Bis – In Concert at NME Brat Gig – London Astoria – January 21, 1996 – BBC Radio 1 –
Bis in concert tonight. Recorded at the NME Brat gig, London Astoria – January 231, 1996 and preserved for posterity by BBC Radio 1.
Since forming in 1994, Bis from Glasgow, Scotland have continually mutated their initial influences of Synth-pop, Riot Grrrl and DIY Punk into weird and wonderful songs with a natural gift for melodic earworms, along with a disco heartbeat.
Bis are composed of Steven Clark (Sci-fi Steven), John Clark (John Disco), and Amanda MacKinnon (Manda Rin). The band’s name, rhyming with ‘this’, derives from “black iron skyline”, a lyric from the song “Twilight of a Champion” by The The. The band broke up in 2003, but re-formed briefly in 2007 for a series of concerts. In 2009 they re-formed again this time with a bass player and a drummer, and released a fourth album in 2014. Their fifth album, Slight Disconnects, was released in February 2019.
From 1997 to 2001, Bis released three mainstream albums: The New Transistor Heroes (1997), Social Dancing (1999), and Return to Central (2001). The band enjoyed a period of success in Japan, selling nearly 100,000 copies of their debut album in its first week of release, but future releases failed to match its success in Japan. The song “Eurodisco”, from Social Dancing, became a minor success for the band in Australia as well as the UK. Their song “Detour” was also given some radio airplay in the U.S. and was included in the 2000 film Bring It On.
The band gained some American popularity in 1998, when they recorded the closing credits theme to the animated series The Powerpuff Girls. They also did a punk version of the theme for 2002’s The Powerpuff Girls Movie. Bis contributed a remix of their song “Statement of Intent” to the 2002 game Jet Set Radio Future.The band broke up in March 2003, after playing a farewell show at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut.
In November 2009, Rin announced that the band would reform to play at the Primavera Festival in May 2010, returning this time with a bassist and drummer, former Data Panik members, Stuart Memo and Graham Christie, respectively.
In February 2014, the band announced they would release their fourth album, Data Panik Etcetera, on 15 May on Rough Trade Records. The album was made available for streaming at NME on 28 April.
The same year, the band’s first three albums were re-released as double CD deluxe editions by the Do Yourself In label.
Circa 2014, Rin provided the artwork for an iPhone game called “All Fridges Are Psychotic”.
In October 2017, the band announced that they were working on their fifth album. Slight Disconnects was released in February 2019 on Last Night From Glasgow. They also returned to a three piece with only Manda, John and Steven being in the lineup.
Crank it up and dive in.
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