Some Velvet Morning - Enjoy the Silence

Some Velvet Morning are a British indie / alternative rock band consisting of Desmond Lambert (vocals, guitar), Rob Flanagan (drums) and Gavin Lambert (bass, vocals). Formed in 2000, they have released four albums: Silence Will Kill You, Allies, Musical Chairs and Rough Seas. Across these four album releases, they have continued to build a series of film and TV placements for their music with brands including Renault, Volkswagen, Haig Club, Pull & Bear and The Grand Tour.

The band, named after the song Some Velvet Morning by Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood, was formed as a result of a chance meeting between Rob Flanagan (formerly part of an early lineup for the 22-20s) and Desmond Lambert in Denmark Street – London’s historic equivalent of Tin Pan Alley. The pair agreed to meet for a jam in Harrow, where coincidentally they both lived at the time. Lambert brought in his brother Gavin on bass, whilst Flanagan later asked a recent acquaintance, Yann McCullough to join on keyboards.

The band’s debut appearance took place at The Rock Garden, London in 2001, followed by a series of shows at the famous Cavern Club in Liverpool, a city where Flanagan had previously resided as a student at Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. During this time, Yann McCullough worked as a runner at Air-Edel studios in London. This led to the band cutting their first demos out of hours, whilst building a following on the London club circuit.

In 2003, McCullough left the band to pursue a career as a film music composer and editor. The band decided to continue as a trio, with a brief foray into material inspired by the then current crop of modern R 'n' B artists. Combining this genre with their older soul/rock based originals, the band came to the attention of manager Vicki Wickham and Nona Hendryx, formerly of Labelle. The duo were in London looking for artists to sign to their new label, Rhythmbank Entertainment. After an audition by the band (fresh from a residency season in Cannes), Some Velvet Morning were signed to the label in 2004.

2005 was a period of development for the band, with the label assembling a team, including A&R man Tris Penna to work with Wickham and Hendryx. Heavily influenced by The White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand and other emerging indie acts, Some Velvet Morning’s new material began to take on a heavier rock feel, with two songs Losing My Mindand Godless emerging as the blueprint for material to come. Under the direction of producer Rik Simpson, the band cut masters of these two songs at Mayfair Studios in 2006, followed by the album Silence Will Kill You at The Fish Factory Studios in London, where they also worked with producer Mike Pelanconi (aka Prince Fatty).

Some Velvet Morning continued to perform live around the UK supporting the radio success of Losing My Mind. A tour of the east coast of America followed with the release of Silence Will Kill You in October 2007, supported by a TV debut appearance on Fox 5’s Fearless Music show. Due to BBC Radio 2’s support for the album in the UK, the band also made their live radio debut on Janice Long's show later that year.

Shortly after the release of Silence Will Kill You, Rhythmbank Entertainmemt went into liquidation, leaving the band without a label at the start of 2008. During this period, Some Velvet Morning began writing new material which would attract the attention of music manager, James Wilkinson (the band had two previous managers for short periods - Jo Beckett & Natalie Plessis). Wilkinson had met Rob Flanagan at an Ivor Novello Awards party and the two struck up an immediate friendship. He had been impressed by the band’s new demos and their recent successful trip to Bangkok as part of a Heineken Green Space festival.

The first publicity stunt of the Wilkinson-Some Velvet Morning partnership was a rooftop concert tribute to The Beatles, played on the top of the PRS For Music building in London, 40 years after the Fab Four had played their farewell show in Saville Row at the Apple headquarters. Although performing a set of original material, the band did end with a coda of the Lennon-McCartney song Don't Let Me Down. Like the original show, the local authorities investigated the performance due to concerns of excessive noise levels.

With his background in film and TV music, Wilkinson scooped the band a key music placement in 2010 - the international trailer for Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass film. The exposure led to further interest from Jimmy Mikaoui & Paul Rene Albertini at a new Anglo-French crowdfunding label called My Major Company. In 2010, the band joined the roster of a number of hopeful acts, aiming to raise money on the new platform to make an album. In just six weeks, Some Velvet Morning raised £100,000 and signed to My Major Company for the production of their second album, Allies.

With Desmond Lambert’s rising experience as a producer, the band spent 2011 working on material and recording in London and Brighton for the Allies album, in between UK festival appearances. A second trip to Bangkok that summer found the band performing at the ‘Heavyweight Rock The Ring’ festival and retaining the boxing ring theme to shoot the video for the first single from Allies, Don’t Think. 2012 saw the international release of Allies, which the band extensively toured into 2013, with live performances across Europe and particularly in France, where My Major Company secured healthy radio exposure for the single How To Start A Revolution. The 2013 tour culminated with a second headline appearance at Masillia Rock in Marseille.

Parting ways with My Major Company, who had closed their UK operation, another chapter also closed with James Wilkinson standing down as the band manager in late 2013, yet a partnership with Wilkinson on film and TV placements has continued. 2014 saw the band perform regular shows at the Roundhouse in London including a collaboration with choreographer Andy Turner for the Wella Trendvision Awards, where the band performed re-worked versions of Losing My Mind, How To Start A Revolution and Stone Cold for the fashion show. They also teamed up with veteran UK rock band, The Yardbirds, for a one-off show at London’s Bush Hall venue.

Towards the end of 2015, Some Velvet Morning began thinking about a new way to release their new material. The result was the idea of writing, recording and issuing one song a month digitally for 2016. A physical EP Musical Chairs (with the first three singles plus a bonus track) was released to coincide with the band’s London Roundhouse appearance in March. Eventually the 12 songs were compiled as an album, Musical Chairs at the end of 2016.

Due to the band’s success with How To Start A Revolution being placed in a pan European advertisement for Renault, Some Velvet Morning were booked by the Transformation Trust to appear at Wembley Arena in the summer of 2017 with The Vamps.

Several songs from Musical Chairs plus others from the band’s catalogue provided the basis for the soundtrack to Boudica Entertainment’s Kat And The Band feature film, starring Ella Hunt and Dougie Poynter from McFly, which went into production in 2018, but would finally be released in 2020.

2020 presented the band with a unique challenge of completing their album, Rough Seas separately during the Coronavirus lockdown. With the basic tracks already recorded in London, the album was completed in Westport, Eire and saw a reunion with Rik Simpson as Executive Producer. The album Rough Seas was released in March 2021. Good To See You became a regular fixture on broadcasts for Sky Sports and the BBC 2020 Euro Highlights, as fans returned to the sports stadiums after the coronavirus pandemic.