biography

London After Midnight was formed in the early 1990s. Formed by singer/guitarist Sean Brennan in Los Angeles, the band includes Tamlyn (keyboard) and Michael Areklett (bass). These members have been in the band since 1990 (Sean and Tamlyn) to early 1992 (Michael). In 2001 LAM reunited with their original guitarist Edward Hawkins and was joined by new drummer, Joe S.

LAM began performing in Los Angeles in 1990 at the legendary LA club Helter Skelter. LAM immediately began to draw fairly large crowds and always had elaborate stage settings including several TVs playing bizarre video clips and stage props that could have come from the Universal Studios backlot, all made by Sean Brennan with help from Tamlyn and guitarist Eddie Hawkins. Needless to say the extreme stage settings (some of which included a huge 30 by 40 foot realistic spiders web hung above the stage made by Brennan and Hawkins- not pictured) attracted as much attention as the band's music which soon grew in popularity. So much so that the original 4 song demo cassette tape released in 1990 was the hottest selling item in Hollywood's trendy Melrose ave indie record stores, even beating out new releases from Duran Duran and other major bands. For 2 years the most sought after item LA area club kids searched for in record stores was the LAM cassette tape. Signs hung in record store windows proclaiming "yes we have LAMs tape IN STOCK". Stores from as far away as Australia ordered repeated shipments of the tape each month to meet demand.

The band then released "Selected Scenes from the End of the World" in 1992, creating as much mania as the first demo release. The band began to sell out clubs like Helter Skelter and began more frequent performances at The Whisky a go go and Roxy club, where the Sunset strip "rocker" scene saw LAM's success and sold out concerts and began to emulate the band, helping to turn the mostly rock and glam Sunset scene into a darker more alternative scene. Several bands which a few months earlier were glam and rock suddenly became LAM clones overnight after seeing how well the band was received.

The band began branching out and planned some concerts in Mexico City and Guadalajara in 1994 where they discovered a huge following and their first concert drew 5,000 dedicated fans. All of whom had discovered the band in underground magazines and bootlegs of the bands releases. In 1995 "Selected Scenes..." was pressed to CD by German label Apocalyptic Vision/Trisol. A special version was also released in Latin America. Soon LAM's strong underground following in Europe became intense as sales of the CD grew steadily with a few headlining appearances at festivals in the UK and Europe.

In 1996 the band released "Psycho Magnet" with Apocalyptic Vision. The album, in part a reflection of the insanity and jealousy LAM's popularity generated in some LA area club kids, while also a very personal piece of work, went on to become even more popular than the previous releases and led to the band being booked for several tours which took them all over Europe and the UK, Mexico and select major cities in the USA performing to tens of thousands of people. The band also headlined major German festivals like the well known Zillo Magazine festival which had Siouxsie and the Banshess headlining the previous year. The band also found themselves in all the major European music magazines, on glossy covers in every European newsstand with the likes of Nine Inch Nails and Metalica.

LAM continued to play various festivals and in 1998 they co-headlined the Zillo summer festival with The Cure performing to about 25,000 people. Earlier in the year the band signed a licensing deal with American indie label Metropolis Records , releasing both erlier CDs as well as new CD called "Oddities", a collection of live and rare songs along with a 30 minute music video titled "Innocence Lost". Apocalyptic Vision also released "Oddities" and the music video in Europe at the same time. To date the band has sold well over 150,000 CDs all over the world. All the band's releases rated in the top 10 and top 20 of the DAC (German Alternative Charts).

More recently LAM performed several dates in the USA, one of which was the sold out the club and was filmed by E! Entertainment Television for a special on LA nightlife in 2000. This special which includes an interview with Sean Brennan aired in late Autumn 2000 in 120 countries all over the world. The special was actually pretty terrible and only featured about 2 minutes of the band, but die hard fans were happy to see the band get major media exposure in the USA and a whole new audidnce was exposed, briefly, to LAM creating a surge of new fans.

In the summer of 2001, the band headlined the Wave Festival in Leipzig Germany, playing to nearly 10,000 people. They then toured to South America, Mexico and the USA where they played to tens of thousands of fans and appeared on Via X, the leader of rock music television in South America.



LAM has been known as a band of "firsts." Always trying something different and new, and never content to be just another band. Often classified by the press as an industrial, deathrock or gothic band, they break all the "rules" of that scene and create their own strong identity and sound, and reject any label put upon them. Songwriter Sean Brennan's influences and musical passions range from big band to T-Rex,Iggy Pop, the Doors, pre 1980s Bowie, to trance and Drum & Bass, old NY punk, composers like Bernard Herrmann and everything in between. He takes pride in the fact that London After Midnight does not fit into any category, saying "We don't want to be clones of someone else. We shun labeling. We are artists, and the whole thing about creating is bringing something into existence that was not there before. So when you create something and put a label on it, it defeats the purpose and takes away the uniqueness of the art." (Sean Brennan- excerpt from German radio interview) LAM is not goth, they aren't dark wave, they aren't industrial, they aren't cyber... they are simply London After Midnight, and that seems enough for their very devoted fans.

LAM is recording their 4th CD which is scheduled for release soon. The tremendous response the new material received performed on the 2001 tour shows the new CD will be warmly welcomed by new and old fans alike.
 

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