Category: Y’All Is Fantasy Island

Y’All Is Fantasy Island were formed in Falkirk in 2001 by singer/songwriter Adam Stafford. After a couple of low-key releases, including 2002’s cassette only Wisconsin Death Trip mini album and 2005’s Skeletal Demos EP, Stafford recruited guitarist Tommy Blair (guitar) and drummer Jon McCall (drums). In 2006, the trio recorded the debut album In Faceless Towns Forever which was released by the Falkirk-based indie label Panic in Year Zero.

Around the same time, bassist/keyboardist Robbie Lesiuk came on board to help fill out their live sound, but the following year he, along with Jon McCall decided to leave the band.  Their replacements were Steven Tosh on drums and Jamie Macleod on bass.

The new-look band recorded the next album, Rescue Weekend, which was issued on their own label, Wise Blood Industries in early 2008. It was around this time that they began to earn a well-deserved reputation for their live shows, and soon they were being asked to play on the same bills as many of the really-talked about Scottish acts such as Frightened Rabbit and The Twilight Sad, which is where they came into my orbit.

They were then asked to record for the Glasgow-based label, Winning Sperm Party, and they embarked on a remarkably prolific period in the later half of 2008, which saw With Handclaps, a new EP emerge in August, a new album of songs in the shape of No Ceremony, an album that many remarked was heavily influenced by Nirvana/Foo Fighters, being released in November, while the following month, a largely instrumental effort, Infanticidal Genuflector: Selected Film Soundtrack Work 06/07 was issued.

2009 saw loads of live shows, and the future looked really bright for the band, with all sorts of positive noises being made by the Scottish music press and the ever-increasing number of folk writing about music across the internet.

Tommy Blair decided, out of the blue, to quit in October 2009, which led to a bit of a reassessment.  There were less live shows in 2010, although there was a short tour in support of Warpaint, but no music emerged.  The band then called it a day in early 2011 after a few shows when Robbie Lesiuk returned to play guitar in place of Tommy Blair.

Adam Stafford subsequently embarked on a solo career, during which he was continued to work closely with Robbie Lesiuk, and to date has released ten albums, initially via Wise Blood Industries but later through the Edinburgh-based Song, By Toad Records. Anyone who is a regular reader of this blog will know that it’s a bit of an understatement to say that I’m a fan……

So many good tunes from the era with the original band to choose from.  This one can be found on No Ceremony.

mp3: Y’All Is Fantasy Island – Punk Rock Disco

I really should do an ICA at some point.  It won’t matter if it turns out that I’m the only one who enjoys it…..

JC

This is a cheat week….I’ve never owned a physical copy of this EP from 2008. It’s one of the regrets in my life that while I got to see Y’All Is Fantasy Island a fair number of times back in the late-noughties that I never splashed out on any physical product at the time.

The generosity of their front man Adam Stafford however, in that he put up all of the band’s back catalogue on-line for free a while back, means I can bring you the four tremendous bits of music that made up With Handclaps.

A bit of background from wiki:-

Y’All Is Fantsy Island were formed in 2001 by singer/songwriter Adam Stafford. After a couple of low-key releases, including 2002’s cassette only Wisconsin Death Trip mini album and 2005’s Skeletal Demos EP, Stafford recruited guitarist/sound engineer Tommy Blair and drummer/clarinettist Jon McCall. The band recruited bassist/keyboardist Robert Lesiuk in 2006 to help fill out their live sound. McCall and Lesiuk left the band in the summer of 2007 with McCall being replaced by Steven Tosh on drums and Jamie Macleod taking over bass duties.

2008 saw the band release their second album, Rescue Weekend, again to critical acclaim. The album was originally written and conceived as a separate project from the band, but when multi-instrumentalist Tosh joined in 2007, the band decided to issue it under the Y’all is banner on their own DIY Label, Wise Blood Industries.

The band subsequently released “With Handclaps EP” on Glasgow punk label Winning Sperm Party in August 2008, “No Ceremony” in November 2008 and “Infanticidal Genuflector: Selected Film Soundtrack Work 06/07” in December, respectively (again on Winning Sperm Party). This notched the amount of releases in 2008 to four: one EP and three LPs. The band continued to play live extensively through the year before the unexpected departure of Blair in October 2009 after which they played just a a handful of shows in 2010 including supporting Warpaint before announcing they were to split.

Their final show was played at Sneaky Pete’s on 11 March 2011 with original member Robbie Lesiuk returning in place of Tommy Blair on guitar.

Adam Stafford continues to work as a solo artist and film maker.

And IMHO, Adam Stafford’s solo output has demonstrated that he is one of the greatest contemporary musical talents here in Scotland. I’m at a loss as to why he is not better-known nor that he’s not enjoyed the wider critical acclaim beyond his homeland that his releases, and in particular his live shows, deserve. But that’s for another time.

In the meantime please enjoy Y’All Is Fantasy Island. As you might be able to work out, this A-Z series is drawing to a close….

mp3 : Y’All Is Fantasy Island – Consider Yourself Swallowed
mp3 : Y’All Is Fantasy Island – Punk Rock Disco
mp3 : Y’All Is Fantasy Island – With Handclaps
mp3 : Y’All Is Fantasy Island – A General Gust