tell you right now is that it’s being held on June 26th (put in dairies now!) and it’ll be epic! Support will be confirmed shortly and I’ll let you know more as and when.
Thank you to everyone who has helped us out over the years, come to see us live, purchased our records and been genuinely enthusiastic. Extra special thanks goes out to Stephen and Ryan from Tough Love Records, Jason Edwards from The Art of Agency and YOU for paying attention.
Huw Stephens and his team of real gold were good enough to invite us to be featured as ‘DIY Record Label of the Week’ on their show last night. Quite an honour.
Since we’re only telling you about this now, you will have likely missed Huw reading out my answers to their questions, and hearing them play William‘s “Dilettante” and “Nightcycles” by Seams. But because it’s not 1987 and we’re not still taping the radio for posterity, you can Listen Again (for 7 days at least – history gets shorter) by following the link below. We feature around about the 1hr 33mins 30 secs mark. Roughly speaking.
And one more thing, listen out for a Fair Ohs session to be recorded and aired in the next month or so. Not sure what they’re going to do, but I’m excited about the prospect of new songs.
If ever anybody tries to convince you that ‘DIY production’ is easy and cheap and that you should go and do it, you can call them a liar from us. Putting together TLV033 took the entirety of Saturday and Sunday, furnished with bloody papercut fingers and induced thousand yard stares. But we made something beautiful.
These here photos are our weekend in work. Not pictured are the 1000s of hand-folded and -cut fanzines that took an entire Saturday to assemble. It’s worth it. It has to be.
And yes, I know what you’re all wondering – yes, it is an original Bretton hat.
A1: Calories – “Mortal Boys”
A2: Calories – “Drink The Potion”
B1: William – “Dilettante”
B2: William – “Lustreless”
7″ white vinyl
+ exclusive fanzine/poster
Limited to 500 hand-numbered copies
The latest release in the Tough Love split 7″ series brings together Birmingham natives Calories and south-London power trio William. Aesthetically, this record makes a lot of sense to us, both bands charged on the same post-punk/post-hardcore records and coming out of leftfield with a lot of pop structure suss.
Artwork (below) is provided by man-machine and human ink-pad Gordon Armstrong . He’s also the man responsible for the free fanzine/poster inserted into the record sleeve, and the various illustrations and videos that have adorned Vilest Thug Loop. Speaking of which, over the coming weeks, all of the tracks will be streaming on VTL.
The record is now available for pre-order from our Shop here. All orders will be shipped two weeks prior to official release (Monday 15th February) and we’ll also send you a code to download all of the songs for free. Launch parties in respective hometowns have already been announced (see here and here), but that you already know.
I’m pre-conditioned to love Sicamore, being that it’s the name given to the side-project of William frontman, Gavin Housley. I’ve been listening to his bathroom/bedroom solo recordings in some form for some time now, once even honoured to have him give a rare performance in our garden. He covered Jayhawks songs, while The Sequins/Honeytrap drummer bled all over his guitar.
But on “Why Must We” there’s a giant step taken, not so much forward, as outwards. Even if you’re a huge fan of William, it’s likely that you’re unaware of Housley’s solo work, because he’s kept it hidden away, so at odds is it with the triumphant force of the band. But listening closer, the clues are there – that guitar, those sometimes cryptic sometimes direct lyrical allusions, and then that voice. That voice.
“Why Must We” comes almost fully formed too, not just a guitar and voice, but fleshed out to suggest a kind of yearning to communicate on a wider scale, lyrics even wrapped around these same concerns, of trying not to say the same old thing, the same old way. Words creep out rather than exorcised by sheer aggression, but there’s the same intent present that defines his vocals in William, whispered into ears now, but still softly blistering like slow summer sun. You may have to lean in a little harder to hear, but “Why Must We” is Sicamore leaning back, meeting you halfway, for the first time.
