The Miserable Rich
The Miserable Rich are a Brighton, UK, chamber pop quintet, formed in 2007 and comprised of: Will Calderbank (cello), James de Malplaquet (vocals), Mike Siddell (violin), Ricky Pritchard (acoustic guitar, piano) and Rhys Lovell (double bass). Their latest album is "Miss You In The Days" (Oct 2011, Humble Soul).
"deserves to eat your soul on the long, burning road to Hell" - Mark Beaumont, BBC Music.
"with this third album they’ve produced something of a masterpiece" - The Word.
Tinkering with a winning formula can be a dangerous tactic, but after two critically lauded albums and three years of touring, The Miserable Rich decided that their third album warranted a different approach. So they holed themselves up in a stately home in Norfolk to write and record, bringing in a recording engineer and a drummer. Blickling Hall, the haunted ancestral home of the Boleyn family, provided the setting, and they spent a dark, bitter month isolated from the outside world, putting together the new tracks.
Miss You In The Days adds drums, electric guitar and piano to the band’s more recognizable core of violin, cello and double bass, achieving the desired heavier, more rhythmic sound (yes, now you can dance to The Miserable Rich!), and lyrically the songs play with themes of sex, death and possession.
The resultant album was unveiled at Halloween 2011 to immediate critical acclaim at home, in Europe and across the internet, making several critics’ top tens of the year.
'Like Beirut hosting a Wuthering Heights theme Halloween party, it’s a record that grows goose-bumps in the night... and so much more. It deserves to make The Miserable Rich leading players in a chamber pop movement in rude health... It deserves a Mercury Prize nod. And it deserves to eat your soul on the long, burning road to Hell.' Mark Beaumont, BBC Online
'TMR produce consistently beautiful, haunting music, and with this third album they’ve produced something of a masterpiece - sounds like the house band for Mary Shelley's hen night' The WORD
'playful, eloquent and sweepingly romantic' The Digital Fix
To tie in with the ghostly themes of the album’s songs, the band decided to organize a tour with a more theatrical feel than the venues they would normally visit… Fans were treated to a series of shows in unusual buildings such as Oxford Castle, the Crypt of St John the Baptist’s Church in Bristol, Westminster Library, and a very special Halloween show at Blickling Hall itself.
'exuded warmth and humour throughout a note-perfect set. Magical. This is so utterly brilliant.' The WORD
'one if the UK's best live bands' Neon Filler
The Miserable Rich's story began in Brighton in 2007 when Will Calderbank (cello), Mike Siddell (violin) and James de Malplaquet (vocals) met whilst playing in the much-loved alt-folk band Shoreline. James had a collection of songs of his own, and he, Will and Mike set about revisiting some of those songs using cello and violin to play all the lead parts, much like a baroque chamber ensemble. Inspiration came from an afternoon listening Colin Blunstone's 1970 classic “Say You Don't Mind” and the Kronos Quartet's Kraftwerk covers album. Over the summer months of 2007 (mostly in James's flat in Hove) they put together a debut album with a little help from their friends, now more widely known as The Willkommen Collective (Shoreline, The Leisure Society, Sons of Noel and Adrian). The band’s lineup was completed when Rhys Lovell (double bass) and Ricky Pritchard (guitar/piano) joined.
That first album, Twelve Ways to Count, was described as “heartbreakingly beautiful” by NME and was 6Music Album of The Day in November 2008. First single, Boat Song, was iTunes Single Of The Week, and has become a long-term favourite of Marc Riley and Guy Garvey on 6Music.
Sophomore album, Of Flight & Fury, saw the band extend their reach, with sessions on Radio 4's Loose Ends and Mark Lamarr's Radio 2 show, God's Own Jukebox. Two videos (for “Somerhill” and “Hungover”) were filmed with Wasp Video, leading to the band being invited to score the short film “The Girl Is Mime” for the 48hr Film Project. The film stars Martin Freeman (The Office, Sherlock); it won the top awards in the International 48hr Film Project competition and was shown at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and at the prestigious LA shorts Festival. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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