Dead Commercial - A punk rock/garage band from Lincolnshire, England
Matt 'Rug' Grocott - Lead Singer and Guitar
Jamie 'Steve' Baxter - Backing Vocals and Guitar
James Atherton - Bass Guitar
Tommy Bruce - Drums and Shouting
Matt thought of the idea of creating a band when he was thirteen with Jamie and Tommy, they all wanted to create a classic rock band, killer riffs etc..... They tried to make songs but in the end they were too young and had very little experience. A short time after this, Matt quit the 'fail' of a band and wanted to create Dead Commercial, he had known Kai for about a year at this point and felt that he was willing to be Dead Commercial's new drummer. Not knowingly, Kai said he could play the drums and they tried to make a song called 'R.I.P'. They again failed. The 'band' fell apart and they just couldn't be bothered. In early 2009, Matt carried on writing songs and invited Jamie back into the band, they created a demo called 'Negative', at this point in time, Matt had a high, out of tune voice and still didn't have a lot of experience writing songs. They uploaded it onto myspace, it wasn't very good and you could tell a lot of work was to be needed.
In late 2009, they started it up again, aiming for acoustic songs. They played a show at school and this sparked off the buzz of playing to people again. Soon after in early 2010, they started advertising for bassist's and drummers and it didn't work out. Matt carried on writing songs and bought a four track recorder, he recorded a guitar and vocal demo of 'Small You' and 'Scruffy Harry' and uploaded them onto myspace, along with a lot of acoustic songs. Jamie left the band temporarily as he had work on Saturdays and Sundays. At least 3 or 4 months after that, he met Liam. He asked Liam if he could play drums for the band and he did. Matt showed him songs like 'Small You' and 'Scruffy Harry'. The first one they wrote together was 'She was 17', a song about teenage pregnancy and how it can affect a teenage girls life greatly.
Later on in 2010, Jamie got more interested in the band and they had him as a back-up guitarist, as he still was working at weekends. Matt and Liam carried on writing songs and recording them. Before Christmas of 2010, John, a young punk rock lover messaged the Dead Commercial facebook page. He said he was willing to play bass and he loved punk rock, everyone else at the time didn't fit the bassist slot, either by having different types of influences that could leave an effect on the band's music, or not being able to attend band practices at weekends. John turned up to practice and him and Matt went through songs on bass. Matt taught him songs already made by the band. They had their first official show as 'Dead Commercial' on the 22nd April 2011. After that, they emailed bands to see if they could get a support slot. 'The Red Light Proposal', a local acoustic/indie/punk band offered them a half an hour slot at 'The Railway Club'. They played the gig and learnt a bit more from the live experience.
Matt released an E.P called 'Why Am I Naked?' on iTunes on 12th October 2011. It includes the songs, 'Uncensored American Girl', 'I Deserve It All (From Paris.H)', 'Mental Abuse Clinic' and 'Useless'. All these songs were recorded at mixed at Superfly Studios, Ollerton. Produced by Andy, owner of Superfly Studios.
Recently the line up has changed and as Liam has left the band, Tommy Bruce has rejoined the band on the pots and pans. John decided the call it quits and our friend previously from 'James and Ellie', James Atherton, has joined in on the bass guitar. We are playing a lot more shows this year and are going to release a new E.P called 'Why Do I Want You To Die?' in August, it will be avaliable on iTunes, BigCartel and you'll be able to purchase it from us at our future shows. Along with merch.
