Goldheart Assembly: British Music Abroad
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SXSW 2011
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Goldheart Assembly formed in 2007, as a group of six musicians from various different bands. They met at club nights, at Covent Garden’s Rock Garden, run by now-bandleaders James Dale and John Herbert. Slowly, after a period of “band hopping and stand ins,” a stable line-up became Goldheart Assembly, who bonded over a mutual love of The Beatles and named themselves after a Guided By Voices tune, Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory. Founding members James Dale and John Herbert often joke about how they met whilst working as zookeepers at Whipsnade Zoo.
In 2009 they recorded a live session for Steve Lamacq on BBC Radio 1, being the first unsigned band to do so “in years”. In the same year, the band performed on the BBC Introducing Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, as well as a headline slot at the Camden Crawl and appearances at Isle of Wight, Wychwood, Middlesbrough Music Live, Reading, Leeds and V festivals.
Goldheart Assembly’s debut single, a double A-side featuring the tracks So Long St. Christopher and Oh Really, was released on 15 June 2009 on the independent label Heron Recordings.
In late 2009 Goldheart Assembly signed to the independent UK label Fierce Panda Records. Their debut album, Wolves and Thieves, was released to digital download on 8 March 2010, with CD release on 15 March. The majority of the album was recorded at Forncett Industrial Steam museum in Norfolk, England, and several tracks feature the sound of live steam engines. The remaining tracks were recorded at Jools Holland’s Helicon studios with British producer Laurie Latham.
In June 2010 it was announced that guitarist Dominic Keshavarz had left the band.
It was announced in January 2011 that the band has started to produce a new LP.