Years active 1986–present | Past members Tim O'Leary | |
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Origin Brighton, United Kingdom (1986) Albums The Enemy Within, Goodbye to the Madhouse, Claws and Wings, World Turned Upside Down, Disorder, Anticlockwise Members Nick Burbridge, Ben Paley, Tim O'Leary, Dil Davies, Matt Goorney Genres Alternative rock, Folk punk Record labels On The Fiddle Recordings, Hag! Similar The Levellers, Jon Sevink, Mark Chadwick, Jeremy Cunningham, Simon Friend Profiles | ||
The folk-rock band McDermott's Two Hours was formed in Brighton in 1986 from the remnants of two other bands, The Bliffs and The Crack, and featured a vigorous line-up of vocals, fiddles, whistles, bouzouki, acoustic and electric guitars, drums and bass.
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Front man Nick Burbridge named the band after Tommy McDermott, who gained notoriety for his two-hour piece on Radio Free Derry, calling for peace and love during the Derry riots.
The band is nominally still made up of Nick Burbridge on guitar and vocals, Ben Paley on fiddle and Matt Goorney on bass with Dil Davies (drums), Philippe Barnes (flutes, whistle and pipes) and Tim Cotterell (banjo, mandolin, bouzouki and fiddle), though live shows in recent years are rare events.
The early years
The original line-up included Nick Burbridge, Martin Pannett, Marcus Laffan and Tim O'Leary and spent most of the early years playing gigs. They only released one album, The Enemy Within. It was the live performances then for which the band were best known.
With the Levellers
The Levellers often cite McDermott's Two Hours as one of their early inspirations and during the 2000s the two bands produced three albums together, World Turned Upside Down, Claws and Wings, and Disorder.
After the Levellers
At Beautiful Days 2007, McDermott's Two Hours released Goodbye to the Madhouse, their first album without The Levellers since The Enemy Within. Produced by Tim Cotterell and Jeremy Cunningham (of the Levellers), the album was recorded for a little over £400 and released by OTF Recordings. It features many guest musicians, including Mandy Murray, Roger Leach, Terry Bickers, John Brewins, Cate Ferris and Mark Fisher. Reviews have been uniformly positive.
Albums
Songs
World Turned Upside DownWorld Turned Upside Down · 2000
Harry BrewerWorld Turned Upside Down · 2000
Tod the RanterDisorder · 2004